Seeing God Is Not Enough
Some naive people believe that if God were to incarnate now, they would be instantly captivated upon seeing Him and become free from the bondage of Maya without making any effort. They base this belief on scriptural accounts, such as King Janak becoming immediately enchanted upon beholding Lord Ram. They reason that if even great saints and sages were overwhelmed by God's beauty and divinity, then ordinary people should become enchanted even more easily.
However, this is not the case.
Those who experience infinite bliss upon beholding God during His descension possess a pure mind - they are qualified. Just as a piece of pure iron is instantly attracted to a magnet, a pure mind is naturally drawn towards God or the saints. The more impurities the iron contains, the less strongly it is attracted to the magnet. Similarly, the more impurities our heart contains, the less we are drawn towards God.
Our heart is impure. Therefore, it is incorrect to think, "If God were to descend today, I would immediately become attracted to Him." When Lord Ram descended, we too were present. Yet we fail to benefit because we perceive God according to the purity of our own hearts. Since our minds are impure, we cannot be drawn towards Him. On seeing Shri Ram, we merely thought, "He is a handsome young prince, but otherwise just an ordinary human being."
The saints, however, perceived Him differently. They said,
cidānaṁdamaya deha tumhārī.
"Your divine form is the embodiment of eternal knowledge and bliss."
Because they possessed divine vision, they experienced boundless bliss in His presence.
Understand this through a simple analogy. Suppose you draw water from a well. A small pot can draw only a potful of water, while a large vessel can draw much more. The well provides water equally to everyone; the amount received depends entirely on the size of the vessel. Similarly, God bestows His grace equally, but our experience of Him depends on the purity and capacity of our own hearts.
If our mind is impure, we will see Shri Krishna and dismiss Him as nothing more than a trickster because we project our own impurities onto Him. We judge God according to the condition of our own mind.
In fact, seeing God during His descension can lead to the spiritual downfall of someone with an impure heart. Instead of benefiting, a person harboring impure feelings toward God may commit nāmāparādh (a grave spiritual offense). During Lord Ram's descension, for example, the washerman harbored impure suspicions about Mother Sita. Thus, people perceive God and saints during their descension according to the state of their own hearts and receive the corresponding results. One person attains God, while another incurs spiritual offences and moves further away from Him.
When we struggle to fully understand even our own family members with our material intellect, how can we expect to comprehend the true nature of God and the saints?
Therefore, we should not remain under the illusion that if we had lived during God's descension, we would automatically have attained our ultimate goal. We have seen Ram and Krishna countless times during their descensions, yet we failed to benefit from their presence. If God were to descend today, we would likely think, "He is certainly more extraordinary than ordinary people, but nothing more." We would still fail to recognise His divinity.
Only by purifying our heart through sincere sadhana do we become qualified to receive the full benefit of God - whether during His descension or not.
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