Sri Bhagavan

Explains How to Define God

Sri Bhagavan always told us that we create our own God. Even the great Hall of Awakening (the Oneness Temple) has but one object in its grand Meditation Hall--an empty throne, where visitors may envision whatever image of the Divine that suits their individual beliefs.

I never quite understood what he meant by creating your own God until I saw the video below where he explains it quite well.

--P. J.

Sri Bhagavan's explanation of how to create your God (3:07)

Transcript of above video:

The amount of Grace you receive, or the form in which God manifests to you, depends on the relationship you have with God. That is why it is important that you do not have an image of a punishing God or an indifferent God.

If you thought God would be angry with you for your thoughts or your life, and are therefore afraid, God would certainly punish you. If God to you were a lazy father, would answer after endless entities and petitions, that would be your reality. You create your God.

You have made a mess of your lives, unaware of the power and freedom you hold in creating your God. One of the greatest curses you could lay on yourself is to create a wrong kind of God--a defective God who could sit over you in judgment and punish you.

Remember when I say creating your God, I do not mean creating a non-existent God through your own imagination. God is your Creator and how could you create God? Creating your own God means to awaken to the power you wield. God is powerful, but you, too, being a part of God, are quite powerful, hence the problem.

You have the freedom to design the kind of God you want. It is like a potter, making use of the clay to create masterpieces. You are the potter and God the clay. Your God would then respond to you the way you want. That is why, we use the word that means "one who does as bidden."

Do not think it is presumptuous to design God. You have all along been creating your God unconsciously, only now do it consciously and intelligently. God does not define himself or herself. Humanity defines God.

Create a God who is powerful enough to awaken you and to also fulfill your desires. If you relate to God as a playful, powerful, and a compassionate friend who will respond to your needs instantaneously, that would be your God. If, on the other hand, you define God as the unapproachable, then the doors of heaven shall not open, because there will be a big board which will say, "No Entry."

If you say God is indefinable, that certainly would be your experience. You could choose to have a frowning God, a smiling God, a laughing God, or even a playing God.

In light of Sri Bhagavan's above explanation, the following meditation should easily help you bring about Awakening--

Meditation for Awakening and God-Realization

Close your eyes, and go into a meditative state by doing what-ever it is that you do to reach a centered and deeply quiet place within.

With your inner thoughts, invoke the Divine Presence.

Ask the Divine (in whatever form you have created) to fully manifest within you, then speak to it in a very intimate and personal way.

Ask the Divine to open pathways to help you become fully awakened and God-Realized, because that is what you passionately want.

Ask that your entire body be permanently filled with its Divine consciousness and that, acting as an instrument of the Divine, you have the wisdom and guidance to help all of humanity also become fully awakened.

Sit with the Divine as long as you wish, allowing the connection to deeply permeate you, becoming more and more a part of you.

End your meditation with gratitude.