God's Fascination is Endless

Shri Hans Ji Maharaj gave the following discourse in India on August 28th, 1953
Dear Brothers and Sisters, One should listen to the glory of God for his own welfare. Anyone who does not hear of the qualities of God, or is not satisfied by hearing of them, cannot be a devotee of God. We should keep the company of saints and bow our heads at their feet. One who does not purify his head with the dust of the feet of saints is full of pride, and his eyes will never see the light of God.
The rivers of the world have been entering the ocean forages, but the ocean is not yet filled, nor has the source of water been exhausted. In the same way, countless wise men, ascetics, saints, prophets and Incarnations have told the glory of God's virtues in different ways, and the listeners have also died, but neither the virtues of God nor the listeners have come to an end.
So many Incarnations have manifested! In the future a greater and more powerful incarnation may manifest Himself, and one who will recognize Him at that time will be benefited thereby.
Less attention is paid to prophets in the present than to those who came in the past. Most people follow the beaten path. In other words, by relying on the name of past prophets, they forget God and always think of materialism and the satisfaction of pleasures. They restrict their thinking by adopting scriptures compiled by only one Incarnation or Saint. But in the Gita Lord Krishna explained to his most dear disciple Arjuna, "Among all the saints who have been in the past, know Me as the Living Way." He explained, "0 being, this whole world is a scripture. Study it thoroughly and by discarding this untrue world, adopt the way to realize the truth." Lord Shiva while giving Knowledge of truth to Parvati has also said, "This whole world is comparable to a dream, but the substance in it is the Name of God." Therefore we should meditate on God. This is fundamental to our life.
God's fascination is infinite. Up to date, no prophet, seer or Incarnation could know its mystery completely. Yet all have said in the end that we should discard attachment to materialism and remember the Name of God.
See, I have a large lotus flower in my hand. Though it is quite big, it has no fragrance. It was brought here from abroad and planted. There are also very large roses which do not have fragrance, but small flowers which contain a lot of fragrance. God has not stored up fragrance anywhere in particular.
A tree, a flower, a fruit and leaves all are contained in the small seed of a tree. But all these things are not visible to our eyes. You might have seen a broken peacock's egg. Only yellowish liquid is visible there, yet it contains everything, such as the colored feathers, beak, foot, and the energy a peacock needs for walking. They are contained in this liquid so subtly that they cannot be distinguished by these eyes.
If you ask, "Where is the tree?," the answer is, "In the seed, and the seed pervades the whole tree." In other words, the seed is in the tree and the tree is hidden in the seed. The universal seed is God. As the elaboration of a seed is a tree, similarly the elaboration of God is the world. When the tree decays, the seeds remain, and the seed contains all those qualities which were in the tree. Similarly, on final annihilation the world merges with God and then in Him remain all the qualities of the creation of the world.
All know that a tree grows from a seed, and subsequently similar seeds can be derived from that tree. A drop dropped in the ocean merges there, but only a rare person knows how one whole tree is hidden in a seed and the whole ocean is hidden in one drop. "As oil exists in sesame seed and fire in flint, similarly Almighty God is hidden in you. If you wish to meet Him, look within the body and see."
A mango seed contains both sweetness and sourness, and many, many mangoes as well. But we can neither sell that seed to earn money, nor can we relish its sweet and sour taste. To get mangoes, first of all the seed has to be sown in soft soil. Then it has to be watered from time to time. After sprouting, it has to be protected, particularly from extreme heat, winter and rains. In the course of time it will grow into a huge tree. But even then we do not immediately get the fruit, because it will bear fruit in one season only. And if we pluck unripe fruit and eat it we cannot relish sweetness. When we protect it with patience from birds, then we can relish the sweet mangoes. At that time, you can relish mangoes yourself as well as offer them to others.
But it is no use repenting after sparrows have pecked the whole field.
The indestructible Name of God exists in our body, like a seed in the earth. External seeds rot and decay, but this seed does not decay. The seed of all seeds is the Name of God; it is termed the universal seed.
If you want to grow fruits, first you must obtain seeds. Similarly, first you should approach a saint, and then you can know the Name of God which exists in your own heart.
The Knowledge of the omnipresent God cannot be obtained merely by reading scriptures.
It reveals the Name which scriptures speak of. The Knowledge reveals God. If God is not realized after reading scriptures, what is the benefit of reading the scriptures? The scriptures clearly state, "still more, still more," and that "still more" means the Knowledge of God.
Was there only a little affection for God in the hearts of the writers? No. When a man writes a letter to his best friend with love in his heart, does he express the whole of his love? Love exists in the heart of the writer, but only a glimpse of love is found in the letter. The Knowledge of God is not something to write, it can only be experienced.
By making human beings experience the Self, the Perfect Master instantly relieves them from the miseries of the world and makes them happy.
We take birth in this world and ultimately we die. All our actions take place in God only. The whole world knows this external creation, but only a rare saint knows the mystery of how God, who is like an ocean, is acting in the heart of one being, who is like a single drop.
God plays like a child in everyone's heart. By discarding fear He moves freely wherever He likes. The whole world, however, is unhappy in spite of the existence of a perfect God in everyone's heart. Human society has forgotten that God is existing in the heart, and has accepted an imaginary God.
Today the public, by discarding the one real religion, has succumbed to selfishness. People of every religion consider themselves as servants of God and contractors of the next world, though people belonging to every community engage in bad actions such as eating flesh,
"If you grow fruits, first you must obtain seeds. Similarly, first you should approach a saint, and then you can know the Name of God which exists in your heart. The Knowledge of God cannot be obtained merely by reading scriptures."
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drinking, fornication, theft, bloodshed and black-marketing. If the ruler and the public do not attend to their duties, they will have to suffer the result of these evil actions. When injustice prevails, both the ruler and the public have to suffer.
"In the rule of an unjust king, vegetable and pastry are available at one penny a pound."
A Guru and one of his disciples used to meditate together. Once the Guru started a tour with the disciple. They reached a city where an unjust king ruled; in that city everything was sold at one penny a pound. Both the Guru and the disciple camped outside the city and the Guru gave his disciple some money to get food from the market.
The disciple went to a grocer's shop and asked the rate of flour. The shopkeeper told him that everything sold there was one penny a pound. The disciple thought, "The shopkeeper is joking with me." Then he went to a vegetable shop and learned that every vegetable was available for one penny a pound. Knowing this, the disciple became very happy. He thought, "It will be a great pleasure to live here."
Then he went to a sweet shop and asked the rate of sweets. He was told by the shopkeeper that every sweet was sold for a penny a pound. Hearing this, he was overjoyed and his mouth filled with water. He thought, "I will not even think of leaving this place. Everything is sold here at a penny a pound, I shall take a lot of milk products and become very healthy. I shall not get a place better than this in all the world."
Some months passed, and one day, according to the ruler's orders, a shepherd was about to be hanged. But he was very lean and thin, and so was his neck. Therefore the lasso was too loose. The ruler ordered that someone catch hold of a fat person in the kingdom and hang him in place of the shepherd.
The guards went out in the city to catch a fat person. They happened to get hold of that disciple who had by now become very stout by eating milk products available at one penny a pound. They brought him and began to prepare for hanging.
It was the law in that place that the condemned criminal be allowed a last wish. When that disciple was asked this, he said, "I wish to see my Guru Maharaj Ji." Fortunately, Guru Maharaj Ji was on his way to that city. When he came to know that his disciple was being hanged, he came quickly. Observing the state of his disciple, he said, "Don't worry, I shall set it right. You should say only that you wish to be hanged and I will also say that I wish to be hanged."
Both began to quarrel and say, "I wish to be hanged." The ruler was very much surprised to see this, because even very courageous persons are afraid of death. So why were both of them so eager to die? When he asked them the reason, Guru Maharaj Ji said, "Sir, whosoever will be hanged at this moment will go to heaven." When the ruler heard this, he removed both of them and was himself hanged. With the death of the ruler, unjust rule came to an end.
Due to the development of misconduct in the ruler, wickedness develops in the public. In other words, criminal ideas take root in the mind. With the development of true thought one is called a saint and with the development of evil thoughts one is called a demon.
St. Tulsidas says, "Whenever wicked persons succumb to evil thoughts and with the pride of wealth, youth, beauty and learning take to demonly actions, and when injustice begins to give various sorts of troubles to saints, God manifests in a human body and removes the sorrows of humble people."
Today, in the name of religion, unrighteousness is taking place, and people have accepted unrighteousness as religion. Instead of true intellect, evil thoughts have crept into our hearts. Now, until we realize the true religion of humanity, we will be involved in various types of sorrows instead of getting happiness.
There are two types of Divine Incarnations, perpetual and motivated. A motivated Incarnation is one like Rama or Krishna. They did not remedy the disease of the world; instead they destroyed the diseased. For example, Lord Krishna destroyed a huge army in the fighting described in the Mahabharata. Nobody survived except the Lord himself and five devotees.
Perpetual Incarnations are those saints who destroy the disease instead of the diseased. In other words, by imparting the Knowledge or 'True Name' and 'True Light' of God, they remove the darkness of ill will which exists in people's hearts. Then instead of doing wicked actions, people take to godly actions. In this way the influence of the Dark Age comes to an end, and the era of the Golden Age appears.
A drop dropped in the ocean merges there, but only a rare person knows how one whole tree is hidden in a seed and the whole ocean is hidden in one drop.
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