THE IMPERSONAL AND THE PERSONAL
The concept of a Personal God is designed to please man’s analytical mind. But beyond the personal God, there is the Impersonal God, which is an energy that is devoid of quality. It is a neutral energy possessing inherent attributes. But for this neutral energy to be of some value to the manifested universe, it has to concretize itself.
This impersonal energy – the Brahman can manifest itself. Manifestation is not creation. With the Impersonal God, the totality of all, there is no creation but a manifestation. By manifestation, we mean that it is the nature of the Impersonal; it is the inherent ability of the Impersonal to concretize itself. The flower does not create fragrance; it is the very nature of a flower to give off fragrance. The fire does not produce heat, but heat is the manifestation of the fire, and the nature of the fire is to exude this heat. So, from the primal impersonal force and by its very nature of manifestation, the entire universe has come about. However, being such a subtle force, it cannot solidify itself from one step to the next. From that subtlety, there must be a gradual concretization.
The impersonal force has no power of thinking. When we say God’s Will or “Thy Will be done,” it is not the Will of the Impersonal God. Will only come about with the Personal God, not the Impersonal God. So, as it would be said in the Bible, “First was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is God.” What is meant here is that the very manifestation of the unmanifest impersonal in its concretization assumed a specific vibration, and it is because of this vibratory factor, due to its conjunction with other vibrations also exuding from itself, that various forms come about.
So, the Word, which is the vibration, has undergone a long process of evolution since the Big Bang, from which this entire universe has been composed. Through this process, the minuscule atom, in its concretization, continues to evolve.
THE EVOLUTION OF FORM AND THE BIRTH OF CONFLICTS
The atom can duplicate itself and replicate, for the very act of replication is inherent in the atom. As it progresses further through the force of evolution, it solidifies into a very subtle gaseous form. This gaseous form, in turn, condenses into matter, and with further condensation, we recognize this matter as the mineral kingdom. Proceeding from this mineral kingdom, we find it evolving into the plant kingdom and from the plant to the animal kingdom. Throughout this entire process, there is a consciousness.
There is consciousness in a stone. We think that a stone is inert, but a stone, too, has life because, if it did not have life, it would not have the quality to change. If you leave a stone outside, you will find many changes taking place, and through scientific analysis, you will discover that the stone contains all the same atoms. It has a molecular structure, and there is intense motion in that stone, and that very motion that we find in all these forms, from stone to plant to animal, is that consciousness or life force.
This entire process, from the animal level up, is automatic. The trouble only begins when evolution takes a further step and reaches the stage of man. That is where all the trouble starts because man’s inherent quality is thinking, and with these very thoughts, the Law of Karma begins to operate. One thought in a particular experience conflicts with another idea in another kind of experience. With all these experiences accumulating, we become the complex beings that we are, filled with the impressions that we call samskaras in Sanskrit.
It is the samskaras that are troubling us. All conflicts and all sufferings are not from Divinity. All disputes and all sufferings are made by man himself because of his thought processes. Although composed of an excellent matter, for thought too is a thing, thought can only find its validity in the relative form of existence and not beyond it. Through spiritual practices, we go beyond the thought forms. We go beyond the finest levels of matter and into the impersonal, where nothing remains, and all the motion that we see becomes illusory. So, all the conflicts, all the waves of the ocean that are so turbulent, are all within the confines of relativity.
There was a chap who gave a lengthy talk on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, thoroughly exploring the subject for an hour or two. So, one person in the audience stood up and said, “You seem to know more about Relativity than Einstein.” So, this man says, “Why do you say that?” “Well, statistics have proven there are only twelve people in the world who could understand Einstein. But you must be greater because none of us understand you.”
WHAT IS THE PERSONAL GOD?
Therefore, all the problems and troubles we face in this world stem from that. So, where does the concept of the Personal God fit into the scheme, and what is its meaning? Most Personal Gods that people believe in are creations of man’s mind. Most people find different kinds of Gods. To one person, there might be a God with four arms. To another person, it might be an older man with a long beard sitting somewhere in the clouds on a golden throne and a few dozen bookkeepers writing everything down that everyone does. That is also a manufactured concept of a Personal God. The concept of God has also been regarded as “Father” – “Our Father which art in heaven.” Why not Mother? For if everything emanates from himself, then it should contain both aspects of what humanity is all about. It includes both the positive and negative aspects. By negative, we do not mean anything bad. It is similar to electricity, where you have positive and negative currents to make the bulb glow. So, we could say the Personal God is a mixture of both qualities, and yet, for its fullest expression, a division takes place, and that is why we have man and woman and yet, science has proved that in every man, there is a bit of woman, and in every woman, there is a bit of man. So, there has never been any total separation.
The totality of the universe, from its subtlest level to its grossest level, comprises what we know as the Personal God, extending from the analytical conscious mind to the subconscious and through to the super-conscious level, which is one vast continuum. This very continuum is what we refer to as the Personal God. So, in the primal manifestation of the Manifestor, the very vibration that came about, the same vibrations, the Word which we describe as: “First was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is God” and that condensed itself into various forms, is the Personal God. Being the finest vibration, it would naturally be at the level of the superconscious mind.
Therefore, being at the level of the super-conscious mind, it is naturally universal, for the superconscious mind is the universal mind, and every human being is in touch with the universal mind. Narrowing that down, we have the subconscious level of the mind, which serves as a repository of all the experiences gained throughout human evolution. So, when a person prays, for example, the highest level they can reach is the superconscious level, filtered through the varying levels of the subconscious mind.
It reminds me of a priest. This priest spoke to one of his parishioners, and he said, “My friend, every sentence you use there is a swear word in it, and you must desist from using swear words.” So, this fellow reply, he said, “That is true. I swear a lot, and you pray a lot, but we both mean nothing by it.”
So, the sum totality of all relative existence is the Personal God, and to find him in his universal aspect, we, through meditation and spiritual practices, reach the superconscious level. And when we get to the superconscious level, we find the Personal God, the sum totality of the unmanifest that has manifested itself as the mind. So, at the finest level of the mind resides the Personal God.
THE NOTHINGNESS THAT CONTAINS EVERYTHING
When we speak of cosmic consciousness, the mind recognizes that I am an individual, and there is a vastness that I realize, but it is apart from me. Then you have God-consciousness, where you develop this Bhakti Bhava, which means an intense sense of devotion, yet you remain separate from God and not a part of God. That is the kind of God that most religions teach. We go further than the Personal God. We go to the Impersonal God, transcending even the Personal God, for, in meditation, we transcend the entirety of the mind, and we land in unity-consciousness or Brahman-consciousness, where everything is nothing. Sunyata as the Buddhists would say. But that nothingness contains everything.
There was this one guru to whom a chela approached. He said, “Show me the highest value of existence; show me the Impersonal God.” So, the guru said, “Right. You see that tree over there; bring me a fruit from the tree.” The chela brought the fruit, and the guru said, “Open the fruit.” Fine, that was done. He said, “Now get out the pip.” So that was duly done, and the guru said, “Open the pip and see what you see therein,” and when he opened the pip, there was nothing in it. Ah, and yet that very nothingness, that very fine, indefinable energy created the pip which produced the fruit.
WE NEED A GOD WITH FORM
That is the area we can reach through meditation. But the Personal God, who is the sum totality of relative existence, is needed, for the mind could never comprehend the abstract. Man’s mind needs something concrete. Your Personal God could be anyone. Any object of devotion can become your Personal God, even a stone. Even your wife or your husband.
There is a very favorite story of mine. It is a Persian poem. I will give an interpretation of it. The lover knocked on the door of his beloved, and the beloved asked, “Who is it?” And he said, “I am So and So.” The door was not opened. The next day, he went again and knocked on the door. She asked, “Who is it?” He said, “I am So and So, the son of So and So.” The door was not opened. And then, on the third day, when he knocked on the door and was asked who is it, he said, “I am thee, my beloved.” The door was immediately opened.
Do you see the significance that any object of love and devotion can be used as one’s Personal God? When we find that communication and that oneness between subject and object, the Personal God is found, but that is not the end of the journey. To see the Personal God, one develops devotion, acceptance, and surrender. Through that means, one finds a deep integration within oneself of body, mind, and spirit. So, when we cease to live a fragmented life, we see the fullness of life; for now, we are operating in totality.
We are now operating in totality, and that very totality makes us feel and know and recognize the Personal God, and you can say, “I and my Personal God are one.” So here you find oneness with a concrete object. That is why we worship Christ, Buddha, and Krishna. A concrete object which could please the mind, a God with form, and a God with qualities. Therefore, all theologies give qualities to God. They regard him to be kind, just, compassionate, and merciful. And, by becoming one through Bhakti, devotion, Jnana, analysis, and Karma, action, one becomes one with the Personal God. By becoming one with the Personal God, we take on the qualities of the Personal God: kindness, love, and compassion.
THE PERSONAL GOD BEING OMNIPRESENT, OMNISCIENT AND OMNIPOTENT
So, to recap on this. The Personal God is the sum totality of relative existence, but the Personal God is not the Absolute. It is not the Absolute because it has qualities. Still, beyond the Personal God, we have the Impersonal God, that neutral energy, which is behind it all, the nucleus of the nucleus, of the nucleus of any atomic structure, and you are all none else but nuclear structures.
Being the sum totality of the universe, it can be present everywhere, and when it is present everywhere, we call it omnipresent. Being the sum totality, it has to be ubiquitous. Being omnipresent everywhere, it must be omniscient. Being everywhere, it must be omnipotent. Therefore, we call that Personal God almighty. Not someone sitting on a throne somewhere because then you are adding limitations to God, but being Savikalpa, as they would say in Sanskrit, is everywhere. However, that is still within the realm of the Personal God.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1981 – 13
