THE DIVINE BOTH WITH AND WITHOUT FORM

A certain person asked the Master: " Sir, which

aspect of God is higher? That with form or without

form ? " The Master replied : " Formless aspect is of two

kinds—mature and immature. The mature one is very high indeed. It has to be reached through God with form. The immature one, as professed by the Brahmos, is like darkness perceived merely by closing the eyes.'

God is formless, and God is possessed of form too. And He is also that which transcends both form and formlessness. He alone knows what all He is.

Do you know what the form aspect of God is like ? It is like the rising of bubbles on a sheet of water. It can be actually seen that the different forms are rising from the Chidakasa (sky of Pure Consciousness). The Divine Incarnation is one of the forms.

Unless one sees God one is not able to realise all this. For the sake of those that love the Lord, He manifests Himself in various ways and in various forms.

A dyer had his own way of dying clothes. He would ask the customer, "In what colour do you want your cloths to be dyed ? " If he said red, the dyer dipped the cloth in his tub and brought it out saying, " Here is your cloth dyed red." Another wanted his cloth dyed yellow. The dyer dipped it in the same tub, and when he brought it up, it was dyed yellow. In the same way, when some other colour was wanted—blue or orange or violet or green—the same tub was used with the like result

A customer who was watching all this came up to the dyer and said, " My friend, I am not fond of any one colour. I desire to consult your taste and should like to have my cloth dyed just as you please. I want the colour in which you have dyed yourself." The Lord manifests Himself, with form or without form, just according to the need of the devotee. Manifested vision is relatively true, that is, true in relation to different men placed in different conditions and environments. The Divine Dyer alone knows in what colour He has dyed Himself. Verily He is not bound by any limitation as to the forms of manifestation, or their negation.

A certain monk went to the temple of Jagannath at Puri. He had doubts as to whether God is with form or without form. When he saw the holy image, he desired to examine it and settle his doubt. He passed his staff from the left to the right in order to feel if it touched the image. For a time he could not see anything or feel anything with the staff. So he decided that God was without form. When he was about to pass the staff from the right to the left, it -touched the image. So the monk decided that God is both with form and without form.

When a bell is rung, the repeated ding-dongs may be distinguished, one from the other, as if each sound has a form; but when we stop ringing, the indistinguishable sound, which is audible for a while and gradually dies away, appears formless. Like the sounds of the bell, God is both with and without form.

God with- form is visible. Yes, we can touch Him and talk to Him face to face as with our own dearest friend.

To think of Him as formless is quite right. But take care that you do not run away with the idea that that view alone is true and that all else is false. Meditating upon Him as a being with forms is equally right But you.

Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna

must hold on to your particular view until you realise God; and then everything would be clear.

God is the absolute and eternal Brahman as well as the Father of the universe. But the indivisible Brahman, who is pure Existence, Intelligence and Bliss, is incomprehensible like a vast shoreless ocean without bounds and limits, in which we only struggle and sink. But when we enter into the spirit of the sportive Personal God, we easily obtain peace like the sinking man on being gently carried ashore.

At a certain stage in the path of devotion, the devotee finds satisfaction in God with form, and at another stage, in God without it.

To a Bhakta the Lord manifests Himself in various forms. But to a person who reaches the height of Brahma-jnana in Samadhi, He is the attributeless Brahman once more, formless and unconditioned. Herein is the reconciliation between Jnana and Bhakti.

As water, when congealed, becomes ice, the visible form of the Almighty is the materialised manifestation of the all-pervading formless Brahman. It may b& called in fact Sachchidananda solidified. As the ice, which is part and parcel of water, remains in water and afterwards melts into it, so the Personal God, Who is part and parcel of the Impersonal, rises from the Impersonal, remains there, and ultimately merges into It and disappears.

Fire itself has no definite shape, but as glowing embers it assumes different forms. Thus the formless fire is seen endowed with forms. Similarly, the formless God sometimes invests Himself with definite forms.