The paths to God
Introduction
God realization as explained by Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio in his book “The Journey of The Mind into God” is not a process that is restricted to one method. It is a process that can be achieved through many means provided all of them are centered on a strong will and urge to know the truth.

The path of Prayer and Fervent Appeal
The first step in God realization is the fervent need in the devotee’s mind to understand God and this happens only through prayer. Fervent prayer can generate results that are spiritually superior and gratifying to the spiritual mind. In fact, this God-sense is the first and foremost need that should surface in the devotee’s mind in order to attain success in the path of God-realization. This has been corroborated by many religions and all of them believe that prayers have the capacity to attune the mind towards God and so help to purify our emotions that become subtle and sensitive to the thoughts of God. The Christian way of love is to offer oneself to God in all respects. Half hearted efforts will often return unpredictable results, which often do not satisfy the spiritual need of the seeker. Hence, the first step in God realization is to understand that there exists a superior force above us and then to appeal for his grace through prayer and charity. The senses, spirit, and the mind through various processes of interplay and illusionary overtures creates wrong impressions in the peaceful persona of man, who was originally made by God to contemplate and understand God. The deviance that we see in human beings that takes him away from God is because of this misinterpretation of the holy truths and the various situations in life which can contribute to the confusion. One must use the knowledge gained from the world as stepping stones to attain true liberations from sins and cultivate love for God. The conquering of the mind forms the first step towards God realization.

The powers of the senses are used to perceive the world and discern what is good and what is bad for a spiritual seeker. Therefore the power of perception is given to understand the powers that run the universe. For example, the senses helps us to see and discern life and its various problems, but we often get too involved in these problems that we fail to appreciate the root problems and the solutions provided by the creator for each of these problems. We fail to see the bigger picture and often get entangled in the smallness of things that hide the truth from our eyes. Therefore what is needed is to understand and contemplate on that which makes the task of the spiritual seeker easy. This means that the spiritual seeker must consider every happening as the will of God and take it in the right perspective without getting involved in it. The senses can either see, feel or analyze. It is for the third reason that God has given us the senses and so we must feel and understand the conflicting forces that tend to hide the truth from our vision. Now, there is nothing like satanic forces that deliberately hide the truth from our eyes. It is we who decide not to see the truth and get further involved in the untruth. Hence, when we strengthen our mind with true devotion and spiritual power, we find peace and understand the truth.

The path of Love and Perception
The first principles of wisdom specify that we need to appreciate the power of God in order to understand and admire with awe the superior power and goodness of God. Man can only understand the power of God and his creation through observing nature: the very symbols of God's supreme creation. Hence, the elements of nature provide us with enough examples that highlight the worth of God. It is through the symbols in nature that we understand the lovely world that God has created through his excellent judgment, beauty, power and benevolence. When we consider God as the creator of this beautiful word we are automatically filled with awe for the power of the Lord himself and we are filled with love for the supreme. However, love for God will not arise in us if we do not look at things without love. We feel for the great power of God only if we can lovingly appreciate the worth of God’s creations. Perception also plays a major role in appreciating God because only through right perception can we appreciate and differentiate between good and bad. The author captures the exultation of a God's devotee who admires his creation, in a few very poignant words.

Thou has loved [delectasti] me, Lord, in what you are to do [factura] and in the works of Thy hands shall
I exult. How magnified are Thy works, Lord! you have made all things in wisdom, the earth is
filled with Thy possesion.
[Saint Bonaventure, 2002, p7]
The role of the senses
God realization is not complete if the seeker has very limited knowledge of the world. This is because the knowledge of truth is not something that is exclusive of the world. In fact, a person who has true knowledge of the truth will appreciate the fact that what is outside the body (Macrocosm) is similar to what is inside the body (Microcosm). This sense of knowing that what is inside and what is outside is essentially the same matter or content, is essentially the knowledge of truth. The author tells us that the whole universe has to be perceived by us through the five senses so that we may appreciate the hidden elements of knowledge in it. Unless the world is perceived, we cannot appreciate the truth that lies beneath it. Now appreciating the world does not mean that we must indulge in something excessively. It simply means that we must be able to discern using our senses, the essence behind everything, which will finally help us to reach the conclusion that everything is made of the same essence. This is because once we find that there is a beautiful sense of equality in all things available in the world, we will appreciate divine powers because there is a special quality of equality that makes it extremely spiritual and balanced.

The role of the Intellect
The intellect can also understand God if it is willing to decipher the signals that it gets from the environment in a very objective manner. It may be seen that the power of the intellect lies in understanding God and appreciating it. It does not mean that a seeker of superior intellect will become overwhelmed with joy, ecstasy and emotion like a person who tries to realize God through prayers and fervent appeals. On the contrary the seeker with a superior intellect will try to reason from the inputs that he gets from various sources on whether the concept of God is valid or not. He will approach the existence of God with an open mind and will be convinced only through clear reasoning. The intellect can realize God if it clearly examines its experiences rather than getting involved in these experiences emotionally. Correct reasoning will help us to understand that everything in this world is essentially God and that everything springs from God and ultimately returns to God. The multitude of emotions, actions and different situations that we are put in, are essentially a reflection of the mind under different circumstances. Hence, knowledge makes us free from the shackles that we create by letting our mind ruminate actively on issues that are trivial and transitory.

The mind also plays an important role when we try to understand God through the intellect. The mind is a huge receptacle of impressions seen and unseen. It may be seen that our mind holds many bits and pieces of knowledge that are essentially not segregated and arranged in a proper manner. Most often these bits and pieces of knowledge is enough to mislead use because they are not comprehensive. However, when we arrange these bits and pieces in the right order we see the bigger picture and can appreciate the fact that this information may be used to perceive God and his kindness. Hence, we may say that the mind is both a facilitator as well as a detractor of our effort towards understanding truth. The use of the intellect decides in which manner we use the mind to understand and appreciate God.

However the author also says that mere knowledge is not enough to understand the truth. The grace of God, and a humble, loving human nature is also required to understand the Lord. This is perhaps what is echoed in the words of Christ when he said

I am the door. He who goes within through Me, shall be saved and he will step
in and out and find pasture.
[Saint Bonaventure, 2002, p17]

Hence, it may be seen that knowledge can be used to interpret the supreme, but it needs devotion to perceive the truth.