Shri Nathji would often say that it was very difficult to understand God through reason and intellect alone. He could be seen only with the eyes provided by Him.
He would quote the words of Lord Krishna in the Geeta:
Na tu maam shakyase drashtumanenaiv svachakshushaa
Divyam dadaami te chakshu pashya me yogmaishvaram
O Arjun! Thou cannot see me with thine own eyes,
Hence, I give to thee an inner sight with which to see me.
Shri Nathji explained this with a simple example:
Let us suppose you have come before me and I ask you: “Who are you? What is your name? What do you do? From where have you come? What is your age?”
And if your reply is: “Sorry, I cannot tell you.
What, then, will I do? How will I be able to know you with my own intelligence?
And if at that very moment another person comes and asks me about you, saying: Who is he? Where has he come from? What does he do?– all that I will be able to say will be: “I do not know!
But if you have disclosed yourself upon me then I shall be able to introduce you to another person as well. This proves clearly that I can only know you from the knowledge you provide me about yourself. A student can only understand his teacher with the knowledge that the teacher has given him. We can see the sun only with the light of the sun.
How then can we understand God with our knowledge which is limited and confined to the matter around it? We can understand God only with the knowledge that He gives us about Himself.Let us suppose the sun has come out and is sending its rays down upon us. However if we have shut our eyes, or if they are diseased, we shall not be able to see the sun. Even then the sun in all its magnanimity tries hard to make us open our eyes. It sends heat along with its light, and the heat plays upon our closed eyes and tells us that the sun has come out. And when we open our eyes we see the light as well.
Even as we need eyes that are open and disease-free in order to see the sun, in a like manner we need a genuine desire within us to see God. The desire must not be torn by the disease of worldly desires.
When a child falls it cries for its mother and the mother comes and lifts the child and clasps it to her bosom. When a son wants anything he asks his father, and his father gives it to him. In a like manner, when we pray to God with a genuine feeling, our Real Father comes to us and reveals Himself to us with His own Light. Only he who has experienced this can know. Another cannot understand it. When the intelligence of man was asked: “What did you see, what did you feel? It can only remain silent.
There is a different sense of perception for different things Light can only be perceived by the eyes. Sound can only be perceived by the ears. God can only be perceived through the instrument of His Grace. If someone asks you: “What is God? Your answer will only be: “I have no words to describe Him.
You eat sugar. And someone asks you to relate the taste of sugar. You cannot explain it. You can only say to that person: “Go and eat it yourself if you wish to know what it tastes like. How helpless is the tongue in narrating the exact taste of anything it tastes. How much more helpless will the intelligence be in narrating the state of God Realisation!
It is my loving request to those who wish to understand God through their intelligence alone that they set aside their intellect for a while, and go and sit in a quiet place with tears in their eyes and anguish in their hearts and the Love of God within themselves, and pray to Him: “O Lord, I wish to see Thee. My small intelligence, or rather, my lack of intelligence, has filled me with distress and confusion. Philosophy and arguments are not enough to take me to Thee. I am desperate for Thee. Have mercy on me! I am like a child. Thou art my Father. Give me therefore that heart and that wisdom with which I can understand Thee! Reveal Thou Thyself to me!