Learn to live in God
[Vinod Anand]

The great saints are so strong in their magnetism that they can change you .L. by their mere presence. The company you keep plays a crucial role, for the people in our lives are the most important aspect of our environment.

I remember a man who got into a mood and decided he didn’t want to be around people anymore. So for some weeks he avoided all spiritual gatherings.

Then, more or less by accident, he ended up in a group at the home of a highly advanced spiritual teacher where a public program was going on. Afterwards he told me: “I thought I was doing fine by myself I thought I could decide what it feels like to be spiritually in tune.

But now that I’m back in touch with real spiritual energy, I can see how far I was drifting away” when we get away from the consciousness of Spirit, we can quickly forget what that consciousness feels alike.

There’s no escaping the reality that we must do our individual practices. As a great saint put it, “If you want to find God, you must spend a great deal of tune alone.” But without the company of other spiritual seekers— satsang, or “fellowship with truth” — we’ll very likely end up keeping company with the ego. Once the ego gets hold of us, it casts a veil over our minds.

And the longer we enjoy the dubious comforts of ego-consciousness, the greater the danger that we’ll drift away from the spiritual path. One of the most helpful things you can do to find God’s love is to meditate with other devotees. Meditating with others, first of all, helps you generate much more spiritual energy than you can alone. And meditating together teaches you to love in a different way.

We are accustomed to think of our relationships in outward terms. But when you meditate together, you touch a place where you are one in God, and the contact of your souls brings you closer than you might ever imagine you could be. I know with absolute certainty that I would never get anywhere on the spiritual path if it weren’t for my friends.

While it’s true that the transforming power of God comes through the guru, I find that the ability to understand and accept what God is asking of me often comes from my fellow seekers. When I came onto the spiritual path and began to associate with spiritual people, I realized that there were a handful of friends whom I could rely on as my spiritual “barometers”, if you will.

Whenever I had ideas or feelings or moods, I would deliberately spend time with them. I would say, “This is what I think” and they might say, “No, it’s like this.” But it wasn’t so much their words as their presence that helped me, when I was with them I could feel the rightness or wrongness of my thoughts and feelings.

Every time I would feel a little dissonant with the people I respected as spiritual aspirants, I would think, ‘if I don’t feel in harmony with the Spirit in these people who are my fellow seekers and my satsangis, then I’ve need to keep trying to attune my consciousness until I feel that inner harmony” Although God lives in us, we must learn to live in God and this we can do easily through the loving friendship, caring, mutual concern and responsibility that we have for one another. With satsang we all grow spiritually.

Author's Bio: 

VINOD K.ANAND: A BRIEF PROFILE

Born in 1939, and holding Master’s Degree both in Mathematics (1959) and Economics (1961), and Doctorate Degree in Economics (1970), Dr. Vinod K.Anand has about forty five years of teaching, research, and project work experience in Economic Theory (both micro and macro), Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, New Political Economy, and Development Economics with a special focus on economic and social provisions revolving around poverty, inequality, and unemployment issues, and also on informal sector studies. His last assignment was at the National University of Lesotho (Southern Africa) from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that he was placed as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of North-West in the Republic of South Africa, and University of Allahabad in India, Professor at the National University of Lesotho, Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in Botswana, and at Gezira University in Wad Medani, Sudan, Head, Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Yola in Nigeria, Principal Lecturer in Economics at Maiduguri University in Nigeria, and as Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Nigeria. Professor Anand has by now published more than 80 research papers in standard academic journals, authored 11 books, supervised a number of doctoral theses, was examiner for more than twenty Ph.D. theses, and has wide consultancy experience both in India and abroad, essentially in the African continent. This includes holding the position of Primary Researcher, Principal Consultant etc. in a number of Research Projects sponsored and funded by Universities, Governments, and International Bodies like, USAID, IDRC, and AERC. His publications include a variety of themes revolving around Economic Theory, New Political Economy, Quantitative Economics, Development Economics, and Informal Sector Studies. His consultancy assignments in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa include Non-Directory Enterprises in Allahabad, India, Small Scale Enterprises in the Northern States of Nigeria, The Absolute Poverty Line in Sudan, The Small Scale Enterprises in Wad Medani, Sudan, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Botswana, The Place of Non-Formal Micro-Enterprises in Botswana, Resettlement of a Squatter Community in the Vryburg District of North West Province in the Republic of South Africa, Trade and Investment Development Programme for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises: Support for NTSIKA in the Republic of South Africa, and Development of the Manufacturing Sector in the Republic of South Africa’s North West Province: An Approach Based on Firm Level Surveys. Professor Anand has also extensively participated in a number of conferences, offered many seminars, participated in a number of workshops, and delivered a variety of Refresher Lectures at different venues both in India and abroad. Dr. Anand was placed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in the State Himachal Pradesh, India as a Fellow from 2001 to 2003, and had completed a theoretical and qualitative research project/monograph on the Employment Profile of Micro Enterprises in the State of Himachal Pradseh, India.