Question: What is the experience of God like?

Sri Chinmoy: God can be seen, felt and realised as a personal being, most luminous, infinitely more beautiful than a human being. And again, we can experience God as an infinite expanse of Light, Bliss, Power, or any divine quality. Each individual will realise God in both the personal and the impersonal aspect. But if we think of God in His personal aspect first it is easier, because right now we are in the finite. If we can imagine God as a person, then from the form we can go to the formless aspect. But for us to think of something formless, of God as an infinite expanse, would be sheer exercise in mental gymnastics at this point. Reality grows in us most effectively when we go the proper way, from the personal God to the impersonal God.

God has everything. But when you touch the God-tree, you may get the experience of Peace, while somebody else will get the experience of Bliss. So you will say that God is all Peace and he will say that God is all Bliss. But it is the same God, the same Goal. In the process of reaching the Goal we may see it in different ways, but once we really reach it, we can see that it is everything. Then, if we have to describe it, give a definition, we will describe the God-tree in whichever aspect we like best. We can experience everything, but in our expression, our revelation, we will reveal the aspect we like best.

In my conception, God is not somebody other than ourselves, not a separate person. The God that we are referring to is our highest and most illumined part. Right now when we think of ourselves, we think of our body and not of our soul. We identify ourselves all the time with our lowest part. Our being is like a house that belongs to us. We do not use the third floor at all, but spend most of our time in the basement or on the first floor. Since we spend most of our time there, we feel the basement is our real reality. But the third floor is also ours, if we can only find our way there.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 2, Sri Chinmoy Centre, New York, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ffb_2