"How Does God Talk to Us"?

It is said that we are made in the image of God, which translates into the fact that He resides inside us.…if that is so, how does He actually communicate with us? God is always in communion with us…unfortunately most of us are not aware of this since our minds are so preoccupied with billions of things. This “noise” prevents us from appreciating His call to come Home. To quote the Christian Bible “Thou didst love me always, but I heard Thee not”. God’s voice is silence, which can only be heard when our restless thoughts cease. When the devotee is mentally silent, God’s silence ceases. There are, of course instances of God appearing as visions to advanced devotees and talking to them directly or through the lips of a deity but this certainly is not a common occurrence. The “Akashvaris” as described in our scriptures are yet another form of communication. Our soul is essentially a “ray of the Spirit” or a reflection of the Spirit. One, therefore, needs to connect to one’s soul in order to perceive Him… and also for Him to communicate with us. Both the soul as well as the spirit manifest as light, wisdom and sound and this happens through the development of our intuition. He, therefore, communicates to us through our intuition. Through our intuition, He ‘plants” the truth in our minds, which is “nothing but the truth” When one develops deep intuition, one sees the soul as an amazing mystical light. Sri Yoganand Paramhans has said “If you saw God right now you would see Him as one mass of light scintillating over the whole Universe”. Others perceive the soul as an audible vibration of Aum (Shabd, Naam, Amen etc). Some feel the soul as a ray of Cosmic Intelligence manifesting as Wisdom. What is Intuition? It is the father of reason and bridges the gap between intellectual knowledge of the soul and the actual realization of the divine Self. It has also been called our “Sixth Sense” and is like a “hunch” (which most of us have experienced some time or the other). It has also been described as “a deep, immediate, and accurate sense of knowing something that we could not necessarily know using simple logic”(Dr Rick Levy, “The Happiness Sutra”).Very often we get strong inner feelings, premonitions or “prophetic” dreams…. .. This type of intuition is present in all of us but, being rudimentary is not of much significance, hence these experiences have no great spiritual value. This, the crudest form of intuition is that of the Annamaya kosha or food sheath and is concerned with matter only. It is only when our intuition becomes deep that it permits God’s thoughts, ideas, visions etc to percolate through to us. It, therefore, needs to be developed by regular meditation. The second form is that of the pranic energy and is the intuition of the Pranamaya kosha. In this form of intuition, one can hear subtle sounds, see lights, feel subtle sensations and even taste subtle flavours during meditation. This happens when one has been able to connect internally to the Shabd/Aum/Naam etc which make these experiences possible. The technique for this needs to be learned from a God realized Guru. The Intuition of the Manomaya Kosha, is the third type in which one has direct knowledge of the mind. In this form visions are seen and one is not conscious of the outside world (or very little) during meditation…depending on its depth. These visions may initially be of any type and not under one’s control but later, when one becomes adept these can be controlled. It is known scientifically that our mind comprises of a Conscious, Subconscious, Individual and Universal Superconscious levels. The type of thought associated with the conscious mind is analytical, which does not help in communicating with Him. The type of thought in the Subconscious mind is in the form of symbols or metaphors, while that of the Individual Superconscious mind, is through Intuition. Meditative thought is the route to access the Universal Superconscious mind. Meditation, therefore is the best method of God communion as through this all the levels of the mind can be accessed. Our mind has actually “birthed’ out of the Cosmic Mind (the Universal Superconscious Mind), which expresses itself as our soul in our individual superconscious mind. Our soul then expresses itself as our subconscious mind, which, finally is expressed as our conscious mind. This actually means that the Universal Superconscious Mind (God) has to pass through our individual superconscious mind (soul), then through our subconscious so that we become aware of it at the level of our conscious mind. It is obvious, then, that if our minds at the lower level (conscious level) are full of conflict, distress etc God’s thoughts are difficult to be perceived. The fourth form is that of Jnanamaya kosha or the intellect plane and associated with the understanding of truth which manifests as wisdom. Finally, the fifth form of Intuition is that of the Ananadmaya kosha associated with the direct knowledge of bliss. It is intuition through which our seers and sages communicated with God and “Vedas”, the ancient Scriptures came into being and are spoken as Shrutis….”That which has been heard”. It is through astral sight that the truths issuing forth from Aum may be perceived as luminous writings, which have been called the Akashic Records. The Bible too talks about intuition… “And as this is the will of Him that sent me that every one which seeth the son, and believeth on him may have everlasting life”(John 6:36-40). By the word “seeth”, Jesus means the perceptive power of intuition or feeling which can see, hear, smell, taste or touch without the help of the senses. Advanced meditators can “feel” His presence. Very often they can “see” advanced beings, spirits, and angels and can actually communicate with them through their power of intuition. So very often an advanced meditator gets a thought “planted’ in his mind during meditation…something for which he had been seeking an answer without actually having asked for it! This means that if we meditate deeply enough so as to reach beyond the Jnanamaya kosha to the bliss sheath during meditation, we have direct access to Him and can feel Him “talking” to us in thought form…language may not be necessary as He communicates to us directly and we perceive His counsel without actually vocalizing any words. One does not need to ask…one gets the solution without any sound being produced. Sri Yoganand Paramhans describes these experiences so beautifully…”According to the devotee’s spiritual inclination and degree of advancement, answers from the Infinite may manifest as spoken words or as unvocalized word-thoughts conveyed to the devotee, or through the soul’s intuition-pure knowing by realization or direct experience of truth-and through expression of cosmic consciousness , the devotee may receive enlightenment in the form of definite pronounced perceptions or feelings; or as visible or audible words or sounds materialized by the all-knowing intuitive power of the soul or by the divine fiat of the cosmic power of God” Most advanced meditators are so well tuned to Him through the Shabd flowing through the ether, that they remain “connected’ to Him not only during meditation but even when they are busy with their chores! They keep receiving His bounty in the form of the scintillating divine light…the beautiful inner music… and profound wisdom at all times! Ramkrishna has summed it up so well…”If you are fortunate enough to be born in human form, and do not find God, you have wasted your life”….let us try not to waste ours’! Sources: ‘God Talks to Arjun The Bhagwat Gita” and “The Second Coming of Christ by Sri Yoganand Paramhans , ‘The Happiness Sutra” written by Dr Rick Levy