In Likutei Mohoran I, 6, we find a statement similar: “גם בִּשְׁאוֳל תַּח־תִּיּוֹת נִמְצָא השי"ת, וְגַם שָׁם יְכוֹלִין לִדְבֹּק אֶת עַצְמוֹ אֱלָיו יִתְבָּרַךְ—Hashem is found also in the lowest depths. Even in such places, a person can attach himself to Hashem.” It is an incredible chiddush use the expression “deveikus” regarding someone in the lowest depths.
However, a person can accomplish this by simply thinking thoughts of closeness to Hashem. In fact, precisely because he’s fallen to such places, his only good option is to attach his mind to such thoughts. But as soon as he starts focusing on the reality that Hashem is with him, the yetzer hara enters the picture and tries to confuse him: “How dare you attempt to have deveikus to Hashem after you fell so far. You are in such a filthy place!”
Nonetheless, we can answer these claims with an incredibly simple question: Why do such frum thoughts only come when a person wants to encourage himself? As a person is about to indulge in eating or sleeping, why doesn’t he think about punishing himself because he’s in the lowest depths so that he will reduce his craving a little bit? From this, we see clearly that these thoughts don’t stem from a good place. They are the yetzer hara who is trying to keep a person down and prevent him from being attached to Hashem.
The main thing is to remember that even one thought of closeness to Hashem makes an incredible impact in all the higher and lower worlds. With just one thought, we can crown Hashem King, since our thoughts are extraordinarily powerful.
