Thus Spake the Divine - With Body and Body-Less (Uruvamum Aruvamum)

Thus Spake the Divine

With Body and Body-Less
(Uruvamum Aruvamum)

While our Vedas speak of formless Brahmam, Poojyasri Maha Periyava recommends staunch Bhakti towards God, which will manifest God in the roopam desired by us.

The fragrance of a flower is not visible to eyes, but only felt by the nose. The sweetness of sugar is not smelt by the nose, but only tasted by the tongue. Music is not audible to the tongue, but only to the ears. What is cold or hot is felt only by the skin and not eyes. Many of these aspects cannot be seen by eyes. Alternatively, colours, such as red, green, yellow etc., are not visible to ears, nose, mouth and skin; they are visible only to eyes. Also, music is audible only to ears; it cannot be tasted, seen, smelt, or touched. There is a substance, which has created all these sense organs as well as substances that provide stimuli to these organs. We call that substance as God. That Supreme Substance is permeating all across the Universe.

The sense organs have emerged from that Supreme Substance and function under His governance. Accordingly, eyes can only see and not hear and the ears can hear and cannot see. Such is the mechanism that has been designed for sense organs by the Supreme Power. However, can this Supreme Power come under the control of sense organs? No. That’s why these sense organs are not capable of comprehending the Supreme Power. Because of this, some people say there is no God.

God is not only omnipotent, He is also absolutely compassionate. That is why, despite being shapeless or formless (aruvam), He has taken the disguise of different forms to enable devotees to see Him with their eyes, speak with Him with their tongue, touch Him with hands and feel Him with the sense organs. He will not take a physical form and stand in front of those who don’t believe in Him to prove that there is God. He will present Himself in any form and bless only those who believe in Him and trust that there is God. Thus, though He is formless, He takes forms.

Electricity has no form when it travels through a wire. But when it passes through a bulb with a filament when the switch is on, the formless electricity turns into the form of light, isn’t it? Similarly, when electricity of Bhakti passes through the heart of devotees when their switch of commitment to God is on, God, who has no form, gives dharshan to these devotees in the form of eternal bright light. In the heat of sun rays, ocean water gets evaporated and loses its form. Once it gets cold in the clouds, it rains, which is quite visible to our eyes as water again.

If we recite the name of God with utmost Bhakti, to that extent, the formless philosophy of God transforms into a substance of visible form. When one persistently worships God by renouncing his desires and attachments, he can clearly comprehend the formless God. But some might ask of what use a person’s Bhakti and wisdom is for the rest of society? The society, by just looking at the person absorbed in Bhakti and wisdom, can experience the peace and happiness that the Bhakta has.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.