God and the Universe

thing, or being his deity. A true believer of God passes by the external and arrives at the inner reality, who realizes that all that is visible is a gift from Someone, that some Supreme Being has created all that is on Earth. Seeing the creatures, he finds their Creator and makes Him his all. He offers all his best feelings for God. The same inner state that the Russian astronaut experienced on returning to Earth, a person should experience this with greater intensity when he discovers God. A true devotee of God is one who, on seeing the sun, finds in its light the light of God, who begins to witness God’s limitlessness in the vastness of the sky, who discerns God’s fragrance in the perfume of flowers, who sees God’s blessings in the flow of water. The difference between a true devotee of God and somebody else is that the latter’s vision is entangled in the created world while the former, passing by the created realm, reaches the Creator. A non-devotee, fascinated by the beauty of created beings, gets immersed in them alone. On the other hand, the devotee sees the Creator’s wonders in the beauty of created things and prostrates before the Creator—God. EXPERIENCING THE PRESENCE OF GOD Col. James Irwin (1930-1991) was one of three American astronauts who went into space on Apollo 15. In an interview, he spoke about the moment in August 1972 when he stepped on the moon’s surface. He said that it was an extraordinary