Realize what you are

There is a common tendency to gauge the God-element in terms of miracles that happen around us. But divinity is beyond miracles. Miracles also require a conducive environment for their manifestation without which they cannot occur. So it is divinity which is the basis of all existence. We are all divine undoubtedly: the task remains as far as its realisation is conce
ed. life is given as a platform to realise this truth through various experiences. With full realisation there is no urge left to return to life again. And that state is called moksha.
What I am, what the universe is and what God is and what is the relationship among these three entities encompass the basic seeking of divinity, as Vivekananda clarifies. Once you get answers to these questions, divinity is realised. But these answers cannot be given in verbal terms; they have to be felt. That is why Hermann Hesse in Siddhartha says, truth is always half-said and half-understood when it is expressed in words. We are in it but it remains unknown to us as long as we do not seek it. And that seeking has to come from within.
Ramakrishna gives a stepwise method to pursue this seeking as revealed in his conversation with Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra. He asked Bankim to tell him what should be sought first: gather knowledge about worldly affairs and then God or the other way round. Bankim replied that it is desirable to know about surroundings first before seeking God. Ramkrishna snubbed him by saying if you know a person intimately you automatically come to know about his possessions. And if you try to collect information on his account without knowing him, seeking will always remain incomplete and inadequate.
In the same breath Ramakrishna elsewhere explains about the limitedness of miracles. Attaining the quality to demonstrate miracles is not God-realisation. Sometimes they may come automatically to a seeker but a true-seeker must not pay any heed to such attainments and keep pursuing his research sincerely.
Most people are interested in short term gains and avoidance of losses. In the name of development we have learnt a great deal to make distinctions simply between material gains and losses; not really being able to think beyond that.
Ramakrishna clarifies that without realisation, if someone tries to deliver discourses, all that would have no effect. The listener may get influenced by the knowledge of the speaker but it would last just for a short while. A true seeker never tries to preach until he himself realises and gets direction to do so. Then only what he says becomes effective in the life of those who go to listen. There is the need for meditation and that is why the sages have struggled hard in isolation before they could unravel their research findings.
Every work that life has assigned us is meditation itself. We must know how to pursue work as a part of meditation. Even a mundane job can be pursued in such a manner that it becomes part of mediation. It is an art and one has to learn how to convert all daily activities into a meditative process.
The beauty of life unravels itself when we master the art of converting every activity into a meditative process. We can then realise divinity in and around us. Life is a process of research that helps us experience life to the fullest.