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Chapter 3 '
A Vital Fact Pertaining to God-realization
Generally people think that they can attain God, by performing action or by making effort. They hold that, as they have to make a lot of effort in order to meet a high officer, they will have to make much more effort, (in the form of penance, fasts etc.) in order to attain God, Who is the Lord of infinite universes. But that is an error on their part.
Human life has a great affinity for actions. So in the Gita it is mentioned, "Meeting death when passion prevails, the embodied soul, is born among those attached to action" (14/15). Therefore, a man has an inclination for action and he wants to attain his aim through actions. He believes that as the worldly things can . be acquired through actions, so God could also be realised by action. So he tries to attain Him through action. But the fact is, that the Imperishable Lord cannot be attained by actions. Only the perishable worldly things, can be acquired through actions, because all actions are performed with the help of a perishable (body, senses and mind etc.,) while God is realized by total renunciation of affinity for the perishable.
Every action has a beginning and an end, so its fruit is also perishable. A thing which is at some distance (unacquired), with the point of view of space or time can be acquired by action. Thus, only the worldly things which are perishable, changeful and confined, can be acquired through action. But the Lord Who pervades everywhere and Who is uniform and imperishable, cannot be attained through action. He is naturally attainable. Worldly things cannot be acquired by thinking alone but the Lord can be realised by thought, because He is close to as. The fact is, that the Lord is not attained by thinking alone, but when a striver thinks of the Lord, he stops thinking of the world. As soon as thinking about the world is renounced, the ever attainable Lord is realized.
Not only the all-pervading God, is never away from us but His being away from us, is impossible also. He is much nearer, these even the supposedly close 'I'ness, which is limited spatially and temporally, but God knows no limitation. In order to experience such a close and ever available God, it is deceiving one's self, to apply logic and arguments as if it were a worldly object.
Worldly things cannot be acquired only by having a keen desire, while God can be realized, only by having a keen desire. Human life is meant to have a keen desire for God-realization, not for sense enjoyment. This desire is not aroused, because man has a desire for worldly pleasures and prosperity. If desire for pleasure and prosperity is renounced, a keen desire for God-realization may be aroused instantly and God may also be realized immediately.
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