How many arms does God have?

It was during the time when I first started living at the Ashram, and Swami Vishwananda was speaking to several people around me. I was sitting a slight distance away from them and was not really paying attention to their conversation. Lost in my own thoughts I suddenly heard Swami’s voice call out, “Maja (which was my given name), can you see how many arms God has?” He was pointing to the Tibetan picture that was hanging on the wall. Before I even had time to comprehend His question, Swami Vishwananda had already resumed His conversation with the others. The question He had poised hounded me for hours and made me very restless. Hence the next day, when there was no one in the room, I tried to count the arms of Buddha. However I found that there were so many arms, heads and eyes, that it made the task impossible. The following day I woke up and again the same question popped into my head. Just at that moment, a sparrow appeared on the bush just outside my window. I could very easily and clearly see its eyes and how they stared intently at me. At that instant, a ray of realization connected to my inner being and from that tiny bird, I felt that God was watching over me and that He had always kept His Loving gaze on me. I realized from that moment that every arm is His arm and every eye is His eye. From then on, I searched more attentively for Swami’s hints and meanings that hid behind His loving words. 

His way of teaching

I often see that Swami Vishwananda converses and helps those people who are perhaps going through difficult times in their lives. He is usually the one who approaches them, and starts giving them loving advice and solutions’, all the while, knowing every single thought that crosses their minds. It took me some time to grow accustomed to the fact that my thoughts, feelings and negativity were like an open book before the eyes of my Master. His was of teaching is so subtle and gentle. Swami Vishwananda never tries to interfere with our free will, yet again and again, He gives us guidelines and advice through certain circumstances, experiences or even “accidentally” spoken words. If you really want to hear and know what you need in order to change, He will tell you in many different ways. I often feel that I am blind, and that Swami is constantly giving me so much Love and Knowledge, yet I am unable to neither recognize nor assimilate this, due to the blindness of my own ego. Nevertheless, the Guru continues to throw these diamonds around Himself, regardless of the criticism that may come His way, in the hope that one of these diamonds will fall on the fertile soil of human consciousness.  (from M. Germany)

related links:

http://www.108stories.com

http://swamivishwananda-info.blogspot.com