I’ve been on a few religious and spiritual forums lately, and it is very interesting to observe the concepts of God that people carry in their minds. Some people are even afraid of hell!

People seem to believe that there is a God somewhere, who’s looking at us and deciding whether what we are doing is right or wrong, and whether we should be punished or forgiven. Some have lost faith because ‘God’ did not help them, and claim they don’t believe in God anymore, silently hoping in their heart somewhere that ‘God’ feels ashamed at losing a devotee and starts answering their prayers.

This, I believe, is one biggest disadvantage of religion. All religions. They humanised God. And man, with that gigantic ego of his, will obviously be more than pleased to be told that God is someone who looks and thinks just like him, only in a more ideal fashion. If that is the concept of God for you, God does not exist.

There are others who believe God can be seen. I, for instance, know people who have seen Lord Shiva, Ma Kali, and other God appear before them. These people believe they have seen God, and they are blessed. But these are not Gods! These are just superior spirits, who can help us when we pray to them. If you start praying to Mahatma Gandhi today with all your devotion, it is only a matter of time before his spirit will come before you and give you advice. I repeat that these are not Gods. They are spirits. Vibrations. Deities.

For all those who believe that God looks like man, lets do a reality check here. Look at the ocean. Or the sky. And try to feel your significance. Do you realise just how small a spec you are, on earth, leave alone the universe? And do you think God could be someone like you?? Or maybe you think that God is like you, only much much bigger, like maybe thousands of feet tall. Please, gimme a break! Religious leaders projected God as human so that men with poor imagination will have someone to respect and fear, but preachers took it a bit too seriously. God is not human!

So what is God? When you breathe, your lungs fill with life, and pass it on to the rest of your body – that is God. The vibration in each atom of your body, is God. The vibration in each atom, in every single object on earth, is God. That is why we are all one. The whole universe is nothing but a combination of mass and energy. It was nothing but energy initially (and it is said this energy vibrated in ‘Om’, which is why the sound has such power even today), and it started culminating into matter with the big bang. Since then, the universe is evolving. That universe is God. God, is evolving.

God does not watch, God does not punish – because God is not separate. You are God. You are the doer. And the universe follows the ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ rule, so everything you do, comes back to you. You throw a ball up, it comes down. You do something good, something good happens to you. You do something bad, something bad happens to you. So it really isn’t punishment – it is just a return of your actions. Everything you do comes back, and if you don’t like the outcome, you say that you are being punished.

If you truly want to get in touch with the God that you are, meditate. Religious books will only take you so far, and you will have to walk on your own beyond a point. So why not start right away?