image: Krishna - the Vaishnava (Hindu) concept of God

Picture our selves in our car going down the road and we come to a junction. There is a red light, so I stop - I accept its authority. Now if I decide that its my exclusive right to exert my freedom and drive thought every red light, convinced as I am that “heah mate, its my choice to drive through a red light if I want to or not”, then we will find ourselves been pursued by authority in another form with flashing blue and red lights on top of their car. Look around, its everywhere, at every moment. Our lives are fully governed by the omnipresent grip of some authority or other.

So with that little diversion over, let me then recommence to answer the question in hand. When this question comes up in our day-to-day conversations, or in the pages of our newspapers, how many times do we hear someone say that we should ask some authority to find out the answer?

We have all heard, and many may have experienced first hand, the cruel hand of abused authority, but while we must acknowledge that, it does not remove the basic fact of life that to know something for certain we have to ask an authority. And when it comes to God, does it not seem quite incredibly simple and straight forward to ask Himself directly - “Do you exist?” Because when we do that, guess what - He responds.

Now let's remind ourselves that we are talking of God here and hopefully agree that God is no lightweight and that no matter where we are, or whatever condition we are in, He can hear us. Limitations of time, place, country or planet just can’t possibly register to a being who by universal definition has to be beyond time, place etc. Now how and when He responds is His prerogative and how open we are to hear it is our contribution to the exchange. Even in our daily lives, we constantly acquiesce ourselves to someone who happens to be above us and work ourselves around their schedules etc. And if we don’t allow God even this right, then we seriously need to look at what we are thinking is the definition of God.

So it might be a friend who says something, or even a complete stranger who hands us a book that answers our questions, but He will answer. The next and real question is: "Are you ready for the answer?”.

Syamananda Das Brahmacari has been a Krishna monk since 1992. He currently serves as Centre President of Govinda's Kirtan Centre in Dublin City Centre. Syamananda is often invited to lead retreats on Inis Rath Island as part of the Lake Isle Retreats team.

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