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YOGA AND ITS PRACTICE
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devotee he assumes forms. He is formless to the jnani, who, following the path of discrimination, has experienced in his inner being the nothingness of his ego and of the world of appearance. They are like a dream. He realizes Brahman in his own inner consciousness. Words fail to express that Reality. To the devotee the world is real, a creation of God, and himself also real as a separate entity. To the devotee, God appears as a Personal Being.
'Do you know what it is like? Compare Brahman to an ocean that is shoreless. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the devotee's intense love, the formless water has frozen, at places, into ice blocks. That is to say, God sometimes reveals himself as a Person and with forms to his devotees. Again, with the rising of the sun of knowledge, the ice blocks melt away; then one does not see him as a Person, nor does one see his forms. Who is there then to describe whom? The ego then has completely disappeared.”
Pupil: “Sir, why are there so many divergent opinions about the nature of God?”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Really they are not contradictory. As a man realizes him, so does he express himself. If somehow one attains him, then one finds no contradiction.... Kabir used to say: 'The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother.'"
Pupil: “Sir, can one see God? If so, why can't we see him?"
Sri Ramakrishna: “Yes, he can assuredly be seen. One can see him with form, and one can see him also as formless."
Pupil: “Then by what means can one see him?"
Sri Ramakrishna: “Can you weep for him with a yearning heart? Men shed a jugful of tears for their children or wife or money. But who weeps for God? So long as the child remains engrossed with toys, the mother is busy doing household duties. When the child gets tired of its toys, throws them aside and cries for its mother, then the mother runs in haste and takes the child in her arms."
Just as the devotee may choose the particular aspect of God he feels most inclined to worship, so also he may choose the particular kind of relationship he wants to establish between God and himself. To Jesus, God was a Father. To Ramakrishna,
