Where is God? Where can God be found?

The question is not ‘where is God?’, but ‘where isn’t He?’

The One Lord permeates all. The One Lord is pervading everywhere. 

Guru Amar Das Ji

It has been made clear to us that God is everywhere. There is no place without Him, nothing is beyond Him. 

Do not ever say you don’t know where God is.  He is everywhere; then how can you not know where He is?  Do not ever say the lock is closed and you don’t know about the key, because the key has been given to you a thousand times, but you always forget where you kept it.  You leave it somewhere; your unconscious self tries to run away from it. Until your doubts are cleared away you will be seeking Him on one hand and losing Him on the other.  You will be raising one foot to step in His direction and the other in the opposite direction. 

Osho Rajneesh

The most amazing thing is that He is everywhere but nowhere, He is all things but no specific thing, He is all forms but completely formless. This phenomenon is that of Him. As He wishes, so will we understand His mystery.

How we see Him reflects our insight.  He is everything simultaneously and also – none of these.

Osho Rajneesh

How can that God who created all things; big and small. He who created the wind, the sun, all animals and beings. He who makes your heart beat, who provides you with food and a family. How can that Lord be limited to a single place? The Lord of the Universe created it so brilliantly and so balanced, and yet we do not once turn our attention to him even though He is ever with us.

The Creator Himself created the Creation; He produced the Universe, and He Himself watches over it. 

Guru Amar Das Ji

He will never leave your side and will always be there, whenever you need Him. When will you need Him? Always. How can one not need the Lord? Even for one second a Sikh cannot live without his Guru. Even if you think you do not need Him, and are the doer yourself, He will still be forgiving when you realise how wrong you had been.

There was a Sufi fakir by the name of Bayazid. His neighbor was a total rogue, a cheat, a criminal. He had committed every sin under the sun and the whole village was terrified of him.  One day Bayazid prayed to God: ”Oh Lord, I have never asked anything from You. But this man is now going beyond all limits. Please remove him from our midst.”

At once the inner voice spoke to Bayazid: ”I am not as yet tired of him, then why are you? And if I

still have faith in him, why don’t you?” 

Taken from ‘The True Name’ by Osho Rajneesh

He is the King of kings, the Doer all doing, the Highest of the high. You cannot believe He is sitting in the heavens on a thrown, or only in a mosque, or in a temple. How can you be so careless to limit infinity? One can’t even begin to describe His virtues and wonder, let alone believe He is only in a certain place or worse does not even exist. 

How can we describe Him with words? There is no end to the descriptions of Him.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Let us explore how we may discover the Great Lord and how we can meet that infinite omniscient presence that our minds cannot even comprehend.

One may ask, ‘where can we find Him then?’ 

Then what will lead you to the goal?   Those who have served Him,  those who have revered and worshipped Him, have attained His presence.  If He is everything, service is prayer; if He is everything, service is worship. The more you get absorbed in service, the nearer you will reach Him. If the tree is thirsty, water it; if the cow is hungry, feed it. You are thereby quenching His thirst, and feeding Him. 

Osho Rajneesh

Gurbani has told us time and time again that God will be found inside. He is sitting there, right within us. Whilst we search outside, going to different places of worship and making pilgrimages we have not seen the true worth of our own heart. This however is not limiting God to just within us. As has been discussed prior, He is everywhere and everything. However, we are the cause of this confusion and duality which does not allow us to realise that it is by His Great Will that everything occurs. So in order to eradicate this ego we must go inside as loose it through absorbing ourselves in Naam Simran (meditation upon Gods name – Waheguru)

No one has found the worth of the ruby of the heart; its value cannot be estimated. 

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

It is within there where Bani has told us He is. So why do we not search deep within and find that?

Searching outwardly, what can anyone find? The commodity is deep within the home of the self, O Siblings of Destiny.

Guru Amar Das Ji

. . .

He searches within himself, and finds the true essence; he finds the Door of Salvation. 

Guru Amar Das Ji

He who has learnt to search within himself truly finds the One. This is what we have been told, but we fail to practise it. We still believe He is outside of us and separate. How can God ever be separate? It is us who have created this false duality. Only God exists. But we believe that by running to other people we can get some happiness.

Those who separate themselves from the Lord wander lost in misery. The self-willed manmukhs do not attain union with Him.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

 We do not realise that our mind’s desires will never be fulfilled, they will never come to an end. Once you meet God, that’s it! Then you’ve truly found that everlasting bliss. This bliss can never fade or disappear. 

How far is God? He’s closer to us than our skin is to the bones. He’s closer than a hair width apart. It is us who have made Him appear so far and distant.

I searched the whole world for Him, but I found Him near myself.

Bhagat Kabeer Ji

Once you believe to begin God is distant, then He becomes just that to the mind. 

That which was near has become distant, and again, that which was distant is near, for those who realize the Lord as He is. 

Bhagat Kabeer Ji

Bhagat Kabir Ji has told us to search this heart, as the need to find God elsewhere is useless. But have we listened to these great saints? Why do we still think we know better or are wiser than them?

So search in your heart - look deep into your heart of hearts; this is the home and the place where God lives.

Bhagat Kabeer Ji

. . .

O human being, search your own heart every day, and do not wander around in confusion.

Bhagat Kabeer Ji

Guru Sahib has told us we do not even have to leave our own homes. But yet we wander from place to place trying to find some peace. That peace cannot be found, it is only sugar coated poison. 

Fareed, these are poisonous sprouts coated with sugar.

Baba Fareed Ji

Whatever peace we may think we have gained, view it again and realise that along with it has come much pain. So why not give yourself to Him and grab that everlasting bliss that Gurbani talks about?

Holding on to the hem of His Robe, the entire Universe is saved.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji

. . .

In the home of the God-conscious being, there is everlasting bliss.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji

. . .

Wandering from forest to forest searching, you will find that those things are within the home of your own heart.Guru Nanak Dev Ji

When you sit to do simran, take yourself within. Do not try to find Him outside, as your progress will be less. Take yourself deeper and deeper within. Empty all other thoughts. Focus the mind on the Gurmantar of Waheguru without any other thoughts invading. It is these thoughts that have clouded our minds and took us astray. When you sit to meditate upon the Naam, throw all other thoughts aside. 

The painful sins are burnt away, by keeping God in one's thoughts; evil-mindedness is erased.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji

Also Dhan Guru Ram Das Ji has said:

Consider this well, O Saints, O Siblings of Destiny - search your own hearts, seek and find Him there.

Guru Ram Das Ji

When other thoughts come, do not give up and become sad. Try to take your mind back on to that sweet simran. Do not feel disheartened when the mind wanders, as the mind is very hard to control at first. It is only through a lot of Naam abiyaas (practice) that we can restrain it. That Naam resides within, try and find it.

The Naam is the True Merchandise and Wealth; in each and every heart, His Presence is deep and profound. 

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Some may be confused on how to search. The way to search is as Gurbani has made clear, to focus the mind upon Waheguru, and nothing else. All else is false and will disappear. Through practice on simran you will find yourself being taken deeper within, and will find that this rass (taste) is higher than all other tastes you have tasted. This is a more permanent and sweeter taste. Even that taste gets sweeter and sweeter as we do more and more simran. 

Guru Sahib here mentions how all worldly tastes are false, and we will repent in the end for indulging in them as we thought they were sweet at the time:

People eat what they believe to be sweet, but it turns out to be bitter in taste.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji

Guru Ji tells us what the true sweet taste is:

The Ambrosial Naam, the Name of the Lord, is the sweetest nectar of nectars. Through the Word of the Guru's Shabad, with my tongue, I drink in this nectar. 

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Day by day through more and more effort in simran we will find that all was just the One True Lord. There was nothing else apart from it, we have clustered our minds with so much filth from so many lives and we have forgotten were He always was.

We shall merge into the One from whom we came. The True One is pervading each and every heart. 

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

Try to centre the mind on to God and do not take this mind elsewhere. Our efforts will be in vain otherwise.

The foolish self-willed manmukh does not understand; he goes out searching for the Lord externally.

Guru Amar Das Ji

Bhagat Kabir Ji tells us first hand that by looking within himself that is how he met the Lord.

Searching, searching within the self, Kabeer has met the Lord.

Bhagat Kabeer Ji

The Lord is so near, but yet we are so blinded to see this. Realise that He can only be found within, but you have to make the effort. You have to want it and desire to find the One. Guru Ji talks about his thirst to meet the Lord and to behold His Darshan (presence/form). Without Him a Sikh cannot live. He is the support of all. He is the very blood in our veins. So why have we forsaken Him, and turned towards other? Why have we began do listen and act as this devil like mind wants?

My mind and body are so thirsty for the Blessed Vision of His Darshan. Won't someone please come and lead me to him, O my mother.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji

This Shabad (Holy writing/message) by Guru Arjan Dev Ji reminds us of how much we will regret not remembering the Lord. God knows how many breaths we have already wasted useless. 

Chhant:

One finds God, the Ocean of Peace, when destiny is activated.

Abandoning the distinctions of honor and dishonor, grasp the Feet of the Lord.

Renounce cleverness and trickery, and forsake your evil-minded intellect.

O Nanak, seek the Sanctuary of the Sovereign Lord, Your King, and your marriage will be permanent and stable. ||1||

Why forsake God, and attach yourself to another? Without the Lord, you cannot even live.

The ignorant fool does not feel any shame; the evil man wanders around deluded.

God is the Purifier of sinners; if he forsakes God, tell me, where he can find a place of rest?

O Nanak, by loving devotional worship of the Merciful Lord, he attains the state of eternal life. ||2||

May that vicious tongue that does not chant the Name of the Great Lord of the World, be burnt.

One who does not serve God, the Lover of His devotees, shall have his body eaten by crows.

Enticed by doubt, he does not understand the pain it brings; he wanders through millions of incarnations.

O Nanak, if you desire anything other than the Lord, you shall be consumed, like a maggot in manure. ||3||

Embrace love for the Lord God, and in detachment, unite with Him.

Give up your sandalwood oil, expensive clothes, perfumes, tasty flavors and the poison of egotism.

Do not waver this way or that, but remain wakeful in the service of the Lord.

O Nanak, she who has obtained her God, is a happy soul-bride forever. ||4||1||4|| 

Guru Arjan Dev Ji