Where is God Today?
We don’t need God. We have searched him for a long time and the quest will continue for ever. We have searched in the whole world, in the entire universe, in the stars, in the galaxies, inside the vast oceans, everywhere. The journey of many lives have been devoted to the quest of God, and yet we could not comprehend him fully. We pray him, follow rituals, fast, undergo penance, etc., yet we are not successful in our search. By keeping fast, we succeed in starving our body, but not our mind, which is continuously fed by our imaginations. It is for this very reason, Shri Sai Baba used to say: “My children will never fast. Nothing can be achieved in an empty stomach“.
Every individual hope to receive divine support when he is in pain. He thinks: “When I am devoid of my energy, when my near and dear ones desert me, when I stand helpless and raise my hand towards the sky and pray, Oh God! Where are you? Will I receive his grace?” When in pain, one asks: “Where is God today? I need his support here and now!” This is a natural and expected reaction.
It is futile to ask someone to read Gita, Bible, Koran or Shri Sai Satcharita, or Bhagavat when one is starving to death. It makes no difference to him. Instead, if you can feed him with two slices of bread, you might save his life. At that moment, God enters his body in the form of bread. God can appear in many forms, in the form of mother, friend, and well-wisher. What is important is in what circumstances and in what form you are able to attract the divine power.
When Draupadi was being insulted by Kauravas, she prayed to Lord Krishna: “Oh Lord, where are you? This is not just the insult of a chaste and righteous woman, it is the insult of the entire womanhood.” At that moment, Lord Krishna didn’t physically appear there. He appeared in the form of the unceasing roll of sarees. Who knows in what form God is present today to comfort and cure the mankind.
Source: Excerpts from the keynote speech by Dr. C B Satpathy in Guwahati during 2012.