God’s presence is tangible. As a person to relate to, or as the divine powers of love and pure energy that sustains our existence, God is an experiential reality for some and one that can be for everyone. It is the goal of the Hindu religion to take its devotees beyond intellectual faith in God to a faith in God based on personal experience. 

To this end, Hinduism is replete with practices, such as different styles of personal worship and meditations that a devotee can learn and practice. However Hinduism does not force upon its followers that they must realize God or even have the desire to know God in this very lifetime. Hindu teachings reveal that the spiritual evolution of the soul occurs over many lifetimes, and that the desire for the experience of God is a desire that develops from the very core of our soul as part of a natural process. So if you are Hindu and have no desire whatsoever to know God, don't worry, it doesn’t mean that you are not a good Hindu or anything like that. If, for now, all Hinduism is to you is a means of providing you with a structure for an ethical or cultured life then so be it; because one day, perhaps in another lifetime, you will suddenly begin to yearn to see God or want to feel His or Her presence as if your life depended on it. In the meantime we can at least prepare ourselves by gaining more knowledge about the path leading to God and nurture faith in God.

The path to ‘knowing God,’ begins with clearing misconceptions we may have about God. The previous two lessons of this series examined how it is that in Hinduism, though there are many forms of God, we believe in one Supreme Godhead. The lessons explored The Three Aspects of God. These three Aspects explain the variety of experiences we may have of God and how having these experiences relate to the salvation of our soul. Part three, contains the concluding part of our exploration of God’s nature. 

God is love, love is God. This is Truth. This is the ultimate conclusion a seeker will discover in his or her quest to know God. In Saivite Hinduism there is an affirmation of faith that goes: Anbe Sivamayam, Satyame Parasivam. An affirmation of faith is a terse sentence that carries the essence or a summary of the beliefs of a faith. 

Anbe, comes from the Tamil word Anbu. Anbu when translated to English is love that can be described as affectionate, caring, passionate but not sensual. It is similar to the love of parents for their children. It is the purest form of love. Sivamayam are two words, Siva and maya put together. Siva, of course, refers to God. All of God's creation is maya. There are two folds to the meaning of Anbe Sivamayam. These meanings appear from two different perspectives through which we can view God. 

The first perspective is when we view God as a child sees her parents. From this perspective, God is the Lord of Compassion, the caring Protector and Saviour, and our ultimate Parent. This is a dualistic point of view and it relates to the First Aspect of God as Paramatma or the Personal Lord.  The other perspective is from the monistic point of view that is derived from the meditative experience of God. It refers to God’s Second Aspect as Parashakti. From this perspective God is Pure Love. This love is the very foundation of all that exists as its most basic element. Therefore God pervades Creation, from the miniscule to the grand as Pure Love.

The second part to this affirmation of faith is Satyame Parasivam. Satyame, comes from the word satyam, which means truth. Parasivam are two words, Para and Sivam (Same as Siva). Para, in Indic languages, can mean greatest, transcendent or beyond limits. Sivam refers to God. Thus the meaning, God, who is beyond limits or transcendent is the ultimate Truth. Here God is Parabrahman , the Third Aspect. 

Anbe Sivamayam, Satyame Parasivam is an affirmation about the final conclusions of life derived from a devotee's experiences of God. That is, that God is love and Source of all existence.¶

My guru would always say that there is only one thing that God All-Mighty cannot do. That is, He cannot take Himself out of us. 

We are inseparable from God, because God is the very essence of our life. He is the source of the impulse that makes us take a breath. Infact, the first step in meditation is to concentrate on the breath. As the meditator attunes his awareness to the rhytm of his breath, she learns to slow it down. Then she focuses on the impulse that begins the breath. When she reaches this point of focus she experiences God.

What is this experience of God like? First a quietness that quells all thoughts and concerns in the mind will descend upon the meditator. This quietness then evolves into a state of peace that ushers the feeling of contentment–that everything is alright, right now. At this point the meditator may lose body consciousness (but not sleep), have a vision of God or see light within her mind. Then finally the meditator will reach the state of Grace where she experiences Pure Love. Blissful feelings that exhilerate the body and mind flood the meditator. The meditator comes out of her meditation refreshed and rejuvenated, convinced of the reality of God and her intimate relationship with God. She now knows for a fact that God is closer to her than her breath. That God is indeed the Life of her life and that God is love itself. 

If meditation is not your cup of tea, so to say, then God can be experienced through worship. If you are not really into worship, than perform selfless-service. Let your compassion for others motivate your service. Through your compassion you will be able to experience God within you. Basically anything we do that is motivated by pure love is a divine experience since the very love we feel is God. 

What is pure love? Pure love is the cause for the expression of any form of goodness or care toward another person or being without any expectations of reward or recognition in return. This is the purest kind of love, the love that in Hinduism we claim is God Herself. So if you want to experience God or to know God, the easiest way is to catch yourself during a moment of compassion, kindness or forgiveness. This is how close God is to us. She has made Herself inseparable from us. She knows us intimately. She is with us when we are happy or sad. She is with us when we are kind or hateful. She is with us when we are in devotion or even if we deny Her existence. She is with each and everyone of us simultaneously. Watching and waiting for us to take the first step to realize our closeness to Her.

I am a God fearing person. Some people say this. Occasionally I also hear Hindus saying this.

Is it correct? Should God who is love be feared? What is there to fear God? 

When a person says that he or she is God fearing, it can mean a number of notions. He or she could be saying that to indicate that they have faith in God, or that they believe in God, or that they live a life based on a religious code of ethics that they fear to transgress. They can also mean that they actually fear God. 

According to Hindu philosophy and the guidance of gurus, God does not inspire fear, nor is there any reason to fear God. God does not get angry, nor is He wrathful nor does He punish. In Hinduism there is no such thing as Doomsday, which is a belief in some religions; whereby a time will come when God will destroy earth, resurrect the dead and judge every single person who has lived to either enter heaven or hell eternally. In Hinduism we believe that all souls will eventually enter heaven eternally. There is no such thing as a lost soul condemned to eternal damnation. God is an inseparable part of all souls therefore there is no chance of getting lost. Instead of punishing souls for all their accumulated sins at once at a later time, Hinduism teaches that God created the law of karma to govern the consequences of our actions. Thus we reap the fruits of our actions during the many lifetimes we live on earth. So truly there is no need to fear God. However, Hinduism does recognize fear as a base of faith in God, though only during the initial stages of the soul's spiritual evolution.

In the Scripture, Tirumantiram, Saint Tirumular describes the evolution of devotion to God in three progressive stages.These three stages are the dasa marga, the satputra marga and  the sakha marga. Marga means path. Dasa is a slave. Thus dasa marga is the path of the slave. Dasa marga begins when the soul starts to acknowledge the existence of God after being in the state of ignorance or denial of God’s existence for sometime (time in this case spans many lifetimes). At this stage of budding devotion the devotee fears God as an authoritarian. God is the law enforcer. Whichever way the devotee sees it, he sees the consequences of his bad actions as God’s punishment. This relationship is likened by Saint Tirumular as a slave to his master, thus the dasa marga. In this stage of spiritual evolution the devotee follows religious laws and performs religious practices as a rule of law. The fear that if he doesn’t follow these laws and practices, he might be afflicted by bad luck is a driving motivation. Eventually this motivation of fear begins to loosen as the souls gains a deeper understanding of God and the laws of life. Love starts to blossom in the relationship as he enters the next stage of relationship with God, the satputra marga.

Satputra is the good son. In the satputra marga, devotion to God is likened to the relationship between a child to her parent. God is seen as a caring parent and the devotee is inspired to do good and live a spiritual life according to her conscience, so as not to embarrass herself infront of God. The motivation of love in the satputra marga makes the devotee voluntarily want to go to the temple, to do charity and to perform spiritual disciplines. These acts are no more seen as chores. They are done with joy and willingness. The devotee gains much fulfillment from them. The satputra marga eventually blooms into the deepest stage of relationship with God, the sakha marga.

Sakha is a close friend. In the sakha marga, the soul sees God as a close and inseparable friend. In this stage of the relationship the soul yearns to know God intimately. One desires to want to see God and to know God through personal experience not because he or she wants prayers fulfilled or boons, but because he or she is in love with God. It is in this marga that the devotee takes to task oneself to conquer fears and weaknesses, practices austerities and deep meditation. He or she becomes a yogi and the goal of life is savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi. 

This final stage of maturity of the relationship between God and the soul leads to the state of jnana or spiritual wisdom. After that the soul becomes a teacher to other seekers of God. This is also the final stage of the soul's evolution on earth. Once the soul reaches this point it will achieve liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. After that the soul will continue its evolution in the heavens until the soul finally merges in undifferentiated union with God.

Ultimately all souls will come to know God as love, even if they start out afraid of God. According to Hinduism love for God is nurtured over time. It is a natural process of life. One cannot force faith in God upon another person. A devotee can only share his or her experience of God and encourage devotion to God in a sincere seeker. The development of the relationship between the soul and God is a personal one, and one that matures over lifetimes.¶