Ramakrishna would often ask of his guest, "what aspect of God appeals to your mind--with form or without form?" He was simply aligning what he was about to say with the perspective of his listener. "With form" would suggest a listener of bhakti persuasion, that is, someone who preferred God as an object or person of love. "Without form" concludes the jnani who has traveled the path of "neti, neti." discrimination to the ultimate One without a second, the non-dualist God without form or attribute. Either way was just fine with Ramakrishna--different strokes for different folks--it all embodied the same truth. Remember, this may be the first avatar in history who made the effort to sample each of the major religions and to conclude each to be valid in essence.
'I had to practice each religion for a time--Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, [many others]...I realized that there was only one God toward whom all are travelling, but the paths are different," - Rama
In part, with or without form implies with or without emotion. Some folks use emotion, principally love, as a catapult into the arms of a God with form, that is, a separate God. However, beautiful as this may be, even a blissful emotion such as love is a barrier to unity. Ramakrishna seemed to literally sway back and forth between the two attitudes, doing so we can be sure as a living teaching for his disciples.
I have asked many people how it is possible for God to exist in a world rife with misery and suffering. Many of the many become theological pretzels in their efforts to defend God and their own beliefs. Salt-of-the-earth types like Ramakrishna had no problem with that one:
"There is poison in a snake, and others may die if bitten by it, but the snake is not affected by the poison.'
He tossed them off in just the way Jesus did, the way the Beatles and Mozart tossed off music. They resonate with each other like bells harmonizing truth. Jesus tells us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike and Ramakrishna says "one man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light, but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as the virtuous."
'I had to practice each religion for a time--Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, [many others]...I realized that there was only one God toward whom all are travelling, but the paths are different," - Rama
In part, with or without form implies with or without emotion. Some folks use emotion, principally love, as a catapult into the arms of a God with form, that is, a separate God. However, beautiful as this may be, even a blissful emotion such as love is a barrier to unity. Ramakrishna seemed to literally sway back and forth between the two attitudes, doing so we can be sure as a living teaching for his disciples.
I have asked many people how it is possible for God to exist in a world rife with misery and suffering. Many of the many become theological pretzels in their efforts to defend God and their own beliefs. Salt-of-the-earth types like Ramakrishna had no problem with that one:
"There is poison in a snake, and others may die if bitten by it, but the snake is not affected by the poison.'
He tossed them off in just the way Jesus did, the way the Beatles and Mozart tossed off music. They resonate with each other like bells harmonizing truth. Jesus tells us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike and Ramakrishna says "one man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light, but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as the virtuous."
No comments:
Post a Comment