Self-Realization Fellowship Blog

The following post is an excerpt from the talk “The Devotional Way to God,” which can be read in full in Solving the Mystery of Life, Volume IV of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Collected Talks and Essays — now available in hardback, paperback, and ebook editions. 

Who has created the cosmic cornucopia with its surfeit of forms tumbling into place to decorate the universe and people the earth?

When we look at the workings of a watch, we understand that it is man who has made the intricate parts and put them together. But when we look at the lawn, we must ask, “Who created the power in the seed that dressed the soil with verdant grass?” And who made us to behold the wondrous mysteries of creation? The Creator is hiding Himself, that perchance someday we may seek and find Him….

To discover the hidden presence of God, you must love Him; but it came to my mind, how can you love God without knowing Him? You cannot love anything that is unknown to you. Can you love a flower you have never seen? Can you love the ocean if it is just a word to you? Could you love someone you had never known or heard about? Could you love someone as a friend whom you never met? Could you love anything that you knew nothing about? How, then, is it possible to love God, having never seen Him? I cannot say that anymore. I see Him all the time. Every thought you are thinking right now, I see as coming from that Light.

When you see from a hilltop how beautiful are the twinkling lights of a city, you forget that it is the dynamo that is providing the electricity to illumine the bulbs. So when you see the sparkling vitality of human beings, but you do not know what is enlivening them, then you are spiritually blind. That Power, even though unseen, is very evident. It is all the time playing hide-and-seek behind our thoughts. Because God chooses to remain hidden, that is why it is difficult to think of Him and to love Him.

The paradox is that the simplest way to know God is the way of love. There is a way of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) by which He can be known: the path of analytical discrimination, eliminating all that is not God — “Neti, neti,” not this; not that. Another way is to purify oneself by performing nothing but good actions and renouncing the fruits thereof (Karma Yoga).

And then there is the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga), continuously thinking of God until one sees Him in everything. He is so evident if we look for Him with the eyes of devotion. We must make Him know that we are wanting Him, that He cannot continue to elude us. If we press Him with our thoughts, with our longing for Him, He is bound to express Himself; He is bound to respond.

God’s presence is so close; it is just as though somebody is playing hide-and-seek with you in a dark room. Though you do not see the person, you feel that he is there. That is how God is, just behind the darkness of your unseeing eyes. He is talking to us through the wise man. And He is inspiring us through the great ones, such as Christ, Krishna, and the Masters.

He is, but where is He? That is what devotion answers: You do not have to see Him in order to become devoted to Him. Devotion means that you know He is omnipresent around you in the dark conundrum of cosmos, playing a divine game of hide-and-seek with you. Behind the leaves, behind the wind, behind the warm rays of the sun — He is hiding, but He is there. He is not far away; that is why it becomes easy to love Him.

God is the greatest lover our hearts can know. He loves to be pursued, because the only thing He hopes for is the love of His children. To receive their love is the sole purpose for which He sent forth creation. He has everything within Himself, except our love. He gave us free will to love Him or to love Him not. He wants us very much. That is why He sends His saints to show us the way back to Him.

We invite you to learn more about Solving the Mystery of Life by Paramahansa Yogananda, the fourth volume in the Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life. This beautiful work of timeless wisdom is now available to order.