Sri RamaKrishna says God is both with and without form and yet transcends both

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Has God any form? Or is He formless? God is both with and without form and yet transcends both. He alone can say what else He is. God with form and God without form are like ice and water.

When water freezes into ice it has form. When the same ice is melted into water, all form is lost. God with form and without form arc not two different beings. He who is with form is also without form.

To a devotee, the worshipper of a Personal God,He manifests Himself in various forms. Just think of a shoreless ocean— an infinite expanse of water—no land visible in any direction! Only here and there are visible blocks of ice formed by the intense cold, similarly under the intensifying influence of the deep devotion of His worshipper,the Infinite reduces Himself, as it were, into the Finite and appears before him as a Being with form. 

Again, as on the appearance of the sun the ice melts away, so with the awakening of knowledge, God with form melts away into the Formless, The water of the ocean, when viewed from a distance, appears to have a dark-blue colour, but becomes colourless when taken in the hand; in the same way God is also associated with a definite colour and complexion from a distance,but He is the attribute-less Truth when the devotee merges in Him.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

-- Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth JalasutramLove And Love Alone