The theologians address God as He but in prayer you use the 2nd person, and in theory you use 3rd person. In prayer 3rd person does not help. You have to come to 2nd person and in experience of truth you come to 1st person. Experience of God brings you to the 1st person…”I AM.”
He is one with no experience.
You is when praying you begin to be a disciple.
I AM is one who has perfected………??
In the west people are scared to use the 1st person. They are comfortable using only the 3rd person and occasionally the 2nd.
In many cultures (Islam) using even the 1st person is considered a blasphemy. Whereas in the east all the three persons are used and the goal of the 3rd and 2nd person is to reach the 1st.
1st person cannot become a concept but an experiential reality.
3rd person can be a concept. 2nd – a mystical and devotional experience and 1st person dawns as reality.
Prayer cannot happen without 2nd person and Samadhi is impossible without 1st person.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q: Guruji I want to get God
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Do u have nothing else to get? (laughter) Good to have this thought - how much u want - how intensely u want God which matters.
Q: Why God?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why not God? Why would you ask this question if there was no God. What will you say if a wave questions the existence of God? A wave exists because of the presence of ocean. Because of whose presence you are standing, you think, you listen, you understand, you breathe – that only is God. Who is God? God is not sitting somewhere up in the sky. God is the power due of which everything happens. More...
The things that happen to us do not matter; what we become through them does.
Each day, accept everything as coming to you from God. At night, give everything back into His hands.
~ Sri Gyanmata, God Alone: The Life and Letters of a Saint
I assure you, God is not a jailer. It is you own conviction that creates a jailer for you, and it is your sheer ignorance that you call that jailer God.
At the eve of my life, I say loud and clear.
“A God whose functions are limited to punishing ‘bad people’ and to rewarding ‘good people’ is your creation.
No one other than you can free yourself from the self-created God, hell, heaven, punishments, and rewards. Wake up! Live a responsible and purposeful life.
Throw away the crutches that perpetuate your dependency on others and create a world of your choice – a world that is happy and peaceful”
God bless you.
~ Swami Rama