To be One with God is to be One with yourself.  I caught myself saying this to a few people this past weekend as I was taking part in my brothers wedding (Indian weddings are fund yet exhausting).  The wedding was beautiful but it was more of a show then a celebration of life and love.  My aunt came up to me at the temple and made a comment about my meditation, saying it was something that she doesn’t see often (it was nothing special).  This is the same thing I have noticed visiting places of worship  (I also used to just go to Temple see people or hang with friends)…people attending service to check a “list”.  This is not to say everyone does this, but I would ask yourself this question.

Every enlightened soul of the past lived by the same principle (it is evident in their writings)…to be one with God is to be one with yourself, and that is the path to enlightenment (however you define that). All the ceremonies, rituals, writings are supposed to help guide people to this epiphany, however, as time goes on these teachings end up viewed through the eyes of man, therefore they become convoluted and masked (man struggles with his/her own ego).

I am not a religious person at all but I am spiritual.  I believe in God but God to me is not a being in space that judges people on actions or religious followings, rather God is in all of us…the Energy that combines the entire universe. Most religious writings I have read talk about this (Man being created in God’s image). The profits/avatars knew this as Truth.  I also look at this as absolute Truth…the energy that exists in this world connects us all and we are created from this same energy. One of the most fundamental laws in science is that energy can be neither created or destroyed…it is infinite, ever lasting, omnipresent, which happen to be same words that people use to describe God. When you think about this concept it is truly humbling and powerful…we all have that power in us, and everyone/everything is made of this same energy.  Thinking of God in that light, I began to appreciate the connecting force, and have been striving to become one with myself ever since.  It all starts with the acceptance that you are not the physical being you see, but an energy that permeates all the cells in your body.  The same foundation and energy that created the universe also created each one of us…I get shivers thinking of this.  The hard part is being able to accept yourself and break the mental layers to become one with God/yourself.

Religion can be a beautiful tool to teach these things but the further we get removed from the true source of enlightenment (to the world of instant satisfaction and ego), the more religion becomes a construct of ego/man.  I was born a Sikh, which has always been more of a cultural affiliation rather than a guiding source (mostly because I couldn’t read or understand the language).  At the age of 11 my parents put me into a Baptist private school (for education purposes)…I lasted only 2 years before I was back into public school.  While in school, I was ridiculed and ostracized because of my looks, weight and mostly because of my “religion”. I remember the days where I would be put in the front of the class and shown videos of the rapture.  As a child, you can imagine the horror I felt being left behind by God…I even “converted” out of fear and to fit in.  Over the next 10 years I never felt any closer myself.  As I became older and focused on being one with myself, I have never felt more at one with God.

The more I have began to understand this the more I have become to have faith. It is hard to have faith when your innocence was ripped from you at a young age but through my wife, and my time volunteering at a school in India, I began to look at myself in a new light…I began to see myself through love, through the eyes of God. The children at Shanti Bhavan and my wife did not care for the image I built in my mind, but cared for the energy that I brought. They looked at me with pure love, and provided me the energy to face anything.  Doubt was in my mind, yet love and energy set me free (faith is the opposite of doubt).  Think about this…the moments when things seem to go right usually occur when you have faith/trust in yourself (don’t dwell on the outcome).  The times you doubt yourself, it brings negative energy into the picture, making the eventuality “hazy”.  The times spent with my wife, the children of Shanti Bhavan, and now myself have shown me the power of energy, self acceptance, faith and love…all ways to get to God.

Over the past 5 years I have started my journey, and have never been closer to myself, and God.  Even concepts of reincarnation, which used to sound absurd, makes sense if you look at yourself as pure energy (never destroyed).  Our time in this world is temporary, yet the energy in us is infinite…the body is just a mechanism to hold the energy.  That is God (in my humble opinion), the all encompassing energy that is in everything, and those who break those mental layers/accept themselves are the ones that are one with God (my journey is still in the process but I am loving it more and more).  In that light God = Energy = Love = Acceptance.  I love you my friends and thank you for listening…I wish nothing but goodness for you as you continue your path to yourself.