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 experience for him. He felt God’s presence there. He felt as if God was very near. He said that he could see God’s greatness with his own eyes and remarked that the journey to the moon was not just a scientific journey; through it, he had received spiritual life. He said his experiences in space had made God more real to him than before.
Col. Irwin’s experience was not unique. The fact is that everything that God has created is so exceptional that, on seeing it, one can be overwhelmed by the wonders of God. In the perfectness of the creation, the Creator’s face is being reflected at every moment, but we have got so habituated to the world around us, having seen it from childhood itself, that we do not realize its wondrousness. Air, water, trees, birds, and innumerable other things are all miraculous. Everything is a mirror of the Creator’s attributes. We cannot realize how amazing they are because we have become so used to them. But when a person suddenly landed on the moon and saw, for the very first time, the scene that was spread out before him, he could not help but feel the presence of the Creator. In the wonders of the creation that he witnessed before him; he found the presence of the Creator.
On Earth, too, where we live, the experience of ‘the presence of God’ can happen in the same way as Colonel Irwin experienced on arriving on the moon. But people do not see the world around them with that same sense of wonder and awe with which a new traveler to the moon sees the moon. If we begin to see our world with this same sort of vision, we will experience God’s presence at every moment. We will start to live in such a way as if we are living in the neighbourhood of God, feeling that God is at every moment present before our very eyes.
If we see a high-quality machine for the first time, at once, we notice therein the presence, as it were, of the engineer who designed it. In the same way, if we deeply ponder on things in this world, at that very moment, we can find God’s presence there. Every creation in the universe bears witness to the existence of the Creator—God.
In the present world, man’s most significant discovery is to begin to see God, to feel God’s presence near him. If a person’s awareness is alive, he will see God’s light shining in the sun’s golden rays. He will find God reflected in the beautiful sight of lush green trees. In the gentle breeze, he will experience a Divine touch. While placing his palms and forehead on the ground in prostration, he will feel as if he has set his entire being at the feet of His Lord. God is omnipresent, with His power and His mercy everywhere. The only condition is developing a vision that can ‘see’ Him.
