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Finding
Your Own Personal God
A
Selection from
the book How
to Achieve Peace of Mind...
Finding Your Own Personal God
By
Bob Davis
It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason.
-Blaise Pascal
There is a story about a Hindu sage who radiated a
palpable sense of peace and love to all those in his presence. One day the sage was visited by a poor
farmer who lamented that he felt no love for God. He had no heart for worship and found religious
observances meaningless. At the same time, he wished he were devout and believed that the
spiritual sense he lacked would make him a happier man. In short, he yearned to see God even
though he didn't believe in God.
"Forget God," the sage told him. "What do you
love?"
The farmer was bewildered. He looked at the sage and stammered, "I . . . I don't know."
"Come, come," said the sage, "you must love
something. Now think, think what it is you love."
The farmer thought about it. At last he said, "I am very poor, my beloved wife is dead, and I have no children. Life has dealt me many hard blows. All that I
own besides my hut and an acre of land is a cow. I guess I love my cow. Other than her, I can't think of one thing I love."
"If you love your cow," said the sage, "then your cow is God. Go and worship your cow."
When the farmer left, he could not help thinking that the sage's advice was crazy. My cow is God? How
ridiculous! Nevertheless, he was at his wit's end, having lived a squalid life in which he barely
earned enough to eat and keep a roof over his head. Without a wife, children, and a sense of God, he
was unhappy and lonely and couldn't imagine feeling more miserable. She he decided to give this
harebrained scheme a try. What did he have to lose? He would see if there
was any logic to the holy man's madness.
"All right, God," he said to his emaciated
cow as she grazed on a patch of parched grass. "Show me your stuff! Speak to me!
Give me some words of wisdom!"
Of course, the cow said nothing but only
glanced at the farmer with a hungry look in her eyes. He noticed, then, what a
scrawny beast she was. He went into his hut and cooked a bowl of rice and lentils
and brought it to the cow. As the cow ate the food--a welcome change from the
parched grass--the farmer knelt before her in an attitude of prayer. Wait! Were the
neighbors watching? He looked furtively about and, seeing that the coast was clear,
brought the palms of his hands together and gazed at the cow, remembering the
love he once felt for his young wife.
Each day after that, when he wasn't
working, he spent his time feeding his cow homemade meals and kneeling reverently before her as she ate. He gazed
at this creature, summoning the affection he had for his wife when he was happily
married. he petted the cow and thanked her for being alive. At night, instead of
retiring to his hut, he slept outside in the field, beside the cow.
After a month of this, he returned to the
sage. "I can't believe it," said the farmer. "I feel blessed to have my cow. I love her
as much as I loved my wife. I sing praises to my cow each morning and each night.
Oh, I'm sure they aren't devout by your standards and I don't have much of a
voice, but it does my heart so much good to sing to my cow. And when I'm away
from her, in the village or working in the far corner of my field, I see my cow
before me, in the sheaves of wheat I grow, in the villagers' faces, in the
sky--everywhere! I feel like a new man!"
This story illustrates an important
principle for those of us who aren't particularly religious yet wish to have a
more reverent sense of life. If you find no personal meaning in the symbols,
doctrines, and practices of institutions, but you want to experience your devotional
nature and those loving feelings that bring joy and peace of mind, you can follow the
example of the poor farmer. Now there's no need to rush out and buy a cow!
Instead, ask yourself what it is you love and then open your heart to your own
beloved. It may be your calico cat or your loyal English setter or garden-variety
mongrel who likes to sleep by your feet. It may be a friend or child, the potted
geranium in your bedroom or flowering forsythia bush in your yard. It may be the
photograph of a departed loved one or a picture of a stranger who projects a
captivating serenity and grace. Whatever or whoever stirs a loving sense in your
heart is worthy of your adoration, just as the cow was for the farmer.
Love, that most relaxing energy, is a
personal affair. Forcing yourself to love something to which you don't relate is, in
a sense, to deny your individuality. Human beings are as unique as snowflakes, and each of us must honor his
or her own inclinations. Otherwise we are wasting our time and working against
heartfelt impulses.
If God is love, then what you love is the
embodiment of God. That is the essence of the story of the farmer and his cow.
Each of us must find his or her own cow in order to cultivate our loving natures
and begin to experience a sense of the divine and the serene gratitude that
accompanies this sense. What you love is a springboard to spiritual insight, a
tangible means to the realm of the sacred.
Try this:
Ask yourself what awakens your deepest
affection. If you need to, make a list of the creatures and things you love, and select
the item that most inspires your gratitude. Then spend some time each day with that
person, animal, plant, or object. Whatever you have selected, the test of its capacity
to evoke your love is this: while in its presence, you should feel relaxed and
uninhibited. Once you're sure this is the case, gaze calmly at whatever you have
chosen and imagine a path or taproot connecting your eyes to your heart. Let
your seeing be from the heart, and if you can touch the object, imagine your hand
connected to your heart.
This exercise may be easier if you have
chosen something other than a person as your beloved (an exception might be an
infant). Unless you have a partner, friends, or lover who is agreeable and available,
you are better off choosing someone or something with whom you do not feel at
all self-conscious. If your love object is a pet, spend time stroking its body. This
will calm you as well as the animal. (It's a medically confirmed fact that petting a
friendly cat or dog lowers one's blood pressure.) The main thing is to use your
senses of sight and touch affectionately by putting your heart into them.
If you faithfully practice this exercise, you
will soon experience a melting sensation in the region of your heart and a relaxed
sense of being. As a result, you will be more at peace with yourself and with the
world.
Recommended Reading:
The Mythic Imagination: Your Quest for
Meaning through Personal Mythology by Stephen Larsen, Ph.D. New York: Bantam, 1990.
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