Secret of Secrets
A small story:
A disciple returns to his ashram. From a distance he sees a huge crowd. Getting curious, he pushes his way through the crowd and he is shocked. A dog is trying to eat food kept in his master's vessel and his master is sitting on the dog!
The disciple does not understand. 'What nonsense is going on here? Oh master, what are you doing?' he asked, utterly confused. The master calmly replied, 'Don't you see? Some Brahman has kept some Brahman on a Brahman . One four legged Brahman tries to eat it. Another Brahman rides on it. Many Brahmans stand and watch this event. That's all.'
On hearing this, the crowd disperses saying, 'What is this madness?' However the disciple feels that nothing his master utters can be untrue.
He sits under the nearby tree and contemplates. The potent words 'plate, food, dog, master, people are all Brahman rings again and again in his ears. As the power of his master's words sinks in, the disciple realizes that all things surrounding him are the same Existence, Brahman.
He realizes and understands that divine energy blissfully moves about in each and every thing. In a moment everything changes for the disciple. The thought of 'I' drops; instead, the feeling of 'Self' dawns. The fulfilling feeling of 'All is Brahman, everywhere is Brahman, Brahman is within me too' is born. He has the first experience of enlightenment.
We are all Brahman; we are all divine. God is everywhere. Divine energy fills and overflows in all the places. This is what Krishna says in these verses.
This is the basic truth. Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, understand it or not, this is the truth. We can call It God, Krishna, Rama, Jesus, universal energy, cosmic energy, Parāśakti or Brahman. Whatever we may call It, whatever name we may give It, It is present everywhere.
Please be very clear when we worship some idol or form, we actually worship the formless energy behind that idol. People ask me, 'Why do we keep THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's photo in front of us and pray to it? Why can't we meditate on the formless?'
I tell them, 'First start meditating on the form, then you can go to the formless.' Our mind is like a drunken monkey. Have you seen a monkey? It keeps jumping from here to there. Now imagine a drunken monkey. Imagine how much it will jump! Now, added to this, imagine how it will jump if it is bitten by a scorpion!
Our mind is also like that. It is continuously jumping everywhere. In such a state, we first need a form to bring our mind to the present. A form is necessary in the initial stages for the mind to calm down. Once we master this, meditating on the formless becomes easier.
Praying or meditating on the form should actually be only a starting point. Be very clear even when we meditate on the form, we should only see the idol or form in front of us, nothing else. And we should understand that we are worshipping through that idol and not the idol itself.
One more thing, the basic truth in spirituality is that God is in the form of energy and He is formless. God cannot be an individual. He must be energy. Religions give shapes and forms to this divine energy. It is a good beginning, but not the end. You can start with idol worship and move into worshipping the formless energy.
Thousands of years ago, our sages clearly said in the Upaniṣad that everything is energy and everything arose from energy. However, only recently has science understood this truth. When Einstein proposed the theory of relativity and the mass-energy relationship, everyone in the world looked at his theory with suspicion; they could not understand it. Actually, even now only a few people understand it clearly. But at least now people have accepted his theory.
However, our sages proposed this theory thousands of years ago. When Einstein read the Upaniṣad, he said, 'The end of science is the beginning of spirituality.' Einstein became very spiritual towards the end of his life.
The formless God is nothing but space, ether, or energy. Now it has been proven scientifically that there is ether even in vacuum. This energy is all-pervading. It is there everywhere. We now know with the help of powerful tools that 99.99% of an atom is empty space. Continuous vibrations go on in that empty space. Only these vibrations exhibit themselves as energy. Each and every body is filled with energy. Today science says, 'Everything is filled with energy.'
Our enlightened masters expressed it this way, 'God is energy and He fills all space and is omnipresent.' Krishna says this clearly in these verses.
This energy cannot be destroyed. It can only change form. You see, when we switch on a light, electrical energy is converted into light energy. Electrical energy is not being destroyed. It has only changed form.
In the same way, universal energy is everywhere. It is in everything around us and I tell you, it is within us also. Once we realize this great truth, we see that everything around us is the same as us. Only the form in which everything exists is different. Krishna tries to explain this great truth through these verses.
When I say everything, I mean everything is Krishna, everything is Brahman.
Q: THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, You said that we should move from the form to the formless in worship. However, some religions totally oppose this and consider form worship barbaric. Can you please explain this?*
There is no doubt that all that pervades us is energy. It is absolutely true that all material objects came from that energy. This is the first statement of the first Upaniṣad called Isa Vasya Upanishad that says: īśā vāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ: from this energy all matter was created.
Yet, the same enlightened masters who told this, taught us how to worship the form through rituals and other techniques. Krishna, the greatest master of them all, identifies Himself with these techniques in these verses. Why?
From a cosmic standpoint, everything is energy. From a material standpoint, what we see and identify with is matter. Can we have sex and reproduce as energy? For argument's sake, we can talk about immaculate conception. As long as we are in the body, we need the physiological action to reproduce. If our mental state at the time of sex is such that both partners transcend the physical act and relate to one another as pure energy, immaculate conception results. That is all. Such a conception produces an enlightened being.
Anyone in the physical form, anyone in an embodied form, cannot relate with energy as such unless enlightened. We are accustomed to matter, not energy. We see matter, we feel matter and even if we have intellectual understanding that it is all energy, what we experience is matter.
To experience that all matter is energy and this energy is the same in all matter takes time to understand and accept. We need maturity for this experience. If we are forced to focus on an intangible energy form before this maturity dawns, we may accept it as a discipline or a compulsion, but not out of true understanding.
This happens in religions that deny the form as pagan, uncivilized or something else. They have an inadequate understanding of the whole concept of matter and energy, both from a scientific and spiritual point of view. Energy and matter are convertible; they can exist in both attributes in time and space. All this would have been scientifically unacceptable a century ago; but thanks to advances in quantum physics we are reaching a convergence of science and spirituality. Newtonian physics is giving way to Einsteinian physics. Material science is becoming energy science.
Hindu sages understood these truths tens of thousands of years ago. Not all religions understood or accepted this. They have been forced to accept some of these truths over time as scientific discoveries became irrefutable. Form and formless are two sides of the same experience; matter and energy are two expressions of the same reality.
The danger with religions that deny form, as if form is inferior to formless, is that they deny their own reality. If you believe that only the formless is divine, what are you then? Are you matter with no energy?
Such religions breed a deep-rooted depression within us. Simultaneously they breed hatred against those who think otherwise, whom they consider enemies. Ironically this focus on the formless instills an obsession with material things as well.
That is why such cultures and religions cannot accept rebirth and reincarnation. After all, the concept of reincarnation is based on energy and that energy is indestructible. Why then assume that we are mere matter that needs to be disposed of on the expiry date? It means that these cultures do not believe in their own energy base, in their own divinity. They see themselves as different from Nature, from Existence.
This differentiation breeds violence and terrorism. A deep-rooted inferiority complex and built-in suspicions about one's own nature instills the need to prove themselves violently against those who are centered in themselves. This is why most of the authentic religions never felt a need to propagate beliefs or proselytize. They never attempted to convert others to their religions through fear and greed.
Only those who are afraid try to convince others about how good they are. More people have been killed in the name of religion in the history of mankind than for any other reason.
Let me tell you this: There is no way that we can worship the formless directly without starting with the form. Those who believe they can, only pretend. They use gimmicks to replace the form: they use symbols; they use direction; they use pilgrimage points; they use rituals; they use all this and then believe they worship the formless. For them, the Hindu idol is a stone and is pagan worship; however if they worship another form in another name that is acceptable.
Vedic scriptural recommendations prescribe a graduated evolution. One starts with temples and rituals. One chooses one or more forms that one feels comfortable with. From physical rituals, one progresses to inner worship through sacred chants and words; then to a specific deity form; from there to meditation on the form; and finally to meditation on the formless.
The Ultimate cannot be reached in one step. We need preparation. Otherwise the dangers of being misled are real. We need to understand that when we worship the form, we worship the energy of that form through that form. Gradually we can drop that form and identify with the energy that pervades all forms.