MAN NEEDS SOMETHING TANGIBLE TO APPROACH THE ABSTRACT
We know that the spiritual energy that exists in the universe is abstract. The human mind is so constructed that it could never conceive of anything abstract, because it is tangible in a very fine, subtle form of energy. In contrast, the abstract is an energy beyond all tangible energies. It is an intangible energy. So, for the human mind to have any little comprehension of the universal energy, the intangible, the abstract energy, what must he do?
Ancient Sages have devised a means; this was not something devised by the Sages, but something revealed to them. By revelation, we mean that the human mind can be brought to such a fine level, and yet, going beyond that fine level of the human mind, one can be in absolute communion with the abstract. In other words, we are led very systematically to that abstract state, whereby the abstractness produced in us becomes one with the universal abstractness, which means that the inner self of man finds its oneness with the universal self of man.
That is the abstract conception, and therefore, we say that Divinity is indefinable by man’s mind. But man has to have something tangible. So, how to find that tangibility? If we have an air conditioner in the room with the heat on, we do not see the heat, yet it is there, warming the room. Because the human mind is incapable of conceiving, seeing, feeling, or touching the abstract heat or the abstract Divinity in our sense, he has to have a way and means by which he can communicate. We know for sure that the tangible cannot communicate with the intangible. So, in this case, the intangible or the abstract has to concretise itself so that the human being or the human mind can have a conception of something which is beyond itself. Through analysis, he can find that there is something more to me than just me. Through feeling, he can extend this principle in actually experiencing that there is more to me than the apparent me.
THE ABSTRACT MADE TANGIBLE THROUGH PERSONALISED DEITIES
So, to find all these various deities, a formulation has been developed. For example, the Hindu people have so many gods, tangible gods, gods that lived householders’ lives. If you take the God Brahma, the Creator, he would have his Lakshmi, and Shiva would have his Parvati. So, those Gods, those conceptions were brought down to such a level that the ordinary man can identify himself with something tangible. A householder can definitely identify himself with another householder. By that, we mean that a husband and wife can identify with a being that also has a husband-and-wife relationship. So, personal Gods were formed.
What has happened here is that the abstract God has become a personalised God. What is the personalised God? A personalised God necessarily has to be the son of man, and the son of man we regard to be a personalised God. In different times and in different climes, the same principle has been followed. Buddhists have their Buddha, the Hindus have their Krishna and their Rama, and Christians have their Christ, the Mohammedans have Mohammed. Human beings will find it a spiritual and psychological necessity to have a personalised form of God, and that is why we find in the Bible the phrase “Our Father which art in Heaven.” It has many abstract meanings, but the literal meaning is time and place: there is a place where the Father is in Heaven. Yet the abstract Father is beyond the Father that we conceive of sitting in Heaven with long robes and a big beard.
MAN NEEDS A TANGIBLE IDEAL ON THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
For man to proceed on the spiritual path, and this is worth repeating, he needs a tangible form to which he can relate. The best way that man can relate is to a superman, and that is the origin of all these films, like James Bond. Because man within himself feels that he has a greater capacity, a greater capability, and he is forever trying to identify himself with that greater capability and capacity. Therefore, we have these James Bonds, where, while watching James Bond in action, the viewer identifies with that James Bond on the screen. And the reason is not only escapism or daydreaming, because even escapism and daydreaming must have a basis. The basis is that man inherently has far greater capacity within himself than what he displays without himself. So, we know, and all psychiatrists and psychologists will tell us that we use less than ten per cent of our potential. Ninety per cent is lying dormant. So, for man to awaken the ninety per cent dormantness within him, he has to personify an ideal, an ideal which is greater than himself, and that is the purpose of having personalised Gods where God is seen in person.
A PERSONIFIED GOD IS A COMBINATION OF THE CONCRETE WITH THE ABSTRACT
According to Vedic tradition, certain forms of meditation lead one to the supreme state. The first form is what they call Savikalpa Samadhi, which means to reach Samadhi, to reach a supreme state with form, Kalpa, Savikalpa with conceivable form. So, by having an ideal which is a super-human being, we lead all our attentions to that super-human being and by leading the attention to the super-human being, we try to, and we do identify ourselves with that super-human being, which is Krishna, Buddha, Christ. And when one reaches total identification with the ideal of the personified God, we go beyond that to find the abstract God.
So, the conceptions of a personalised God or an abstract God are not contradictory. The one idea is an extension of the other. They are stages that man has to go through. We cannot find Divinity by solving mathematical problems. Divinity has to become very, very tangible. What is a personified God? A personified God is a human being, in a human form. A personified God is in human form, which has realised or reached a state where he, although being in a human form, has within himself the realisation and the communion with the abstract form. So, that personified God is a combination of the concrete with the abstract, and the concrete is in such a way or manner, although displaying himself very, very ordinarily and the greater the man, the more ordinary he is. The greater the man, the more ordinary he is, and the lesser the man, the greater the show he has to put on.
THROUGH THE PERSONALISED BEING WE REACH THE ABSTRACT
So, the realised person becomes increasingly ordinary. Even in the injunctions he would make, like Krishna said, “You come to me,” or Christ said, “I am the way, the life.” Even in those injunctions that such people make, it is not an expression of haughtiness. It is a statement of fact, and the statement of fact is because that concrete being has totally identified himself with the abstract. In other words, the abstract permeates every cell, every drop of his blood. And when a personified being has achieved that state of realisation of the abstract and has become identified with the abstract God, then he is worthy for us, normal evolving human beings, to hold that personified person as a God, because he has reached the maximum height of any worthwhile achievement and what is there more worthwhile than to identify oneself with the abstract being. So, such a personage, having identified himself with the abstract being while still in a body, is devoted to that being. As my devotion to that personalised ideal develops, great communication takes place.
When I smell this flower, I am inhaling very fine particles of this flower. This flower is shedding off certain particles of itself, and that is what I know as fragrance; it is entering me. This is a scientific fact. Because even the fragrance in a very subtle form is matter, and I am smelling the fragrance, I am ingesting the flower through my nostrils. When that devotion to a personalised ideal, a person who has reached those heights that we spoke about, is there, then I will automatically imbibe the power he radiates within me. As this flower is radiating the fragrance, so the spiritual being is forever radiating this force, emanating the spiritual force and the greater devotion I have to that personalised ideal, the greater would be my receptivity. The greater devotion I have, the greater faith I have, the greater would the channel be opened.
But if I am not prepared to open my nose and close my nose, I will not smell the fragrance. So, devotion opens the heart, and if my heart is closed up to that personalised God, then nothing can happen. Nothing can happen because I am not allowing myself to feel those energies to flow. If I do not open this window, fresh air cannot come in. That is the part devotion plays in the personalised conception which man’s mind can conceive of a personalised God. But then that is not where we get stuck. That is one of the steps to reach the abstract. So, through the personalised being, we reach the abstract.
For example, you have certain sects amongst the Hindus and amongst the Christians that would have an idol of their ideal. They are not worshipping the idol, but they are using it as a focal point, as a means through the idol to the abstract, through the concrete to the abstract, because it is only through the mediumship, or the middlemanship, of that personalised ideal that we can become one with Divinity. Therefore, in the Bible, it is said that man comes to Christ before he reaches the Father. That is the true meaning of it. So, all these conceptions are valid.
TO THE MAJORITY, THE PERSONALISED CONCEPTION OF DIVINITY IS NECESSARY
Some people might be born at a very high stage of evolution where they do not require a personalised God, and they can approach the abstract God. When I was a young boy, I used to scoff at these various forms of worship. I used to say, “What do I need a medium for. What do I need Krishna, Rama, and Christ for? I want direct communion.” I used to scoff at these ideas. I used to scoff at all these various ritualistic forms. I used to scoff at all these various forms of devotion, but as I unfolded in my path, I found myself realising that they have real value. It is only with the idea of having a personalised God that I could see God in person in you.
If God to me remains an abstract quality or an abstract quantity, then it would be impossible to personalise him in everyone. I start with an ideal who has reached this communion, who is in constant communion, who is communion himself. I use him as my ideal, and from that step, I progress further. It is only if I am trained to use a personalised being and to see God in that personalised being that I will have sufficient training and the mental attitude to see God in every person.
So that is one of the steps that lead us to the abstract, and once man realises the abstract, he does not need a personalised God. He merges away in the Impersonal God, which is the abstract God. So these are the steps one takes on one’s evolutionary path, and they are valid. For the majority of people in the world, 99.9% of the time, a personalised conception of Divinity is necessary. Once he can transcend the personalised conception, he can then become one with the impersonal God, which is beyond all conception.
So, we start with a conception that leads us to non-conception. That means we start with the mind and lead ourselves beyond it. So do never, ever condemn, as I used to as a young boy, never condemn any person’s worship, any form of worship. Never break anyone’s faith in their ideal. And once we develop this attitude, all religions, all paths as our emblem symbolises, will become one to us.
This path, Krishna, is good for you, good, good. Buddha is good for you, good, good. Rama is good for you, good, good. Christ is good for you. Good. Why not? Because they are all personalisations, the concrete value of the abstract, the Impersonal God, manifests itself as the personal God.
WE REACH THE ABSTRACT DIVINITY BY GOING BEYOND THE SUPREME PERSONALISED GOD
What is a personal God? I have very briefly said that a personal God, still being an embodied form, is in constant communion with the abstract, and the abstract permeates every pore of his being. Yet, he is more ordinary than ordinary. The personalised God is not necessarily one. There are millions of universes within this – you have one universe. Still, within that one universe, you have millions of universes, as within the smaller universe, there are millions of solar systems. And there are millions of galaxies. That personalised God represents the sum totality, represents the entire vibration, represents the entire radiation which this one particular universe emanates from himself, from itself. That is the personalised God.
The personalised God represents the entire emission of vibrations of that particular universe, and as there are millions of universes, there are millions of personalised Gods. It is like a business firm: you have the Managing Director, or the President, as Americans would say, and then you have various Board Members who look after various aspects of the business. So, above all these personalised Gods, we have the supreme God who is also personalised. And it is by going beyond the supreme personalised God that we reach the abstract God. Do you see how systematically it is worked in? It is departmentalised. Yes. It is departmentalised.
So, you have your General Manager and all your sub-Managers, and above the General Manager is the supreme boss, yet the supreme boss is abstract. He sits in his office, and you never see him. And he works through his General Manager, who in turn works through all the sub-Managers. And those are the mechanics of how the Manifestor creates or manifests his manifestation. Everything is done in a precise, systematic manner, step by step. Step by step. As the Manifestor has come down to us step by step, so through those very steps we climb up to the Manifestor, and that Manifestor is the personalised God, the supreme Manager, and beyond him is the unmanifest, the abstract.
THE PERSONALISED GOD IN HUMAN FORM IS THE MOST TANGIBLE TO ANOTHER HUMAN FORM
I have told you this story where a chela goes to a guru and asks him, “Show me God,” show me that force, that power that has manifested all this. So the guru sends him to an Amla tree and says, “Bring a fruit.” The chela brings the fruit. He says, “Open the fruit,” and the fruit was opened. Take out the seed, and when it was taken out, the guru said, “Break the seed,” and there was nothing in it. So, the guru explains that that which you see as nothing is the cause of the formation of the seed, and the seed formed this whole tree from which you have brought this fruit. So that which seems nothing, abstract, is everything.
So, in mythological terms, the supreme being is called Shiva, a Hindu concept. And for Shiva to manifest, he manifests himself through Shakti. Shakti essentially means energy. So, the abstract too cannot function without the concrete. The impersonal God cannot function without the personal God. Because it all forms part and parcel of one whole, one completeness. When we say that God exists in the tiniest atom and in the largest universe, we are referring to the abstract God, because that very abstract power is even within the seed that seemed hollow. It is within every atom. That is the energising factor that manifests through Shakti, energy in various gradations.
So, the personalised God is a God who has reached the highest level of communion and now exists at the finest level of relativity; He represents the supreme personal God, He represents all the emanations, the totality of the whole universe.
Many mythological stories demonstrate this, but this is the principle behind it. We have stories of Vishnu during the churning of the ocean. It is very beautiful, really, and from there Brahma was created, and Brahma was given the job as the Creator to bring about tangible universes and things. But the principle is that from the very, very finest, it has to be brought down to more and more tangible forms, and for human beings, the thing that could be most tangible is another human form. And the human form that has reached that height, definitely without consciously imparting the impulse, is forever imparting the impulse. Like a flower, which does not consciously give off its fragrance, but the fragrance is forever there for those who want to smell it.
THE PERSONAL GOD AND THE IMPERSONAL GOD ARE COMPLEMENTARY TO EACH OTHER
So these are the factors involved. The factors involved are love and devotion, which, as I said, open the channel, opening the nose to smell the flower. That is love and devotion and a reasonable amount of thinking, a reasonable amount of exercise of the mind that would make one appreciate the beauty of the flower, because if the flower is conceived to be beautiful, then it enhances the fragrance the flower emits. You might have a very beautiful fragrance coming from another source, and you will appreciate it. But if it comes from a beautiful flower, that very fragrance is enhanced. A homemaker can cook a beautiful meal, but if the table is not set nicely, that beautiful meal will not be appreciated as it should be. So that dressing, beautifying the table, laying the plates, etc., are also important. So the personalised God is necessary for one to be led to the impersonal God. And the one is not a contradiction to the other. One is complementary to the other.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1977 – 19
