God is the only home one can aspire for with spirituality

What do you call a home? Is it a place where one lives permanently? If so, no place will qualify to be called a home, because we don’t live permanently at any one place. Suppose someone has a nice three-bedroom home in a posh colony. Is this a place where one can really find shelter? If one could, why would so many of us remain lost in thoughts even after we have settled in our so-called home? Because, this home is a shelter in the lower sense, i.e., from the elements or which provides us all types of comforts.

What should be called a home then? God of course. Lord Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita verse #9.18. “He is the goal, maintainer, Lord, witness, home, shelter/refuge and friend.” If we have a home, we would like it to be maintained very nicely. What is a home if the essentials are missing? From my personal experience, I can emphatically state that God has been my maintainer wherever I have lived. Everything we see is owned by Him only. Yes, God is the real owner of everything. God maintains ‘sannyasis’, who have renounced pursuing material goals. They lack nothing as they busy themselves in spiritual activities. To qualify for such privilege, one must be linked with God or who will do so in future, which God knows already.

Lord Krishna says He is our ‘Swami’. The real Lord states about Himself, “Whatever there is opulent, effulgent or even energetic, all that you should know as produced from a fragment of My splendour.” (#10.41) God is my Swami in every sense; I turn to Him for everything I need like guidance, Him being omniscient; help, because He is omnipotent; and ‘shakti’ of all kinds like ‘atmabala’ (inner strength)’ intellectual power; mental strength; physical strength, power to tolerate, etc. We need all these to have a meaningful life.

God is also a witness to whatever we do or not do, i.e., our duties. Only then He decides whether we deserve His special attention or not. Is God not omnipresent? God has eyes, ears, etc., in this world pervading all. (#13.13) Then, we come to Lord’s statement that ‘He is our home’. Wherever we live will be God’s property only, which He allowed us to use temporarily. That is the material part. A real home is not that only, which gives us shelter in the material sense, but which gives us in the spiritual sense also. God is the only one who we can really call our refuge. Only when we have taken shelter of God, will we feel safe. Those who have done so will vouch for this fact. Others do not feel safe, no matter what they do to make them feel safe.

Now we come to the last word, which explains everything. God is our friend, a real friend, who is waiting for us to turn to Him. He won’t force us, because we enjoy free will; we must take His shelter willingly. Then, all the words of the verse quoted earlier begin to make sense. Our real goal has to be God only. God is our real home. We have been waiting for life after life. He is the only shelter worth taking refuge in. And, lastly, God is the only friend who can help in all kinds of situations.

Therefore, become a friend of God with spirituality as instructed by Him in spiritual texts. Then, your so-called home will become your real home, not just a shelter from elements.

(The author is a spiritual teacher)