Yesterday we saw why man should try to know God. God has been hailed as the bestower of peace, love, happiness and power. Man has always been in the pursuit of these virtues. Purity, Peace, love, happiness, power are the elixir for the soul. God is the ocean of these virtues. The cause of human suffering is the absence of these virtues in human life today. We are all going round and round in the vicious cycle of being, doing and becoming. We are in a state which is devoid of peace, happiness and other virtues. As a result, our doing or actions or karma, which can be categorized into thoughts, words and physical acts are all devoid of peace and love. What we give is what we get. Hence, our actions earn more peacelessness and dissatisfaction with each passing day.

God has been hailed as the bestower of these virtues. However, what we need to understand that  God cannot directly infuse these virtues into the soul. Any state of mind is a product of actions performed over a certain period of time. And if I want a peaceful state of mind, I have to earn it by investing my thought energy, speech and behavior in performing peaceful actions. If I think peacefully, talk less, softly and sweetly and perform actions without hurry and worry, then I slowly arrive at a state of inner peace. And to do all this, I need to refrain from my current way of thinking, speaking and actions and for that I need to withdraw my awareness from all that triggers my current way of conduct. Whenever we are asked about why we are thinking, speaking or behaving in a certain manner, we hold a situation or a person responsible for it. However, it is completely in my power to pull my attention or awareness from the people, places and things that cause disturbing feelings and to anchor my awareness to God. There is an expression that says “Be still and know that I am here”.

We need to find moments in the day to pull our awareness from everything around and acknowledge the presence of God who is right here with us. He is a beautiful star radiating love, peace and bliss to me. Let me just dwell on His being for sometime and fill myself with the virtues that I need in order to think, speak and act in a virtuous way.