VIII: 9

Chapter 8, Verse 9

"Dwell continuously
On the all-knowing God,
Origin of all
Lord of emperors,
Universal sustainer,
Self-luminous like the Sun."

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

The key to the almost unimaginable achievement of ceaseless prayer is devotion.  It is all very well to discuss the ultimate reality, the great void, but let's face it, it's hard to love a void.  I doubt very much if ordinary people like us will find very much about the void to remember when our lives are on the line.

We need God, sustainer of all, from whom we came into existence and to whom we shall return, in a form that we can love and understand.  We need a divine ideal like Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, the Divine Mother, and so on, a divine incarnation in which God manifests in form.  The great incarnations come to live amongst us, to talk and laugh and weep like us, so that we may learn to love them and become vessels of light.

Srila Prabhupada:

The Lord is the oldest personality, because he is the origin of all.  Everything is born out of him.  He is the maintainer and instructor of humanity.  Smaller than the smallest, he enters into the atom and the heart of the smallest particle. At the same time, he is all-pervading and maintains everything.

We sometimes wonder how the planets float in space staying true to their orbits eon after eon.  The Supreme Lord, by his inconceivable energy, sustains the planets and galaxies.  He simultaneously pervades the material world and is beyond it.

Thinking of Krishna is easy.

A friend:

Jesus said to him, "If you know me, you will know my Father also.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him." (Gospel of John, 14:7)

Avatars such as Jesus and Krishna are like bridges.

["Then the king will say, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' " (Gospel of Matthew: 25:34)]

Another friend:

The ruler or jewel of this body is Atma and the outer covering is a package or box.  The importance of this body box lies with the jewel within.  Otherwise, this body is a waste.

Friend #1:

"If you don't invite God to be your summer Guest, He won't come in the winter of your life."  Sri Lahiri Mahasaya ji (Autobiography of a Yogi by Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, ch. 24)