Your Mind Cannot See God

Mind is the wrong tool

Your mind cannot see God, your mind can never see God.

You're probably startled to hear that statement, isn't it? Since childhood we have been going to places of worship, we have been going to our temples and mosques and churches because we expect to connect with God. But your mind is really not the tool to see God.

The Right Sense

Let me explain with some examples so you can appreciate the point. Imagine I am about to eat a pizza and it is a very delicious pizza, the world's famous pizza. I take a picture of the pizza and send it to you via my phone. You receive the picture and you can see that it looks like a delicious pizza.

And I eat the pizza and I exclaim, "Oh wow, this is the tastiest pizza on Earth." Now, even if I were recording a video of me eating the pizza and you were watching it, could you taste that pizza? Could you really experience that pizza? You cannot. Regardless of how well I describe the pizza until your tongue touches the pizza, you cannot have that experience. Looking at the picture, looking at my video, hearing my description is not going to give you the experience of the pizza. It is not possible. You need the sense of taste to experience the pizza.

I'll give you a couple of more examples.

If I am listening to music and I describe it, you will never understand it. You need the sense of hearing to appreciate the music. You could see me dancing, you could see me swaying, but it won't give you the sense until you hear it for yourself.

I could be in the Himalayas and describe the Himalayas, but unless you come there, you cannot really appreciate the magnificence of the Himalayas. It is not possible. You have to be there.

So, we need the right sense. Without the right sense, you cannot experience, just the description is not good enough.

Mind is For Finite Engagement

The mind is incapable of experiencing God. And you say, well, what is wrong with the mind? That's like asking why the eyes cannot taste pizza. There is nothing wrong with the eyes. It's just not the right medium, the right tool. Similarly, the mind is not the tool for you to experience God. It is not going to happen. You can go to any corner of the Earth. You can go anywhere in the Universe. You cannot experience God with your mind. Why? Because the mind is a tool to deal with finite things. It is a tool to live in the material world and deal with the finite stuff.

God and the Universe are Infinite.

God is beyond the comprehension of the mind. The mind can never comprehend infinity. It is impossible. The mind can never get its arms around what is infinite. God and the universe are infinite. The mind cannot wrap its arms around that.

Everything that we have heard about God, that we have understood about God either through our parents or reading scriptures or through religious leaders, every iota of knowledge that we have about God is coming through our mind. Our mind tries its best to understand the concept of God, the notion of God. I see a lot of people on my posts arguing back and forth. They are arguing the concept of God based on what their mind is seeing.

It's like two people arguing about the taste of the pizza when neither of them has actually eaten the pizza. Can you imagine two people arguing over the taste of pizza and neither of them has ever eaten it?

Now, think about that, whatever notion that we have about God in our mind, whatever we have learned or that somebody has told us is limited because it is only through our mind and our mind is not the right tool. You are probably asking and thinking, what is the right tool?

Going Beyond the Mind

The only way to experience this infinite God, this infinite universe, is to go beyond the mind.

If the mind is meant for finite stuff, then you have to go beyond the mind, you have to transcend the mind.

How do you go beyond the mind? No, you don't go physically. The way you go beyond the mind is when you quiet your mind completely.

When we sit in meditation and the mind becomes completely quiet, when it is thoughtless, when everything has become quiet, my own identity has become quiet, my ego has become quiet, who am I, what relationships I have, what assets I have, all of that has become quiet. I don't even remember I am Ravi. When I become completely quiet, then I begin to go beyond the mind.

There is cosmic energy in all of us. We call it by many names, we call it by atma in Sanskrit or soul or spirit or rooh or whatever you want to call it.

There is an energy in us that is flowing. When the mind becomes completely quiet, this cosmic energy makes itself evident. We begin to experience that. This cosmic energy is the handshake to the God-Universe. When we begin to experience this cosmic energy, that is when we begin to experience infinity.

Because once the mind, the finite mind is gone and it is completely silent, we are no longer limited by space and time, we begin to experience infinite space and time. That's when we experience the infinite God.

If you have heard the sages and saints who lived in India ten thousand years ago, who I call the spiritual scientists, describe the experience of this cosmic energy, that is what they call God-realization, it's the God experience, it’s self-realization. If you have listened to the prophets and messiahs and the avatars of Gods, all of them point to the same thing. We as human beings have it in our DNA to be able to experience the cosmic energy within us.

Leave the notion of God behind

Now, let me reinforce that point about the mind not being the tool.

When we sit in meditation, I have to become completely quiet. I have to make the mind completely quiet. To make the mind completely quiet, I have to leave at the outside, every notion, everything that I know, I have to leave outside my ego. I have to leave outside my own very identity. “Who I am, I am Ravi,” I have to leave outside because as long as I'm thinking, “I am Ravi,” as long as in meditation, I'm thinking, “Okay, I'm chanting about God, I'm thinking about God, I'm thinking about my God,” as long as I am thinking, “I am meditating,” guess what, as long as the "I" is there, the mind is present.

If the mind has to become completely quiet, the "I" has to become quiet too. If the "I" becomes quiet, every notion, any notion that I have about anything, including God, has also to become quiet.

This is a very important spiritual point. This is an incredibly important spiritual point. If you are a spiritual seeker, this point is very important for you. You have to leave on the outside, and especially if you're a religious person, you have to leave on the outside, the very notion and any knowledge that you have of God, because, remember, the mind is finite. So whatever understanding that we have of God today, is like the understanding of the taste of the pizza by just looking at it.

When we begin to enter deep states of meditation, we have to leave on the outside the very notion of what we think we know of God.

When we travel deep inside, when we go inside and experience infinity, that's when we really experience the true nature of the God-Infinite.

What our mind has learned until today about God is just a caricature, it's a cartoon, it's a limited view. It doesn't compare anywhere close to the magnificence of God.

Soul is the handshake to God.

It's only when we leave our mind and we travel within and connect with our soul, then we experience God. Our soul is the handshake to God.

When we connect with our soul and experience the infinite, then we understand, or I should say, we experience the nature of God.

This is an incredibly powerful spiritual point. Your mind is not the tool to experience God. You can never experience God through your mind. You can experience God only when your mind is completely quiet.

At your core, you are peace, be who you are, be peace.

Be peace.

— By Ravi Kathuria, Author, “Happy Soul. Hungry Mind.”