HE IS YOUR GUIDE, FRIEND AND PHILOSOPHER

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

39. 
Worshipful homage to the supreme, eternal, cosmic Divine Spirit, who is our goal ultimate,
who is the inner, silent, invisible director of all things—including our own life. May we recognise
that this silent inner director is not only our eternal companion in life, but He is also an ever-present
silent witness, who knows all things, who fathoms the innermost hidden recesses of our being— our
mind, our intellect and the thoughts, memories, sentiments, emotions, fears, anxieties,
uncertainties, inner motivations and the pride and prejudices that lurk within.
He is a silent witness to our entire psyche. Nothing is left out. Nothing is hidden from Him.
Therefore, we should acquit ourselves in a worthy manner before His all-seeing gaze and His
all-knowing cosmic divine intelligence. However, this does not mean that He is an entity to be
feared and that we should always live in constant distress: “Oh, I have done this, I have thought that,
and He already knows it.” Because, at the same time, He is also your guide, friend and philosopher,
ever ready to give you advice, ever ready to help you find the right direction, ever ready to pull you
up when you are going in the wrong direction, and persuade, induce and inspire you to go in the
direction that leads to your own highest good and welfare.
Sometimes, not realising this, we can develop a guilty conscience and find it difficult to go
towards a temple and stand before the Deity. Somewhere else we may boldly utter some prayers
before mankind, because we know that man does not know what is going on inside. But when we
stand before a temple—unless our conscience is entirely blunted—we become aware of all our
deficiencies, short- comings, drawbacks and all that is within us that may not be very embellishing.
And we know that the altar before which we stand holds a Being before whom nothing is hidden.
We are in a strange—extraordinary—position. We know what we are, and we know that He
knows what we are, and, therefore, the situation becomes awkward. Sometimes we may gradually
stop going to the church or synagogue or mosque or temple because whenever we go there we feel
uncomfortable, just as a person who is breaking the law of the land feels uncomfortable near a
police station.
So, gradually we can start drifting away from all religion because we find that in the light of
our knowledge of our own interior and knowing that God knows everything, we feel a strange
reluctance, an awkwardness in presenting ourselves before God. This is not a happy situation, for
everything we have to obtain, we have to obtain from only one source and that is God.
And, therefore, here it is that the third dimension of God’s extraordinary relationship with
and disposition towards us becomes important. For, as we said, God is not only our lifelong
companion and indwelling, all-knowing witness, He is also our guide, friend and philosopher. More
than that, personal religion goes much further and says that He is our father, mother, friend, relative
and our greatest well-wisher. He is the helper of the helpless, the rescuer of those who are in danger,
the uplifter of the fallen and a friend in need. When one has no one to help, He is the one there.
So, He is everything that an individual in this mortal world may need at any time, in any
circumstance, in any situation. You only have to call; immediately He responds. For He is
immediate and proximate. He can respond instantaneously. All other things may delay a little, but

God does not delay. It is this third dimension which is so overwhelming that it overshadows all and
can induce us to present ourselves before Him in spite of all our drawbacks.
Jagat Guru Adi Sankaracharya put this truth in a very touching way in one of his
compositions when he appeals to the Divine Mother for Her grace by concluding the ending line of
each verse saying: “In this world, unworthy and bad sons there may be, but never a bad mother.”
That is the hope aspect of man’s relationship with God. That is the positive, assuring and uplifting
aspect of man’s relationship to God. He is your constant companion. He is also your all-knowing,
inner, indwelling witness. But, nevertheless, He is also your guide, friend and philosopher.
Therefore, no matter what you may be, with sincerity and earnestness, with a childlike
simplicity of heart, turn towards Him and lay all your inner situation before Him, without
withholding anything, concealing anything. Be frank as a child. And by His grace and the
benedictions of the holy ones He keeps sending, you will overcome all things, attain supreme
blessedness, make this life fruitful, and fulfil the mission for which you have been sent here on
earth.
We have to raise our spirits to a height where we are bathed in light. There should be no
room for dejection or depression, much less despair. There is no misfortune. All things that occur to
us are opportunities brought upon the path by God, the source of all auspiciousness and
blessedness.
Thus let us have the right perspective and see the hand of God in all things that come to us in
life and regard them not as misfortune but opportunities. This is the choice and this is the truth, and
if we choose the truth we shall ever be beyond all dejection and depression. We shall know that the
face of God shines upon us.