How does one bring about trust in God?

[Guest guest]

For me, it doesn't come naturally. God is not something I see, and no matter how many appeals I have made to Him, no matter how much time I spend meditating on Him, it seems it does no good. Especially in the West, immersed in a sea of information and technology, the presence of God seems like an impossibility.

 

Yet I still struggle to make a connection with Him, and I go to the temple at least once a week, no matter how much I feel He is ignoring me. I meditate on him often, and I've set aside a few hours of everyday to chant. However, my doubts about God are only increasing and I feel a growing sense of emptiness and discontent as the days go by. My reluctance to meditate is growing, and so is my despair, as I don't know what more I can do to make a connection with God.

[Guest guest]

It is time to go back and start from the basics. Ask yourself these simple questions and give yourself honest, straight-from-the-heart answers without rushing into it.

 

1. How did you conclude that there exists a God? How certain are you about God's existence and why?

 

2. How much trust do you place in the sources from whom you came to believe in God?

 

3. If you get this far, why did you think you can expect a response from God though prayer? What is the response you are expecting and why?

[Guest guest]

 

It is time to go back and start from the basics. Ask yourself these simple questions and give yourself honest, straight-from-the-heart answers without rushing into it.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

 

 

1. How did you conclude that there exists a God? How certain are you about God's existence and why?

Beware of an implicit faith in something sublime!

 

 

2. How much trust do you place in the sources from whom you came to believe in God?

Exactly, doubt everything. Use the ax of reason. If by using that ax you fine some source you trust continue using the ax of reason to chop away at your own faith.

 

 

3. If you get this far, why did you think you can expect a response from God though prayer? What is the response you are expecting and why?

Remember Descarte, "I think therefore I am". Intellegence is all in all.

[gHari 0]

Go out into the country at night and gaze at the stars. It's a big, big world.

[Guruvani 0]

 

For me, it doesn't come naturally. God is not something I see, and no matter how many appeals I have made to Him, no matter how much time I spend meditating on Him, it seems it does no good. Especially in the West, immersed in a sea of information and technology, the presence of God seems like an impossibility.

 

Yet I still struggle to make a connection with Him, and I go to the temple at least once a week, no matter how much I feel He is ignoring me. I meditate on him often, and I've set aside a few hours of everyday to chant. However, my doubts about God are only increasing and I feel a growing sense of emptiness and discontent as the days go by. My reluctance to meditate is growing, and so is my despair, as I don't know what more I can do to make a connection with God.

First, make a thorough study of authentic spiritual literatures.

Start with Bhagavad-gita As-it-is by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

 

http://vedabase.net/bg/en1

 

Then study the Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavat Purana) by the same author.

 

http://vedabase.net/sb/en1

 

That is the best advice I can give.

Read these books with an open mind and a desire to understand God and surely your faith and trust in God will be kindled.

[theist 1]

 

For me, it doesn't come naturally. God is not something I see, and no matter how many appeals I have made to Him, no matter how much time I spend meditating on Him, it seems it does no good. Especially in the West, immersed in a sea of information and technology, the presence of God seems like an impossibility.

Please don't feel that God ignores you. It just is not true. He has been with us for all our births and deaths in this material world just waiting for us to turn to Him all the while even as we ignore Him and try our best to forget Him. he never abandons us. Who could ask for a more loving friend? "Us" includes you.

 

 

Yet I still struggle to make a connection with Him, and I go to the temple at least once a week, no matter how much I feel He is ignoring me. I meditate on him often, and I've set aside a few hours of everyday to chant.

This proves your sincerity. Why would God ignore a sincere seeker. "Seek and thee shall find". It's a guaruntee. The Lord loves you. He knows who you really are, His very child, how could He ever abandon a being of His own making? Not possible.

 

If you accept this then that means there must be something else at work here.

 

Most if not all aspiring devotees pass through phases like this and more than once. The beginnings of separation can manifest as a sense of hoplessness. "Why would He abandon me." And from this feeling an intesifying of our desire to unite with Krsna grows. Krsna holds Himself back and then makes His presence known once again.

 

The danger is that in our present state of being under the influence of the material mind we may give up and seek some immediate gratification. Then when that fails again as it always does we will try again to find Him. The union with Krsna and then separation and again union are spiritual reality. But as conditioned souls the mind interfers.

 

When that happens we need to take the aid of spiritual intelligence. Intellecually we know God's nature is not to abandon us. Intellectually we know He will always rescue the seeking soul. Intellectually we know there is NO chance for happiness in the material world and so what intelligent choice do we have other than to keep seeking God?

 

 

 

However, my doubts about God are only increasing and I feel a growing sense of emptiness and discontent as the days go by.

I have experienced this and came to realize that my doubts were not really growing, i was just becoming aware of doubts I had been carrying for a long time. In the cleansing process of Krsna consciousness a lot of old dust is raised.

 

 

My reluctance to meditate is growing, and so is my despair, as I don't know what more I can do to make a connection with God.

That is a very advanced realization that there is nothing more you can do. And it is a fact that there is really nothing any of us can do to cause Krsna to reveal Himself to us. He reveals Himself by His own causless mercy. We are helpless in this sense.

 

All we can do is to prepare ourselves to be fulling accepting of that mercy when it comes.

 

So keep doing as you are and be patient if the results you think should be there don't arrive exactly according to your schedule. Thiese things happen on Krsna time.

 

Please accept my respects.

[Kuvalayesha 0]

God we have not seen; but Love we see in all its self-expressions. Since God is Love, we have seen God. Develop Love more and more and you will see Him.

 

God we do not know; but Truth we understand. Since God is Truth, we understand God. Adhere to Truth more and more and you will know God. God we have not experienced, but we daily experience Goodness. Since God is Goodness we have experienced God. Develop goodness more and more, and you will experience God. God is invisible, but Beauty is visible. Since God is Beauty, God is visible. Love Beauty more and more, and you will perceive God.

 

God we can deny, but the Consciousness which is the basis of our intelligence, awareness and knowledge, and with the help of which we deny God, is, and cannot be denied. Since God is Consciousness, we cannot deny God, for He is the very denying Consciousness.

 

Evolve and expand in Consciousness by growth in Love and Goodness, or by growth in Knowledge and Wisdom, or by the pursuit of Beauty and Truth, or by service of Humanity, or by any of the hundred other time-tried ways. Then God will be, for you, a matter of living experience, and the source of your imperishable Life, Joy, Peace, Perfection.

 

~Swami Omkarananda

[kalika 0]

If you chant 64 rounds then You have a good chance of seeing God. You need spiritual eyes which can only be developed through high quantity and quality chanting. Through the grace of my beloved spiritual father I once saw a vision of the Lord, a few times actually. But really, the thing is that you need is to develop love of God first, and only then will you feel actually ecstacy when you see the Lord. Of course the best way to get both love of God and a vision is to approach someone who has both; the bona fide spiritual master. Chant the holy names with faith and concentration and I am sure that the Lord will soon be pleased to send you to your eternal spiritual master and reveal Himself to you. Please don't give into despair, the Lord wants to see how sincere you are and He certainly wants your love.

 

Incidently, to have some this far it is obvious that you already have trust in God ...just don't lose it because you'll never know how close you came.

 

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!

[Kuvalayesha 0]

Here's something that may help from my guru Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.

 

Om Namah Sivaya!

 

LESSON 287 from Living with Siva

 

Realize That God Is Love

 

Siva is Love and Love is Siva. People often ask, "How can I worship God if

I can't see God?" There was a young man who had formed an intense dislike

for his father because his father disciplined him strongly when he was

growing up. Every time the young man thought of his father, it was through

feelings of resentment and confusion. Whenever his father was around,

the son avoided him, and sharp words were often exchanged. However,

his father put him through college, paying all the expenses. When the

young man broke his leg playing football, the father visited him in the

hospital every few days and paid the medical bills. But still the young

man resented his father for what had happened years ago. He could not see

that his father really loved him. His inner sight, feeling and emotion

were blinded by his bitterness about the past. This story illustrates how

mental barriers disable us from seeing people as they really are. And

if we cannot correctly see the people around us, how can we expect to

see God? We are often blinded by our "ignore-ance"--our great ability

to ignore.

 

People who question the existence of God because they cannot see God must

take the word of those who do see God. When they cannot do even this,

they are obviously lost in their own delusions and confusions, unable

to even see the love or accept the love of those who are closest to

them. They most likely misjudge everything through their limited vision,

clouded by resentments built up over the years.

 

We all see people with our two eyes, and we see into people with our

hearts. When our heart is pure, holding no resentment, we can then see

with our third eye. Someone having problems in seeing God should begin

by worshiping his mother and father as divine. He can see them with his

eyes and within his mind. This sadhana will clean up the person's heart

and bring his thoughts, speech and actions into line with dharma. Then

one day he will see that God Siva truly is the Life within the life of

everyone--of the whole universe, in fact.

 

The word love describes the free-flowing interchange of spiritual energy

between people, between people and their things, between people and God

and the Gods. Our scriptures clearly tell us that "Siva is love, and

love is Siva." Therefore, our free-flowing love, or bhakti, is our own

Sivaness in manifestation. Expressing this love is a profoundly auspicious

and beginning form of living with Siva that is complete, in and of itself.

[gHari 0]

 

[...]I meditate on him often, and I've set aside a few hours of everyday to chant. [...]

It's not something we do for a few hours here and there. Lord Krishna teaches us in the Bhagavad-gita to "Remember Me. Do not forget Me". All those various yogas, they are meant to bring us closer to Him. He teaches us through our life experiences. Karma-yoga at work. Action while remembering Him, allowing Him to influence our life, this is what will make His presence known. It will not take long to learn that He exists. Reading the books of Srila Prabhupada will infect you with his faith and love for God. It will come easily, naturally.

 

This is difficult, but it is very powerful and can be done anywhere anytime: thread the Panca-tattva mantra through the mind as you perform your daily activities. Make it your top priority and let the body do as it will. Sri-Krsna-Caitanya Prabhu-Nityananda Sri-Advaita Gadadhara Srivasadi-Gaura-bhakta-vrinda. Watch the attachments fall away like dust in the wind. It is the attachments that stand between you and God. Catch a glimpse and find that conclusive truth that will ignite your heart.

 

Your devotion is eternal, it is simply covered over now by various degrees of lust and attachment. These things are not eternal. They are foreign to you. They cannot stand long if you don't want them to, they are simply not part of your being. Moment-to-moment, "Remember Me. Do not forget Me". This is the bottom line.