Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

As the sun (the orb) taken together with its light and heat should be called the sun, and not the mere orb should be called the sun; so Krishna, the Supreme Deity, should be taken together with His Central Form and His All-Pervading Effulgence— Love—to be called Krishna. It will be as wrong to regard the orb only as the sun, that is, the orb minus its effulgence and heat, to be the sun, as to regard this Form of Krishna (the Centre of Himself) minus the effulgence—all-pervading Love—to be Krishna. Thus Krishna, like His physical light-reflection, the sun, is Infinite, even though He has a finite-looking Form-Centre.

The fear entertained by most people in the West, that the form carries with it an idea of finiteness, is not true in regard to Krishna's Form. Not only is Krishna Infinite in His effulgence, but the Image of his Central Form dwells in every particle of that effulgence, called Love. Besides, nothing in this universe is finite.

I shall, in succeeding pages, try to prove to you the fact that the Supreme Being has a concrete-looking Form-Centre, for two reasons. One is to support the proposition that no form can come out of anything formless, and the other is that all forms in creation, from a blade of grass to a divine man, are more or less imperfect manifestations of the Central Form from which they have sprung. From the blade of grass upward, the process of evolution discovers more and more outward resemblance and inward affinity to the Form and attributes of the Author of the universe. Hence it is true that man is made in the Image of his Maker.

In the upward evolution of the man-form, the refinement of mental, moral, intellectual and spiritual attributes contributes more and more towards the man-form being made a more and more perfect image of his Maker, both externally and internally.

Krishna in Form and in Love-Effulgence is present as much in a grain of earth, in a blade of grass, in a beast, as in man. Only that Form is more or less covered in the lower life-forms, on account of many of the composing principles of their bodies being unopened; while in the man, all the principles being opened, the man-form looks more like the form of God. Some people refuse to believe that the Supreme Deity has a form like that of man, because God, with a human form would be lowered in their estimation. These devout people forget that the human form is but an imperfect picture of God's form, instead of God's form being a copy of the human form. So God need not take the trouble of assuming an imperfect reflection of His own Perfect Form.

Dear Reader! Some of you may say that it is foolishness and temerity on my part to try to prove that God has a Form before people who are in the vanguard of civilization, and many of whom think that the very idea of God is but a diseased fancy of weak humanity. Yet, for all that, I do preach a Form-God along with a Formless God with all the boldness my ancient, truly scientific conviction commands, because that boldness is backed by truth, the only Truth.

You here in this country are all of you great lovers and admirers of science; you want everything to be scientific in order to be acceptable. The food you eat, the air you breathe, the medicine you use, must be scientifically supplied and applied. But if you want science in everything, why do you not demand science in religion? Why is your religion so unscientific? Forms coming out of a formless God is the most unscientific assertion imaginable.

The root of this belief in forms coming out of the formless is buried in the conceit which the new civilization has developed in its average votary. People here do not care to bow in reverence to anything that has a form, hence is a formless Deity so readily believed in. If God had a form, they say, He would be human, and therefore not worth worshiping. Nor do they believe in making an image of God or bowing to it. They will bow to man; they will idolize man, but not God. Every man here idolizes his lady-love, and every lady idolizes her lover, with more or less abject worship. They will worship the picture of a lover or a lady-love day and night, but they will not worship the image of God, even in a picture. They will pay homage to a moving form of Wealth or Physical Beauty or Sensuality, but hate to think of, much less worship, an Image of God. They are worse idolaters than the Hindoos whom they affect to hate as "heathens." They worship idols of money and human flesh; the Hindoos worship idols of God. They worship material forms of mere matter; the Hindoos worship Sanctified Forms of the Divine Spirit or Its Attributes. Let them raise their standards of idol-worship first in order to be worthy to talk of the purely transcendental idolatry of the Hindoos.

The Hindoos rarely paint a picture or carve an image of a human being; a human being is not worthy of it, except a Saint or a Gooroo (spiritual guide); but they paint their God and make His Image, and worship it with all internal and external homage.

We are all denounced as idolaters; but we are idolaters to-day, in spite of all the influence of civilization and Christian bigotry brought to bear upon us, as good idolaters today as we were ten thousand years ago. The idols and idolatry of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt have been swept away; but the idols of the Hindoo-God still flourish and will flourish to the end of time, as they flourished time out of mind.