Can we see God? This is an enigmatic question. If I say, "I have seen God", one may as k which God? Where is He? Can we also see Him? How is He? A host of other questions follow and an intelligent person may even ask "Where were you when God was talking to you? Were you not in trance? How can you see God in trance? If i say I have seen and talked to God, nobody would believe me. Even if I say i have seen the Sun shining at midnight the same doubt will arise. But these are simply accepted without any doubt if i say, such and such a great saint saw God Venkateswara, Lord Hanuman, or saw Sun at mid-night, people will believe it! This is the difference. Blind faith will do. So called rational thinkers go to the extent of saying, all bunkum when we talk about these! Hence, these topics are not for discussion. But this is exactly what happened in pancharatra and various samhitas discuss about all these and we can not only learn a lot about these, but can have the vision of Gods, too.. Much depends on one's faith and belief system, sanskar, and it must be in the genes! Anybody can have this visioning and thousands of such experiences are narrated here and there.
In the Pancharatra, as the very name indicates, a five day and night yajnya (Fire sacrifice) was conducted by the saints including Sage Brihaspati under the patronage of a Vaishnava King. No such appearance of God was forthcoming and all were disappointed. Finally, it was suugested, God can be seen only in the form of 'Light' and that 'Light' is so bright that it is not possible for us to see with our normal eyes. "So, one has to become Light only to see Light"; it also means one should have jnyan chakshus, inner eye (Third eye). It is said that "Devarshi Narada had gone to shveta dvipa (Galaxy Milky Way) to see Narayana, So all the sages sat in tapas and became Light and reached the Shveta dvipa, but found no Narayana there! Again they we disappointed. They heard a divine voice saying, "You fools, look inside, not outside to discover Me. I am covered by your ignorance, avidya. Remove your avidya (ignorance) by vidya, jnyan, you can see Me. Thus they all returned satisfied. They never asked this question again!
All these said and done, what do we understand by God-visioning? Who is God? Is there a Christian God, Parsi God, Vaishnava God, and a Shaivite God? Yes. There are as many gods as many people are there. It is very simple. One can have his own personal God, family God, Village God (Gram Devata), Country's God (Naada devata), etc. People go to Vaishno devi to see three shalagrama pindis (not idols of Lakshmi,Sarasvati and Durga Devi). So also, one can go to Tirumalai to see Lord Venkateshvara, but stupid administration do not allow to have even a glimpse of the statue; so there is no use going there! Lord will appear to you if you so ardently desire! No problem. This has happened to many people and they have build a small temple in their own homes and worship Him! I have seen many of them (one in Jayanagar Bengaluru and another near Bagalkote)..
In the Pancharatra system, particularly in the Vaishnava system Lord Narayana is the only God. However, this Narayana is not well defined. Narayana is said to manifest as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. So who is Narayana? This problem is further complicated by a reference in Mahabharata (Shanti Parva Canto 334) where Nara- Narayana, two sages are mentioned; these two sages wanted to see parabrahman, the unchanging, eternal divine being and conducted a yajnya. The terms 'nara' means human and 'narayana' means the divine power. It is stated that both belonged to the Satya Yuga and they perceived the divine form of Narayana.So anybody can perform tapas, askesis, and see narayana?
But, the question remains-"Who is Narayana" ?
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