Why do so many people really long for God, yet do not find him?
It is because they do not seek Him with deep sincerity and give up too soon. You will receive from God exactly what you give to Him in devotion and service.
A saint in India whose body was diseased used to cry out, “Lord, come into this broken temple.” He used to sit for eighteen hours a day in deep meditation. After only a few months he was able to meditate without moving a muscle. At that point he said, “I found God in this broken temple. He came and my body became whole again.”
Wasn’t that beautiful? He didn’t pray for his body. He only prayed that he might see God in that broken temple.
God, being the Maker of everything, has power over your life. Your duty to Him is more important than your duty to this dream world you are beholding. Everyone will find God in the end, but there are those who will delay. When you pull down the shades of the mind, God’s sunlight cannot flow in but when your mind is open, the light can flow through it.
If you analyze yourself every day, you will notice how little you pray or meditate. You will notice that your mind wanders unless you meditate intensely and think of God all the time. If you spend two hours in meditation each day, you will see how your life will change for the better.
The growth of a plant requires two things: the ground and the seed. In meditation, the seed is the mental preparation. If, in the back of your mind you say, “I know I never shall contact God,” then you never will. But if you speak to God with deep devotion, your soul will straightaway reach the depth of the sea.
When you become united with God, all your faults will leave you. Meditation is the only thing that will really change you. The only way to destroy weakness is to contact God. When you make up your mind that the only thing you want is God, and pursue that idea with determination, then you will find Him.
Deep meditation keeps the consciousness on God, and lack of meditation keeps the consciousness on the senses. Devotees who follow the path of meditation become detached; they do everything as a part of their duty but are not attached to the fruits of their efforts.
You have to work to reach the Infinite, and work in the right way. No one can give you Self-realization. You have to work for that reward. All the spiritual teachers in the world cannot give you salvation unless you make the effort to receive it.
Affirmations are better than the usual form of prayers. In an affirmation, you should both say and deeply feel the meaning of the thought behind the words. Then the thought will go deeply into the conscious mind, then into the subconscious, and then into the superconscious. When the thought registers in the superconsciousness, it will manifest in your life
Always affirm with intelligence and devotion until your thought reaches the superconscious mind. The greatest healing you should pray for is the healing of your ignorance, so that you will never go back to the old way of life.
Before meditation, offer the following prayer:
“Beloved of the universe, be with us evermore. Make us realize that Thou art the only king sitting on the throne of all our ambitions. Bless us that we be not deluded into thinking that other things are more important than finding Thee. Thou art the only goal beyond the portals of life and death.
“Bless us that we see, hear, think, and touch only what is good — that day and night we will think of Thee and meditate on Thee alone. May Thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of our devotion, and may we be able to awaken Thy love in all hearts. Bless us and be with us evermore.”
