Seeing yet not seeing.

July 19, 2005

We worship the Creator in various forms and each person prays to that form.Now for example people who worship fiery forms of God like Kali,

Narasimha and Anjaneya or deities with santha swaroopam like Rama,

Krishna,Narayana,Siva etc.Suppose the deitiy one worships in fiery aspect

shows Its presence in the form of worship before the worshipper what will be his reaction?If Kali,Narasimha,Anjaneya show their forms with the weapons in their hands what will be the position of the devotee?Will it be one of elation,

fear,bhakthy,or imagining the same as a dream or some magic?It will be certainly difficult to answer.So too if the deity appears in satwic form but with the all the paraphernalia the position of the devotee won't be different.We say and pray for the vision of the deity of our worship but could not believe if the same happened?Though this may be denied by the devotees but the fact will be otherwise.How this mental attitude comes?Becoz we are accustomed to see the deity of our ishtam in temples and in photos or vigrahas.That is the reason the deity won't appear before the worshipper unless his/her mind is able to withstand the shock of the appearance.It will be nice to imagine if the deity one worships shows before him/her, he/she will be a blessed person.But when the same happens he/she will get swooned only as the mental power of the present day human beings hv not developed to such an extent.It may be possible to see and with adoration surrender if the will power has developed

to a great extent.Such thing can be seen only in a small percentage of the people who too hv developed such a power thru prayers,dedication,developing will power,non attachment of material things making the mind thus free of every polluted thinking only to them the deity can show its real form in person.

Till that time we hv to be contented with only prayers in whatever form.

In days of yore when Gurukulavasam was in vogue children used to be sent to be with the Teacher and stay in his ashram and did service to him with faith and devotion and learn the teachings etc taught by the Guru.There were real Gurus available in those days unlike the present age where seldom one comes across any Guru of real merit.Once a Guru had in his ashram disciples of intelligence and among them one student was unfortunately not developed intellectually but had great faith in the Guru and his teachings of scriptures etc.Other disciples used to chide him and called him a dunderhead or idiot.One day the Guru asked all his disciples to go to a forest giving each of them a tiny bird and told to kill the bird but on condition that they shuld get convinced that nobody shuld watch them.The disciples including the fool all went to the forest and did what the Guru commanded and returned after some time tellig him that they hv accomplished the task entrusted to them.But the fool

disciple had not turned up even after sunset and naturally the Guru and other disciples got anxious abt his fate and at last late in the night the fool came back with his head hung in shame and with the bird in his hand.The Guru asked him why he failed in his mission.He replied 'Revered Sir,I wanted to obey your command and went deep into the forest so that nobody watches but I could not kill the bird as I was seeing God everywhere watching me.So you must know my predicament'.The Guru on hearing this knelt down before him and said 'You are really a blessed soul and there is nothing for you to learn'.In this story we find four truths.The disciple saw God's presence everywhere.Secondly God too did see him everywhere he moved.Thirdly the intellectuals could not see what the fool could see.Fourthly the fool disciple had absolute faith in his Guru and his teachings and scriptures.Such a mental attitude one has to develop that whatever things we do we can hide from the whole world but not

God who is always watching our actions though in the process acting as a witness.So any amount of prayers etc can't please God unless our actions also correspond to His laws.

Brahmasamajam devotees don't hv faith in manifested form of God.They believe God as formless one.They are correct in their perspective in a sense.Once Sri Ramakrishna in his discourse to the Brahmos told them that 'God can be seen in a manifested form also.'This created a furore in them.Ramakrishna told them if it is the Will of the Formless Creator to take any form as He likes how the same can be questioned by the human beings who are His creatures.It is the will of the Cosmic Being to do whatever It likes and no being in this Universe has an overriding authority of the ways of the Creator.So to hv an idea that the Creator is only formless is against the Creator Himself.The Brahmos could not answer.Here the question is to 'see' and it is well nigh impossible for the human beings to see Him with physical eyes.Man has got only three dimensional vision.Suppose if we are in a closed room we can see things that are in the room but we can't see what is going on outside the

room unless we hv the third vision.By seeing I mean with eyes and not thru any modern instruments that may be able to pierce the walls of the room to see what is going on outside.

Puranas are replete with such instances of seeing God but that too were subject to them getting a special vision.When Arjuna was in a dilemma for waging war Lord Krishna told him that He will show His Cosmic Vision and for that your physcal eyes are insufficient and hence I give you divine eyes to see My Real Nature.Accordingly arjuna was bestowed the divine eyes and the Lord showed His Cosmic Form.That stilled the mind of the battered mind of arjuna and strengthened his determination to wage the war as the Lord told him that even if you don't kill them they hv already been destroyed by Me and I am using you only as My instrument.Yudhishtra wanted to see the happenings in the war and when he was offered to hv the divine vision to see of what was going on in the battle he refused to accept the vision of seeing his kith and kin killed in an unholy war and said it was ok with him to hear what was going on though he was blind he was able to hv an inner vision of seeing

the theatre of war.Similarly Garuda wanted to see Vishnu and could be able to see Him in the form of Sri Rama.Dhruva was able to see Narayana appear before him.However in the case of Duryodhana and his brothers the case was different.Lord Krishna went to the durbar as an emissary of Pandavas to make a deal with Duryodhana and when he was cantankerous and arrogant not to part with a cent of land to Pandavas Krishna showed to him His Cosmic Form.But Duryodhana in his ignorance and in a rebellous mood shouted that he won't care about such magic tricks of Krishna and wanted to capture Him.For Him Lord Krishna was only a magician and his intellectual capabilities got clouded in his avariousness and vengence.A disappointed Krishna said in the Gita 'without knowing My higher Nature foolish people disregard Me.' Yasoda though not given divine vision was able to see the whole Cosmos in the tiny mouth of Lord Krishna.

Even in the present age many hv seen God by their great penance and devotion in the form in which they worshipped Him.Sri Ramakrishna was able to see Him in the form of Kali.Adi Sankara was able to see Him in the form of a Chandala(lower caste).Thyagaraja was able to see Him in Sri Rama.

Acharya Ramanuja was able to see God in Varadaraja,his beloved deity.Narayana Bhattathiri was able to hv the vision of Krishna when he completed Srimad Narayaneeyam.Dhanurdasa a devotee of Varadaraja Perumal of Kanchi and a disciple of Ramanujacharya was so impressed with the beautiful eyes of his wife and was in all praise of the same.Both he and his wife once went to the car(ratha) festival.Ramanuja was perturbed at the mental set up of his disciple and hence advised him to see the Lord in the eyes of Varadaraja.Obeying his Gurus advise Dhanurdasa saw the eyes of the deity in the car seeing the eyes of the deity and lo, he could not wink for a log time after seeing the beautiful eyes of the Lord and he forgot the wholeworld for a long time and perhaps for the rest of his life as nobody cld know anything of his change from that time.But it is all at the discretion of the Lord.He knows our karma effects and interested to take a liking for a devotee in view of his/her

goodness.That act of God can't be fathomed by our comprehensive powers.

Therefore,the gist of the phenomenon of seeing God is that though God canappear with any form the devotee also required some sort of a supernatura

eyes to see HIM'Otherwise anybody around them at that time would also have

seen Him.Muchukunda( in the Bhagavatam) helps us to remove the doubts..

Of course he was a great devoteebut always with doubts.He at last was able to discover the Truth and says..

Manyetvam devadevanam trayarnam purusharshabham

Yadbadhase guhadhvantam pradipah prabhoya yatha II

(I consider Thee to be Mahavishnu ,the Lord of Trimurtis,who is all above divinities.The brilliance of Thy form is dispelling the darkness from this cave of intellect like a glowing light.)

By His mere glance all of Muchkundas doubts were destroyed.So he was face to face with Lord Vishnu.When the mind has developed such a great attitude by absolute resolve to see Him in the form in which one worshps his Ishta Devata the formless Creator takes that form whether Kali,Narasimha,

Krishna etc and the sheer will of seeing Him in that form dispells all his fear psychosis,anxiety,doubts abt the form to be an illusory or magical one of his mind and other phobias and the inner strength will gather such a momentum to receive Him with all his mind in absolute love and devotion and thereby lead to his salvation.The more he moves Godwards He will move with more speed towards His sincere amd loving devotees.That is the experience of Great Souls.They then hv no fear of seeing Him in any form as the darkness that clouds their inner minds just vanish like dews before the Sun and enlightenment dawns on them.

Hare Krishna,

agraman

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