The following article is a response I wrote to a Vedanta student who was struggling with feeling a greater sense of spiritual connection or connectedness with God/Reality/Self. This explores the issue of connection from a Vedantic perspective.
First of all, as I know you know, the issue of “being connected” to God, or to your own Self, is, of course, a misnomer right from the start. It’s impossible to NOT be connected to our own Self. Even if you take yourself to be a jiva, an individual body/mind/ego, the logic nevertheless stands that an effect cannot exist independently of or in insolation to its cause.
We can never not be the Self because it is, according to the scriptures, without limit and boundary; it is, to borrow the title of a recent movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Whew! We’re off the hook! The freedom is actually ALREADY ATTAINED; we just never realised it.
Therefore, if a feeling of being “disconnected” arises, it must be based upon ignorance of the true nature of ourselves and Reality. Vedanta, or the yoga of Self-Knowledge, is the tool that removes this ignorance.
As most discover, however, it’s not enough just to have a rudimentary intellectual understanding of what the teaching is pointing to. It really has to be truly and fully integrated at every level of our being.
In practical terms, “connection” means where we’re placing our mind; what we’re connecting our thoughts and attention to.
God is a tremendous respecter of free will, so we have the choice to keep our attention upon worldly things, as virtually all human beings do, and when we do this we’ll be subject to the joys and sorrows of samsara. All along, we’re connected to God, of course, but we won’t experience that sense of unity and oneness if the mind is not sufficiently upraised.
The challenge for spiritual seekers is to continually raise our minds above the immersive pull of samsara and worldly karma. We have the choice to consciously connect to God in any moment by connecting our mind TO God. Again, God won’t do that for us; We have to be the one that reaches out with our mind. Each time we do that, it represents a transcendence and transmutation of our worldly karma and an opening to divine grace. That’s basically the crux of Vedanta, too; continuously redirecting our mind from ignorance and appearance to the ultimate Truth of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence, Consciousness and the Bliss of being free of limitation).
The more we consciously do this; the more we connect our mind to God in thought, word and deed, the more we cultivate and strengthen our spiritual vasanas. This is one of the few things we “take with us” after the cessation of the physical form, because what we’re doing is literally shaping our subtle body; enabling it to be open to the light, to Truth, to divine Love and Knowledge.
Again, this is not a bridge that builds itself. It requires continuous practice and commitment.
Over time, you reach a tipping point where the new neuropathways are cemented and there’s no longer any effort required. You simply, effortlessly, see with the eyes of God and behold divinity wherever you look. All that’s necessary is to keep reorienting the mind in that manner and, to do that, one must live as a yogi. The very word “yoga” literally means “to yoke”; to bind or bring together; in this case, the jiva’s small sense of self with the expansive and eternal Selfhood that is Brahman, or the Absolute Reality.
The Vedantin should, in most cases, be a yogi to begin with, unless they happen to have the dharma and temperament of a sanyasi (and, truth be told, that is exceptionally uncommon). The primary yoga prescribed is, of course, karma yoga. Karma yoga is magical in that it immediately converts all action, however tedious or mundane, into spiritual practise.
The karma yogi sees him or herself as a devotee; as a servant of the Lord. They seek to serve the Lord with every single action, from brushing their teeth first thing in the morning to going to bed last thing at night. The body is, after all, the temple of God. Everything becomes an opportunity to serve; to give something back to the field of creation.
This karma yoga seeks to primarily neutralise the psyche’s binding likes and dislikes or attachments and aversions. While it’s natural for all beings to have preferences, when these are too deeply rooted and entrenched, it creates agitation for the mind. Such an agitated mind will not be fit for the study and contemplation of scriptural Self-Knowledge. It’ll be too busy trying to get what it wants and avoid what it doesn’t want.
That’s the way virtually every human life is spent—and, that’s fine, but it simply doesn’t work for a seeker of liberation. The mind has to be neutralised by seeing all karma as an opportunity to serve.
Obviously, we still have a specific intention and desire in doing any action, otherwise we wouldn’t be motivated to do it. The key is that we are no longer doing it merely to get a specific result. Our intention, as a karma yogi, in doing ALL things is to get and retain a peaceful mind. That’s why we have to accept whatever results come as being legitimate and right, even if they weren’t what we intended. It’s not easy for most people to do this, but it really is essential for the spiritual enquirer. We’re no longer playing the game of life to “WIN” at it (which is to say, to get what we want). Rather, we’re playing the game in order to be free of the game.
The karma yogi does this by following dharma in all situations and offering up their actions as service to God and then accepting the results whatever they may be. In many ways, this is simply a common sense, pragmatic way of living life in a stress-free way. When you’ve cultivated a sufficiently calm and balanced mind through this yoga, and add Vedanta to the mix, that’s when the true alchemy happens and the sense of being a limited self dissolves in the knowledge that YOU ARE THAT Eternal Light in which the entire universe arises and subsides.
In many ways, karma yoga is not separate from bhakti, or devotional, yoga. The key is living as a devotee and seeing God as the only Reality and taking refuge from the world of appearances in that fundamental and unchanging Truth. Keep the mind there, no matter what’s going on outwardly, and just watch as things miraculously take care of themselves. The right actions spontaneously unfold, connections are made, and life just sees to its own business of—life!
Connect your mind constantly to God and you will never feel apart from God. Vedanta is, in fact, the science of meditating upon God and the nature of our non-separation from God. Whereas most of that focus is on the Nirguna, or formless, Absolute nature of God, it also heartily recommends meditation upon Saguna Brahman, or God with form.
The form you choose should be one that feels natural and comfortable to you. Once you have a chosen form of God, or one presents itself to you, as it did with me (Shiva literally showed up in a dream of mine many years ago), it’s up to you to nurture that relationship as you would any other close relationship.
Create a little shrine in your favourite room. Every day, offer candles and incense and fruit, chant the name or names of God as a mantra, envision them surrounding and enfolding you with light, lifting all your worldly problems away and merging into you as the very innermost essence of your true, Eternal Being.
Pray without ceasing. Vent your frustrations if necessary. Listen to devotional music.
Keep your mind fixed upon the Eternal and you will naturally open your mind to the experience of that holy, divine Light and Love which is, in final analysis, the very core of what you are.
It can never be separate or disconnected from you. The only thing that will ever make it seem that way is thought in the mind and its corresponding emotional accompaniment.
Practise the presence of God, as Joel S Goldsmith put it. Be very vigilant with your mind and time; carefully guard the gates of the senses and redirect your attention as much as you can to the Divine. Recognise the Divinity existent in all beings and all forms; even the challenging ones! Awareness of this deeper aspect of Being is the key to transmuting so many of the stresses and conundrums of earthly life.
In short, live as a yogi; keep your mind and thoughts upon God as much as you possibly can and you will, without question, experience the joy of connectedness and bliss. This is all that’s ultimately here; all that’s ultimately Real!
Om Tat Sat.
