Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

That which is not in the seed cannot appear in the tree which comes out of it, says an aphorism of the Vedānta philosophy. This being an undeniable truth, even from a common sense standpoint, it may be asked: If God is formless, and if that formless, abstract God be the source from which the universe has come, then how can that creation contain any form? If man's creator is formless, to put the question in another way, wherefrom has He His form? If God has no form, then He can have no idea of form, and having no idea of form, how can He then create form, for creation is but expansion of Idea.

Creation has sprung from God's will, says the Holy Bible, as also the Veda. These tell us—and both the Christians and the Hindoos are agreed on this point—that God has a Will. What is will? It is but the function or attribute of the mind. Just as where there is no fire there can be no smoke, so where there is no mind there can be no will. Once we admit that God has a will, we cannot escape admitting that He has a mind, the function of which—will—He exercised in order to create the universe.

Now then, it being established that God has a mind, the question may be asked: Is that mind encased in a body? If so, what sort of a body is it? Is it physical; that is to say, is it formed of the same material of which the human body is made? Or is it a body made of abstract spirit? This is not possible, for mind is defined by the Vedas to be that principle within us which has the power of willing and non-willing. Scientists and modern philosophers define mind with practically the same purport. This vibration of the mind, willing and non-willing, is brought about or induced by the reflections cast upon if by external or internal objects, through its channels of communication, the five cognizing senses, the physical counterparts of which are the Eye, the Ear, the Nose, the Palate and the Skin, which cognize respectively Form, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch, under which five heads the Vedas have classified all forms of matter or objects. A mind without these five channels cannot exist, for, having no channels, it receives no impressions of objects, and has therefore no chance of either willing or non-willing, which is its attribute and its only substance and composition.

Once we acknowledge that God has a mind, we cannot help acknowledging these channels of that mind, the five senses. God has therefore not only a mind, but the Power of Seeing (eye), the Power of Hearing (ear), the Power of Smelling (nose), the Power of Tasting (palate), and the Power of Feeling (skin). The mind has also five other powers called its working senses; viz., the Power of Speaking, the Power of Holding, the Power of Moving, the Power of Excreting and the Power of Generating, otherwise called the vocal organs, the hands, the feet, the excretory organ and the generating organ. Thus God, possessing a mind, is bound to possess the ten senses, without which the mind cannot act, and inaction of the mind is its destruction or non-existence. God, having a mind, has to have an Ego, too, for mind is but a product or channel of the Ego, which means I-ness or Self-Consciousness. So that God has all the principles of which man is formed, once it is admitted that God has a mind. And there is no sane man who can deny to God the possession of a mind of which the universe is the design and creation of which man is but a tiny part.

The Christian Bible says that God has made man in His own image, which means that man is the reflection, more or less imperfect, of God. Is it then possible that what is not in the original is present in the reflection? If the human soul, according to this scriptural saying, is a reflection (image) of the Deity, has not that Deity a mind and body, as Its reflection, the human soul, has?

The answer is: It has, only the Divine Mind, being consummately pure in its state and perfect in its working, is absolutely powerful to create, preserve and destroy; and the Body in which the Divine Mind is encased is composed of a substance not of any material make.

But what does this Body of God look like? Is it like a human body? The answer is: Yes, but of a perfection of shape, symmetry and beauty, with which no human body can be compared; it is the Original Body, of which the human body is a poor imitation.

The question will be asked: Has God then as good a finite body as any of us? The answer is; NO, in capital letters. God's Body is no more finite than the human body is. There is nothing in Nature which is finite, not even a blade of grass, or the tiniest speck of earth.

All is infinite—all that you see around you, or perceive within you. There is no such word as finite in the dictionary of Nature, in the lexicon of Creation. All, all that looks ever so small and circumscribed to the fleshly eye of ignorance, is vast and endless to the eye of spiritual wisdom. All that to the physical sight is limited in shape and life is before the vision of the soulful student of Creation's mysterious laws limitless beyond grasp.

Take a grain of earth, and try to trace its origin by the light of the discoveries made by sages who probed into the inmost depths of Nature with the needle of pure spiritual concentration, and you will find that that grain of earth has sprung from Water, Water from Fire, Fire from Air, Air from Ether, and Ether from Sound, Sound from Mind in its effort to cognize outside of it objects projecting from within itself, Mind from Ego, Ego from Consciousness, and Consciousness from the Infinite Love-ocean, the basic principle of Creation.