God in Everything 278

God), His is that Nitya (the absolute state). And again,.,

H,e who is in that Nitya state, His is this Lila. It is
through the Lila that you must feel your way up to the
Nitya. It is again from the Nitya that you must feel your
way back to the Lila-now no longer unreal but the mani­
festation of the Nitya on the sense plane.
867. • As the shell, the pith and the kernel of a fruit are
all produced from one,j>arent seed of the tree, so from the
one Lord is produced the whole of creation, animate and
inanimate, spiritual and material.
868. The Master used to say : " I accept everything :
the superconscious state. waking state. dream, ,{eep sleep.
Brahman, Jiva, the creatton-1 do ac�ept all these (different
states or manifestations of the Being). Otherwise the
full weight will suffer , diminution : so I accept both the
Absolute and the manifestation.""
869"'* If God alone exists, how has this world come to
be, with its diversities and inequalities caused by individual
egos? Referring to this mystery the Master sai� : " It is
His play, His Lila I A king has four sons. :fhey are all
princes, but when they play, one becomes the ministrc-,
another policeman. and so on. • A prince, yet playing as a
•
policeman I ..

THE DIVINE BOTH WITH AND WITHOUT.FORM

870." A certain person asked the Master : " Sir, which

.
a�pect of God is higher?' That with form or without

,.
form 1" The Mas.,r replied: "Formless as�ec•. is .if t-:Vo
kinds-mal'1re and ' immature. eThe mature one is very
,18
274 Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna

high indeed. It has to be reached through God with form.

The immature one, as professed by the Brahmos, is lik·e
darkness per�eived merely by closing the eyes."
871. God is formles�. and God is possessed of form
too. And He is also that whic'h transcends both form and
formlessness. He alone knows what all He is. _
872. * Do you know what the form aspect df God is
like ? It is like the rising of bul:l.,Ies on a sheet of water.
It can be actually seen that the different forms are rising
from the Chidakasa (sky of Pure Consciousness). The
Divine Incarnation is one of the forms.
873. Unless one .sees God one
f
is not able to realise
all . this. For the sake of those that love the Lord,
He manifests Himself in various ways and in various
forms.
A dyer had his own way of. dying cl,othe:,. He
would ask the customer, " In what colour do you want
your cloths to be dyed ? " If he said red, the dyer dipped
the cloth in his tub and brought it out saying, " Here is
your cloth dyed red." Another wanted_ his cloth dyed
t

yellow. The dyer dipped it in the same tub, and when

he brought it up, it was dyed yellow. In the same way,
when some other colour was wanted-blue or orange or
violet or green-the same tub was used with the like
result. •·
A customer " who was watching all this came vp to
the dyer and. said, " My fri�nd, I am not fond of any
or,e colour. I desire to consult your taste and should like
to ba�e {ny ''cloth dyed just as you-,lease. I want the
colour in which you h\\ve dyed_ y,ourself." 'The Lord
 The Div£ne: lt.c; Two A1;;pects 275
J
manifests Himself, with form or without form, just
according to the need of the devotee. Manifested
vision is relatively true, that is, true in relation to different
men placed in different copditio;s and environments. ihe
Divine Oyer alone knows in what colour He has dyed
Himself. Verily He is not bound by any limitation as to
the form'� of manifestation, or their'negation.
874. A certain mm1k went to the temple of Jagannath
at J:>uri. He had doubts as to whether God is with form or
without form. When he saw the holy image, he desired to
examin� it and settle his doubt. He passed his staff from
the left to the right in or,per to feel if it touched the image.
For a time he could not see anything or feel anything with
the staff. So he decided that God was without form. When
he was about to pass the staff from the right to the left, it
touched the. image. So the monk decided that God is both
with form and without form.
875. When a bell is rung, the repeated ding-dongs may
be distinguished, one from the other, as if each sound has
a form ; but when we stop ringing, the indislinguishable
, sound, which is audible for a while and gradually dies awa�.
appear� formless. Like the sounds of the bell, l}od is both
with and without form.
876. God with form is visible. Yes, we can · �ouch
, Him and talk to Him face to face as with our o?vn dearest
friend.
,877. To think of Him as formless is quite right. But
take care that you do not run away with the idea that "th»t
view alone is true 1fnd that all else is false. • Med1\a•iing
upon Him �s a being, wjth forms rs equally right. But you