How to Know God’s Will?

Sharad,

Yours is an excellent and important question. If I may be permitted to extend the question one step further, “How Can I Know God?,” then we realize just how broad and deep is your question. Although God of course is not a “person” in the way we think we are with a human body, nonetheless, let’s examine your question in terms of what it is like to ask a “person” a question. In order to ask a person’s opinion, let’s say, you need to already know this person and know how to reach them (either right there, “in-person,” or on the phone, or by letter or email); you need to speak the same language; and, your question needs to be appropriate for whatever the relationship is between you!

Those conditions are a TALL order when it comes to asking God for guidance! Now with this analogy you can see the complexity of the issue. Who among us can say, “I KNOW God?” Or, “I have God’s phone number (meaning, I know how to can contact God whenever I want); And, “God answers my questions when I ask Him.”

So, how do we proceed? List make a list:

1. Make it a habit to pause inwardly before acting to silently “ask God for guidance” from your heart and by lifting your eyes upward. It just takes a moment. This should take place every day.
2. You should already have established a daily practice of prayer (talking TO God) and meditation (listening for His answer). At the end of each meditation, pose a question for guidance by broadcasting it through the point between the eyebrows (the “spiritual eye“). Listen (feel) for an answer in your heart.
3. Your questions should be sincere and free from any attachment to the answer. They should not be based on material desires unless such are truly necessities appropriate to your circumstances.
4. Your guidance must truly ask for God’s guidance as to whatever is best for you, spiritually.
5. Your prayer should be dynamic and positive: in the form of what Paramhansa Yogananda called “prayer-demands.” Just as Jesus counseled to pray “BELIEVING!” Know that what is good and right for you as a son of God must come to you.

This daily practice will gradually clear your heart and mind so that your intuition will deepen and you will develop the ability to “know” what is true guidance versus what is excitement based on what you WANT subconsciously. You will undoubtedly make some mistakes, but this is how we all learn. It will perhaps take time, but it need not as the combination of the purity of your intention and the power of your will is applied.

Naturally a few common sense guidelines should be noted: you will not receive divine guidance to do anything harmful to yourself or others; nor anything that would be criminal, immoral, or dishonest. Nor yet anything that goes against universal virtue. It’s ok to pray for simple material things (job, health, partner, children, parents) but the highest prayers are to ask to know God, to feel God’s love, to share that love, and to do God’s will in all things.

I hope you find these guidelines and practices helpful. A sage once counseled: “Patience is the fastest way to God.”

Joy to you,

Nayaswami Hriman