Why Do We Worship God?

Question: Why do we worship God?

Radhanath Swami: This is a very important question. Unless we ask this essential ‘why’, we will never have the conviction and faith to do it with the proper spirit.

Everyone is looking for happiness. For example, when a mosquito bites you, he doesn’t do it to give you malaria; he just wants to drink your blood, because that gives him happiness. Similarly, all the amazing things that people do in society today, it is all in pursuance of happiness. But what is real happiness? Before we can understand what is real pleasure we have to understand who’s trying to enjoy.

The person trying to enjoy is different from this body. If the body is compared to a vehicle, the person who’s trying to enjoy, the soul, can be compared to the driver in the vehicle. The vehicle requires certain maintenance; it requires food in the form of petrol, it requires certain types of maintenance in the form of oil. But the driver in the automobile has a different need. Drinking petrol and that oil will not give him pleasure; rather it will ruin his health. Similarly, this body and this mind have certain needs: food, sleep, shelter, and various other facilities.

But what are the needs of the soul? Human society today has practically forgotten the needs of the soul. Therefore, however much you get you can’t be happy; it ultimately brings about frustration.

The soul is spiritual. The soul is part of God. The nature of the soul is to serve God and to love God through all actions, words and thoughts. That gives real pleasure and real nourishment for the soul. So if you want your happiness based on truth, you must worship God in every act of life. We worship God because it is the truth, it is our essence, it is our nature, and forgetfulness of that nature is the root cause of all the problems in this world.