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By the way, is God one or is He Many? Has He form or is He formless?
Sitaram! He is one and many. He has a good many different forms and He is formless. He transcends form as well as formlessness.
I can’t follow. How can the indeterminate, absolute, Infinite, Supreme assume the forms of Kali, Krishna, Ram, Durga, Had, Hara, Mangal, Chandi, Sitala, Manasa etc.? Can you explain?
If Sitaram enables me, I can
Please explain how the Indeterminate, formless, one and only Absolute assumes form.
There lived a man named Haridas, He had his mother, father, wife, brothers and children and they all loved him dearly. One morning they woke up to find him missing. An uproar of mourning followed they all wailed his loss keenly.
My question was: how the formless came to assume form -, and here you are talking nonsense!
Jai Sitaram! I haven't forgotten your question. Please listen: Haridas could not be found. He was thoroughly searched for, but no trace of him could be discovered. After five years he arrived. Great was the rejoicing at home. Parents hugged him warmly and shed profuse tears asking "Where have you been? Brothers and children bowed at his feet and wept. His wife fell down at his feet. Tears rolled down the cheeks of the old servant. It seemed as if Joy streamed copiously down from a fountain. Neighbours rushed in too and joined this chorus of rejoicing.
Please don't forget my question.
No Sitaram! I shall be coming to it presently. Pray tell me; who was that Haridas to his parents?
Son.
Who was he to his wife?
Husband.
To his children?
Father.
To his brothers and sisters?
Brother.
To neighbours?
Neighbour.
Jai Jai Sitaram!
Did the same Haridas turn successively a son, a husband, a brother, father and neighbour and so on? Or was he partly a son and partly a brother?
How silly! Different relations reacted to Haridas in different ways, each according to his or her Idea of him, but all at the same time.
Jai Jai Sitaram! Quite quite. If a mere mortal could be taken so variously as son, brother, father, husband, etc. and all at the same time, why should It not be possible for God, who Is the Lord of infinite crores of universes and of love all compact, to appear simultaneously to different devotees differently, to some as formless, and to others as Kali, Krishna, Ram, Hari etc?
But Haridas had not assumed different forms.
Had there not been a different Haridas for each of his relations would they not view him differently in accordance with their different relations to him? Did not each find his own conception or Image of Haridas in that one Individual? So Haridas must have assumed different forms for different relations; not physically to be sure, but ideally, from the emotive and psychic point of view.
Are we then to conclude that it all depends on ideal, emotive or psychic conception, that it is subjective?
Haridas was an ordinary man. He may not be able to assume different physical forms. Not so however with God. Is anything impossible for Him? If Yogis can assume different bodies at the same time, is that impossible for the Lore of Yogis? Bhakta chittanusarena jayate bhagawan ajah - God assumes whatever forms seekers desire.
Jnanis meditate on the Indeterminate Absolute and that is how they find Him; those, Instead, who worship Him as Kali Krishna Ram Hari etc find Him exactly so. It is thus that He absorbs them.
Jai Jai Sitaram!
But the Shrutis declare that the Supreme Is formless: Niskalam Niskriyam santam niravadyam niranjanam.
Is this all that the Shrutis say? Don't you find there: brahma ha devebhyo vijigye - "It was the Supreme who enabled the gods to triumph?
Tebhyo pradurbabhuva—"He appeared before them! Are not these to be found also in the Shrutis? Jai Sitaram! He Is determinate, indeterminate, atman and avatar, all at the same time.
One word more: the gods are reported to have seen Him; can men too, I mean natives of the earth, see Him as well?
Jai Jai Sitaram! They surely can and do see Him. You believe the Shruti, eh?
Oh yes, I do
Witness the Tri-pada bibhuti Narayana" Upanishad!
"Nirantara-samadhl-paramparabhirjagadishwarakarah sarvatra sarvabasthasu prabibhanti, asya mahapurushasya k wachit k wachlt Ishwara sakshatkara bhabati."
—"Continuous succession of samadhi comes eventually to reveal the Image of the Lord at all places and in all circumstances: saints of such stature meet God face to face" Jai Sitaram!
So Nirakara and Sakara, God as Formless and God in Form: both are at bottom one!
Some bathe in water to relieve fatigue; some seek relief by placing ice on the head or by putting bits of it into the mouth. But it amounts to the same thing. Jai Sitaram!
As the Bengali Saint, Ramaprasad sang:
Tara tumi jana bhojer baji
Je Je bhave dake mago,
Sei bhavete hao ma raji.
-“Mother you know sorcery indeed!
Whatever way you are sought, mamma
Even in that do you acquiesce.” |
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