God Is Everywhere
God is present in all places; however, our conception of Him must not be of Him filling space, as water fills a jug, for He has no physical or material dimensions.
It is as spirit that He is everywhere, in heaven, earth and hell. Although it surpasses the understanding of creatures such as we are, who are limited and bound to material bodies, God Himself is present everywhere in His majesty and power.
Omniscience and omnipotence are two attributes always spelled side by side with our conception of "God."
"God is everywhere, he knows everything and is capable of everything" is what billions of people around the world believe as a matter of regular faith.
Yet there is the risk that one can take that belief perhaps a bit too mechanically and assume that since "God is in control of everything" nothing bad will happen to us no matter how we behave. Sometimes people suffer because they sacrifice their common sense to their "mechanical faiths" in situations that demand the former the most.
Once upon a time, there was a sincere Holy Man in India who was going around whole day repeating "God is everywhere... God is everywhere..." as a constant mantra.
He would go to sleep chanting "God is everywhere..." and wake up doing the same. He was happy and carefree, fully confident that his Lord would take care of him no matter what.
One day as he was walking down the road, he heard people scream that a mad elephant was coming the other way, trampling everything in sight.
"Run away!!! Run for your life!!!" they screamed at the Holy Man.
"Why should I?" the Holy Man answered. "Isn't God everywhere? Since He is both in me and the elephant, He will not allow the elephant to trample me because then he would be trampling Himself!"
The bystanders tried to dissuade him by screaming at the top of their lungs. They begged him to take cover right away but the Holy Man continued walking as though nothing was happening. And...
He got hit with the elephant, flew a hundred feet in the air and then came down like a sack of potatoes.
When he came to himself at the hospital, he was in a cast from head to tone and in great pain.
The hospital doctor took pity at the Holy Man and asked him: "Why didn't you take cover, dear Sadhu? Why didn't you listen to the bystanders?"
"Because I thought God was everywhere..." the Holy Man said, with a trace of disappointment in his voice.
"Well," the doctor replied, "since you correctly believe that God is everywhere, then why did you forget that the same God was also in bystanders? The same God was also in their voices and words that tried to warn you against the danger? Why didn't you then listen to the omnipresent God?"
All of a sudden the Holy Man, despite all his pain, felt a new peace and understanding descend over him. He felt in that very hospital bed he just took the first step towards real spirituality.
It's great to walk with our heads lost in divine clouds, intoxicated with God's love in our hearts. But once in a while we have to watch where we are stepping as well just so to protect another precious creation of the same Lord - ourselves.
