by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 45
Movember. 2004

THE DEBATE- FORM OR FORMLESS?

Part 2

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

Our YogasadhanA now enters another crucial stage after this.

What appeared as apparent truth, - we now find- indeed, hides a greater truth. The Rig Veda stated:

Rtena Rtam apihitaM dhruvaM – The eternal truth is hidden under this truth revealed by our lower intuitions.

So we are not there yet..as long as we are at the level of “forms”.

One of the essential features of YogasadhanA as expounded by the sanAtan philosophy is that as the sAdhaka proceeds in yoga, the very concepts and supports that have helped him to reach a stage must systematically be overcome, lest they themselves become the bondages of the soul and soul gets imprisoned or trapped in them. One might recall, an argument from the Mahabharat- i.e. not only one must discard wrong, even what is once considered right, must also be cast aside once it has served its purpose, not only vice be shunned, what is virtue, that also has to be set aside once its meaning has been appreciated. Adharma tyajet, dharma api tyajet.

Not only that, even the means by which such renouncement has been possible, should also be passed over, if the absolute is the aim.

So surprisingly, this concept of Gods with forms, the manifested Godhood, which is so integral to our basis of faith, the sanAtan philosophy now says, that the time has come to go beyond this concept and forget that Brahman has any form.

Na idam yat idam upAsate.- all these that we worship as Brahman is indeed not Brahman.

So far we have learnt, that the ‘form’ was an essential step for the mind to graduate. But as one progresses, the danger now is, our attachment to the form should not be so overpowering that we become prisoners of our attachment and the mind gets closed and satiated with whatever little achievement it has made.

This is a great universal predicament. Many of us are indeed prisoners of our own dogmas, faith, and concepts symbolized by forms or man made moral constitutions. We are all within our own cages, and not free. Even many lives of mental imprisonment within our beliefs is not enough to wake us up to freedom. It takes tremendous efforts and concentrated sAdhanA, lives after lives, to reach that stage.

The sanAtan philosophy has this deep rooted conviction about one uncompromisable truth and the unhindered movement of the soul to realize that truth. All that we do in the process are only intermediary supports.

YogaSadhanA is about examining everything that is presented before the sAdhaka and realizing that this does not satisfy him, discarding them with neti neti (not this, not this) and then move on. Otherwise the veil of darkness will not lift for the knowledge to shine forth.

The logic is simple. If Brahman is everything, then all forms, are Brahman’s forms. If all are Brahman’s forms, then no particular form can confine Brahman. It can hold Brahman, but can not contain Brahman.

If the question of form has its unquestionable utility value at the initial stages of sadhanA, so important for a formative mind and intellect, the same has now become a great impediment when the ultimate concept of absolute consciousness, the satchidAnanda, is sought. Limitations can not be imposed upon Brahman, as that is absurd. If this is not overcome it becomes dangerous and counter productive. SadhanA is expansion of mind. Getting obsessed with any particular form or forms is narrowness of mind. You virtually trap the mind with the form and remain a prisoner and imperfectly conscious unless you grow out of it. Mind has to be freed from this bondage and transcend.

We accepted the form, and now we transcend beyond the form and go to accept the formless.

But this stage now set before us to understand formlessness, was not possible, could not have been possible, if we had not embraced the concept of forms in the beginning. That is not to be forgotten.

This made Sri Aurobindo to observe “The impersonal is a truth, the personal too is a truth; they are the same truth seen from two sides of our psychological activity; neither by itself, gives the total account of the Reality…” That was Sri Aurobindo’s belief.

Thus when both ‘form’ and ‘formless’ become important to sAdhanA, and both are presented before him. the sAdhaka now clearly sees that this concept of form is not simply a product of his own mind. He sees this as part of the divine plan rolled out for raising him from the level of ignorance to the level of higher and higher knowledge. What we see as the conflict of form and formless, sAkAra and nirAkAra, saguna and nirguna, personal and impersonal is indeed part of the divine curriculum for our education of adhyAtma- the divine knowledge.

That helps us to understand this very intriguing concept in SanAtan philosophy, as to why we worship so many forms of Gods and goddesses, and also at the same time, believe in God as nothing but satchidAnanada.