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Questions, questions questions.
- What is GOD?
- What does God do to help?
- Why hasn't He helped us prior to now?
- I'm not keen on this God thing. Is there any other way?
How could this be possible.
It's not so much a question of "What is God?" as much as "Who is God?"
God has many names, Allah, Jehova, Yahweh, Parameshwara, Krishna, Madhusudana, Govinda, to name some. Here we see that the God of the many religions is the same one God known by different names. There are many religions because there are many different types of people and we all have different situations, and so God, whom I shall call Krsna, since He likes this name, permits people to approach Him according to their current abilities and affinities. If there were only one religion, most people probably wouldn't join.
He's not mean,
but He's not going to let you cheat Him.
We have been helped continually by Krishna, but mostly we ignore Him (with disasterous results), so since He gives us all freedom, He cannot force us to believe that He is our friend, so we won't find out till we go looking for Him. For every step you take towards Him, He takes 100 towards you. But if we want to be mean and nasty, then He'll leave you to learn from your mistakes until you realise that you don't like people being mean and selfish to each other, that a very loving, cooperative existence would be imensely prefferable. Then, since you are wishing to eliminate demoniac activities from your life, Krishna will help you to become the radiant and beautiful person that you are by nature.
We are made for better things.
If I may be permitted to quote Swami B R Sridar,
"With a broad vision, we must know ourselves as created of smaller stuff, and thus only with assistance from above can we improve our situation and achieve a position in the higher plane. A submissive, serving attitude is necessary in us. If we submit, the universal dictatorial aspect of the Absolute will take us upward to a higher prospect. He is the autocrat, the absolute knowledge, the absolute good - everything about Him is absolute. Being in a vulnerable position as we experience in this world, why, then, should we not submit to Him?"
From: "Positive and Progressive Immortality" by Swami B R Sridar. (Foreward p xxi)
He wants to help us.
The only thing stopping you from being happy is you. So much suffering is here in this world of ignorance. If we stop ignoring the fact that we are a particle of consciousness (a soul) in this particular body for a limited time, and totally unsure of our next sunrise, what to speak of our next species, and accept that we can use our free will to petition the Lord God, Krsna, to assist us to overcome our miserly attitude toward others, we can find deep, satisfying, lasting happiness even in this body in this world. We can, in fact, walk in the valley of death and fear no evil when we give ourselves as the property of God. He, Himself says in the Bhagavad-Gita (literally, Song of God)
I will protect you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
Bhagavad-Gita 18.66
Krishna is absolute power personified but as Sridar Swami goes on to point out " ...And there is no anarchy in the absolute power. Nonetheless, mercy is found to be above justice. Above judiciousness, the supreme position is held by love, sympathy, and beauty; 'I am the absolute power, but I am friendly to you all. Knowing this, you need never fear.' (op cit)"
The above statement by Krishna is to be found in Bhagavad-Gita 5.29, although not word for word in this translation, the similarity of the meaning is abundantly clear.
Thus, God reveals Himself to us as our dear friend. He is, in fact, our dearmost friend because of His amazing beauty, both inner and outer, although in the absolute realm, both inner and outer beauty are each the product of the other. Krishna is the supreme intelligence. Allow Him to be your guide and you have nothing at all to fear, ever, even death. Surrender unto the guidance of your very dear friend, or continue to fumble your way about in the darkness of ignorance. The choice is yours