How do we react to the word, "God"?

The word 'God' evoke different feelings in different people. We can categorize people based on their faith in god, as 'believers' and 'non believers'. Believers are dubbed as people who believe in superstitions by non-believers. Let us examine the word itself. Even amongst the believers, God means differently. Some treat God as someone sitting higher in a throne and delivers judgement on the people of the world. They consider God as a distant entity like the distant stars or planets high above in space, who can not be seen by the mortals.

To some believers, God is justice and He is considerate towards the people. They feel that prayers to God uttered from sincere feelings of the Heart reaches Him and He too responds by protecting or fulfilling their genuine needs. To some, He is the thickest friend who can be confided. In fact, you can converse with God in your Heart in a casual manner without observing any strict ritualistic disciplines. In fact, the innocent lay man is more qualified to approach God than an educated and cultured gentleman from the town. God sees your inner feelings and not the outer form. He is never bothered how you look externally, or about your outer cleanliness if your heart is pure. That is the only criterion by which one is judged. Some may pose as a deeply religious man wearing the cloths mentioned in the scriptures, wearing the caste marks on their brow and person, presenting themselves as a holy saint. But if his conscious is contaminated with worldly vices, God never bothers about them. Some of you might have read about the Mother Velankanni church in the southern part of India. She manifested herself along with child Jesus to a illiterate boy since his conscious was so pure. The boy was astonished to see the lovely form of Mother Mary and the child Jesus and the mother pleaded with the boy to share some milk he brought for selling. The boy willingly handed over the jar of milk to the Mother who fed Infant Jesus with the milk. She handed over the empty jar to the boy, smiling lovingly vanished at once. The boy came to his senses and he was going to the house of a rich man to whom he used to deliver milk every morning. Since he was late on the particular day, he was called in and he got a bitter scoldings from the rich man. The boy showed the empty jar and narrated the entire episode of Mother and child, who demanded the milk and emptied the contents in the mid way. The rich man was not in a mood to believe the cock and bull story. He was about to beat the boy. Immediately a miracle happened. The empty jar started filling up with milk on its own and it has started overflowing. Then the rich man realized his folly and requested the boy to accompany to the place where the Mother and Child has shown themselves to the boy. The boy took the rich man and requested the mother to come. Though she manifested once again to the boy, the rich man could not see her form but he witnessed the mysterious glow around the place. She is now worshiped as Mother Velankanni in South India. She has cured a poor lame boy and he started walking normally after the Mother blessed him. The above episode is a clear example that God loves our Pure Heart!

Many maintain a distance from God. Once Saibaba was asked a question by a devotee, 'how far is god?. Saibaba told him that the distance between yourself and God is the same as the distance from god to you. If you feel Him as closer to your Heart, He is verily in your Heart. If you treat God as somebody high in heaven, it will remain so.

Let us consider the case of non-believers. They assert that "God is nowhere". It is funny that they first assert "God is" and say nowhere in the end. The believer say God is now here" . See the word 'nowhere' has not changed. Only a little displacement of the letter 'w' and the same sentence become "God is Now here". If this is not funny, what else ? Non-believers want proof for every thing. Can they demand proof for their father? Hope I am not offending any. Even rational thinking has got its own limits. Hence God is closer to one who believes so and He is far away to the one who feels so!