ENCOUNTERING GODme daily – the prospect that I was being wrenched
free from what my teachers called maya, the
illusion of this present world. I felt encouraged
that transcendent love would prevail for me – that
I, in an Adam-like sense, would one day awake
out of spiritual sleep to find myself gazing into
the face of my Maker. What could be better?
So I followed hard after God, until every
waking moment was pulsating with the heartbeat
of a sacred quest. I had finally found my purpose.
As H. G. Wells wrote:
“Religion is the first thing and the last thing,
and until a man has found God, or been found
by God, he begins at no beginning and works
to no end.”6/*
No longer was I spinning my wheels in the
ditch of senseless pursuits. No longer was my
time devoted to things that would end when my
time ran out in this world.
Seized with the Need of Others
Within a couple of months, something major
shifted in my thinking, summed up by Ramakrishna,
whose teachings I studied at the time: