It may seem respectful to think of God being outside us- ‘If we feel abandoned by God today it is because we have abandoned him. Can we say that we are always with him? I know, of course, that it is not easy for human beings to conceive of the Lord as being inseparable from themselves, but as long as they continue to think of him as an extraneous being, a being who is absolutely remote and inaccessible, they will continue to be subject to extremely painful states of mind.

It is time to take a step forward and think of God being close to us
You will perhaps feel like saying, ‘But it seems respectful and fitting to think of God as being outside ourselves. This is what we have always been taught.’ Yes, but the time has come to take a step forward. We must begin to think of God as being close to us, within us.

At the same time, we must think of ourselves as being minute, infinitesimal particles of God. God is the Whole and each one of us is a minute particle of the Whole. If you pray to the Lord thinking that he is far, far away beyond the stars, how can you expect your prayers to reach him? Oh, of course, I once told you that prayer reaches every corner of the universe. That is true, it does, but it takes such a long time to travel through infinite space.

If God is inside us, we can just say, ‘Hello’ and get through to Him immediately
If the Lord is right beside you, close to you, within you, the communication is direct and immediate; he can hear you, listen to your prayer and answer you immediately. Distance is important. Just imagine how long it will take to reach the Lord (especially if he is asleep and you have to wake him up)! But if he is right there inside you, you can simply say, ‘Hello, hello!’ and you get through to him immediately. Does this strike you as disrespectful? No, I am speaking figuratively. Try to understand what I am saying.

From now on, when you are meditating, try to cultivate a sense of the Lord’s presence within you and you will see how effective this can be. The impression of being abandoned will come to you less and less frequently. At the moment you fluctuate between a few good days during which you are full of joy, inspiration and ecstasy, followed by days of terrible drought; days in which you feel as though you were dying of thirst in the desert, and it is then that you say, ‘God has abandoned me.’

To be continued…

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Complete Works Vol. 26, A New Dawn: Society and Politics in the Light of Initiatic Science
Chapter 2. The True Religion of Christ