Growing in relationship with God-part 1...

The greater be our relationship with God, the greater is the grace we get from God. One of the ways to have a greater relationship is by speaking to God very often. Another way to go close to him is to relate and understand that each coincidence in our life is because of God.


Through out our day, we relate to so many people. For example, we say 'my son came first in the class today. My father presented me with a new vehicle. My wife cooked my favorite dish. My boss praised my work. My servant did a bad work today. My colleagues did not co-operate with me' and so on.

So also we relate to so many things. I have my new car now. My house has been painted. My shirt is bad. My refrigerator is working very well. I have to repair my vehicle. My new coat got stained and so on.

When we relate to someone, we always say, 'he is my friend or she is my wife or he is my father or she is my servant or he is my boss' and so on. When we relate to things we say, 'my house, my dress, my vehicle, my slippers/shoes' and so on. If you observe our above statements, there is one common factor lying in them. What is it? Everywhere we say, 'My this and My that'. This is exactly what we call as 'relating to things and people'. Now, when we talk about God, what happens? We say Jesus said that, Krishna is like that, Shiva did that and so on. We talk as though God is somewhere outside our world - not in touch with us. We talk of a common God not related to us individually and personally. While going to a temple, we do not say, 'I am visiting my Krishna, my friend today' or while going to church we do not say, 'I am going to see Jesus, my God'. Why we do not say so? Is it because God is common to all?

Now let us take this example. The mother of a child says to her neighbor "you know, my son came first in class today".. The father of the same child says to his colleague, "today my son got his report and he stands first". The grandparents of the same child say "my grandson stood first in class". All the three are relating to the same single child with great love. Does that child become many really? No.

Similarly there is only One God, the creator, to whom each of us can relate and relish and love and enjoy. The problem is that we have kept God as common and therefore we have not related to Him individually and personally the way we do in other relationships. Relationship with God actually begins when we start relating to Him as 'MINE'. This is what we mean as relating to God.

We relate ourselves to all people, from boss to servant, and to all things from house to slippers, but have totally forgotten to relate to God who is taking care of us every minute of the day. Yet, we sometimes blame and complain that God has not helped us in this and that event or God has not listened to our prayer. Is this justified? Think.