I take the opportunity to just express what I have discovered and learnt in my spiritual journey. I am not judging anyone but just expressing my learning which
is debatable and open for discussion and improvement.
I love and respect Supreme God who is the creator whom I cannot see, who may be formless but I relate more with Master who has a form. My surrender will be more to Master whom I haven't met but whom I can imagine with a form. I love and respect Master but my surrender will be more and I will relate more to Reddy sir whom I have met and have seen in a form. I love and respected Reddy Sir but my surrender will be more to Mythili who is my mentor, whom I relate to more, who has a form, I can imagine her, I can understand her, I can communicate with her freely. So I personally feel for my spiritual growth someone with a form is more helpful than some whom I cannot even imagine
and yet be motivated.
Filling our eyes and minds, extending throughout the universe, form, in this material world, is everywhere. Even when invisible, all things have form. We cannot imagine a formless mountain, a formless child, a formless snowflake or even a formless atom because by nature a thing and its form are inseparable. But because matter always exists within a form, we sometimes assume that spirit itself must be formless (which may or may not be true). By mental speculation one concludes that because material forms are temporary, spirit, to be eternal, must be formless. This reasoning, however may or may not be correct.
Is God formless or with a form? This question has puzzled many over the last millenia and many have even 'lost' their heads in pursuit of the answer. Let's begin with ourselves. You and me do have a form. This is our material body. The Gita explains that it is made of five gross elements viz. earth, water, fire, air and ether, and three subtle elements viz. mind, intelligence and ego. Our bodies go through six changes - They are born, they grow, they steady their pace, produce byproducts, they dwindle and then they die. So we too have a form now and at
death that form will vanish.
Now, brace up for this revolutionary idea (or truth) - God also has a form which looks exactly like ours BUT ( and this is a BIG BUT) His body does NOT have these eight elements. Instead His body is made of a wholly different types of
energy called sandhini, samvit and hladini. Pardon the Sanskrit jargon, but these three energies provide God with eternal existence, eternal knowledge and eternal happiness. Thus, you and me are the marginal energy of God, this phenomenal material world is His external energy and His Self is the internal energy. As the supreme energetic Lord, He is the supreme controller of the spiritual, marginal and material energies. And all these different types of energies are connected with the Lord in eternal devotional service.
God DOES have a formless existence and He is no less powerful BUT it is difficult
to realize Him as such. We may find some mailboxes on the street, and if we post our letters in those boxes, they will naturally go to their destination without difficulty. But any old box, or an imitation which we may find somewhere but which is not authorized by the post office, will not do the work. Similarly, God has an authorized representation in the Deity form, which is called arcā-vigraha. This arcā-vigraha is an incarnation of the Supreme Lord. God will accept service through that form. The Lord is omnipotent, all-powerful; therefore, by His incarnation as arcā-vigraha He can accept the services of the devotee, just to
make it convenient for the man in conditioned life.
So, for a devotee there is no difficulty in approaching the Supreme immediately and directly, but for those who are following the impersonal way to spiritual realization the path is difficult. They have to understand the unmanifested representation of the Supreme through such Vedic literature as the Upaniṣads, and they have to learn the language, understand the non-perceptual feelings, and realize all these processes. This is not very easy for a common man.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa has also explained it in a beautiful way. He would say that God was both with and without form and not only that, he might have many more aspects and that it was possible for Him to be everything. it is difficult to fathom or estimate the nature of God. He can be with form, without form and also beyond all that. A true spiritual aspirant will pursue the path most congenial to himself or herself. Such a person would be deeply interested in achieving the goal.They are broad-minded enough to accept that every idea about God needs
to be accepted and respected.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa: “No one can say with finality that God is only ‘this’ and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta
(devotee) He assumes forms.
But He is formless for the jnani (The Enlightened person), that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world another. Therefore God reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani-the Vedantist, for instance-always reasons, applying the process of ‘Not this, not this’. Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realizes Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what Brahman is. Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shore less ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta’s love, the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn’t feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God’s forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his ‘I’ any more.”
He further gave example of Lord Rama. The rishis followed the path of jnana. Therefore they sought to realize Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. But those who follow the path of devotion seek an Incarnation of God, to enjoy the sweetness of bhakti. The darkness of the mind disappears when God is realized. In the Purana it is said that it was as if a hundred suns were shining when Rama entered the court. Why, then, weren't the courtiers burnt up? It was because the brilliance of Rama was not like that of a material object. As the lotus blooms when the sun rises, so the lotus of the heart of the
people assembled in the court burst into blossom."
Ordinary people do not recognize the advent of an Incarnation of God. He comes in secret. Only a few of His intimate disciples can recognize Him. That Rama was both Brahman Absolute and a perfect Incarnation of God in human form was known only to twelve rishis. The other sages said to Him, 'Rama, we know You only as Dasaratha's son'. "Can everyone comprehend Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute? He alone has attained perfect love of God who, having reached the Absolute, keeps himself in the realm of the Relative in order to enjoy the divine leela. A man can describe the ways and activities of the Queen (Queen Victoria.) if he has previously visited her in England. Only then will his description of the Queen be correct. Sages like Bharadvaja adored Rama and said: 'O Rama, You are nothing but the Indivisible Satchidananda. You have appeared before us as a human being, but You look like a man because You have shrouded Yourself with Your own maya.' These rishis were great devotees of Rama and had Supreme love for God."
This was nicely asked by Arjuna in the Gita and Krishna succinctly answered it -
Arjuna asked - : Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the
impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested? Lord Krishna answers - For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline
is always difficult for those who are embodied.
We may debate that a God with a form was necessary for the age of Kali or Kaliyug. We may debate that Kaliyug is still in process or is over. But for people who want to progress spiritually, personally relating helps a lot. We cannot progress in Yoga prana vidya if we do not relate to Reddy Sir. the more we see him, the more we hear him, the more we get motivated. But it may be different for other people...I just expressed my view which open for debate and
discussion. Atma Namaste.....