How we conceive God determines how we relate with him. If we conceive of him as a being who exists far away, high in the sky, we are likely to believe that we need to do some extraordinary rituals to reach him, to appease him and to get him to intervene on our behalf in this world. While Gita wisdom acknowledges and elaborates on this transcendent aspect of God, it stresses that God is much more; he is also present as his more accessible, immanent aspect within nature. Indeed, he is the being without whom there would be no being (10.39). He is both the acme of existence and the foundation of all existence. For him, there is no difference between the temporal and the eternal — it all exists because of his love. 

All living beings are his eternal parts (15.07). We all exist in him, through him and ultimately for him. Even if we reject him, he never rejects us. His embrace is so large as to encompass everyone, including those who accept him and those who reject him. Outside his embrace, we would cease to exist — he arranges all the things necessary for us to exist. 

When we understand how we are already in God’s embrace, the focus of our relationship with him changes: instead of trying to appease him for intervening in our life, we strive to see how he is already present in our life, working around us, through us and on us — all for our ultimate welfare. Appreciating God thus decreases our vulnerability to craving and lamenting about worldly things, and we focus on practicing bhakti-yoga to enter deeper into his embrace. 

One-sentence summary:

God’s embrace is so large as to include everyone, even those who reject him — approaching him devotionally to better realize and relish his embrace.  

Think it over:

  • How does our conception of God shape our relationship with him?
  • How are we already in God’s embrace?
  • What happens when we understand that we are already in God’s embrace?

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010.39: Furthermore, O Arjuna, I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being – moving or nonmoving – that can exist without Me.