By: Principle S.K.Bedi

 Let’s know that highest great Lord of lords,

The highest deity of deities,

The master of masters:

The highest above is God,

The lord of the world,

The adorable

-Shweataswitara Upanishad

The world being the creation, definitely there must be a creator, known as God. He is dwelling in all beings, the witness, the perceiver, the only one without a second. He is the ultimate reality, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, infinite and eternal. This is how God has been described in the Holy Scriptures.

Now the question arises: Is it necessary to know God? As we are all part of the creation, our creator is God, as is the case with everything else. There is a ceaseless evolution and dissolution: the creation of the world is evolution, and its return to its origin is dissolution. In the case of man, too, there is evolution and dissolution: he is born, grows young, then old, and finally dies, and this birth-death cycle continues for ages. This is the greatest misfortune of man. He is in bondage. The cause of his bondage is that he is attached to the world and its pleasures. He is busy in accumulating wealth and making gains in one field or the other. His kith and kin, his assets, his reputation, his talents, are everything for him. He does not care to know his real self and final abode. It is only at the time of his death that he thinks of God, but then there is no scope for knowing and realising Him. He does not heed the basic message of the scriptures during his life, because he is engrossed in worldly affairs, and misses the golden opportunity of realising God.

The Holy Scriptures tells us that man has been endowed with a special faculty, the power of discrimination, and can realise God to enjoy bliss and happiness. The True Master imparts God-knowledge and by realising God, one becomes one with God, the Deity of deities, the Master of Masters, the Lord of Lords and the Adorable. Then ‘Maya’ (the creation) which is an illusion is shattered, while God alone abides God here, God there and God everywhere. By realising God, the origin and God abode of whole creation, man attains enlightenment, bliss and freedom from the bondage. About this transformation, Baba Avtar Singh says:

The one, who knows the Formless Lord,

Does not fear Yama’s* rod;

The one, who knows the Formless Lord,

Does not face the death’s cord;

The one, who knows the Formless Lord,

Is a spiritual, blissful bard;

The one, who knows the Formless Lord,

Isn’t by the worries marred;

The one, who knows the Formless Lord,

Is not by fire or fear charred;

The one, who gets his pride discharged,

Avtar, from Master knows the Lord.

-Avtar Bani, Hymn 34

So, a person, who realises God from the True Master, does not fear Yama (god of death) and has no worry: he is redeemed. His life is a life of peace, bliss and happiness, here and hereafter.