Does the Hindu God have a form?
original source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/184695/
Education on Hindu religion was prevalent in our environment till a couple of centuries ago in various forms. Arts, Story-telling and Lectures on topics regarding temples propagated religious principles among people in multitudes of forms. On the other hand, folk arts and story-telling forms explained these religious principles among people to no lesser extent.
I have been observing the higher philosophy and religious details explained in TamilNadu's folk arts and stories recently. Its amazing that one can explain the complete Hindu spiritual traditions merely by citing the examples and sentences from the folk arts.
Life in our Indian villages was marred in the last 2 centuries due to droughts and wars. When the Maratha and Nayaka empires waned in the 17th century, anarchy prevailed for half a century with no strong reign in the country. Europeans started capturing India. Under British's exploitation, India faced two great famines in the 1770s and 1870s, which destroyed the old structures. Millions succumbed to starvation. Several million more migrated inland as refugees. Few millions emigrated in search of a livelihood.
The primary victims of this ruin were traditional wisdom and arts. Under our traditional organization, kings, feudatories, landlords and merchants ought to support and sustain the scholars and artists. The famines weakened the aristocrats and the rich and consequentially the scholars and artists were forsaken. And this took away the wisdom that they preached.
Even today, a portion of those arts survives and huge parts of those books exist. But we have distanced ourselves from those treasures mentally. We have become disinterested in anything other than skills for livelihood. Hindus are probably the only ones who are ignorant of their own religion. And Hindu might be the only religion consisting preachers ignorant of their religion's foundational spirituality. It is the result of such a historical background.
In Hindu religion, does a god have a form? Most of the hindus would reply in affirmative for this question, because of idol-worshipping practiced in all temples. God's forms are narrated in all religious hymns
But if a person listens carefully to at least one of the religious verses, he/she will understand that the Hindu religion's conception of a god is different. We worship lord Murugan in Pazhani or Thiruchendhur. That's the life form of lord Murugan. And we also sing along Kandharalangaaram. What does it say?
உருவாய் அருவாய், உளதாய் இலதாய்
மருவாய் மலராய், மணியாய் ஒளியாய்
கருவாய் உயிராய், கதியாய் விதியாய்
குருவாய் வருவாய், அருள்வாய் குகனே
As a deity, at the same time as formless; as someone existent and also as a non-existent; as a bud and as the flower blossoming from that bud; as a precious stone and the glow from that stone; as the embryo and also as the life within that embryo; as a force and the principles behind that force - Muruga - Thou shall come" - calls Arunagirinadhar.
What is the gist of this verse? God is forever in dualistic modes as existent-nonexistent, deity-formless. That's what gives it the completeness.
One can cite thousands of such hymns.
‘உலகெலாம் உணர்ந்து ஓதற்கு அரியவன்
நிலவுலாவிய நீர்மலி வேணியன்
அலகில் சோதியன், அம்பலத்தாடுவான்’
The first verse of the saivite PeriyaPuraanam announces, "Even if one can understand the whole world, he/she cannot understand Him. At the same time God wears the moon and the Ganges on his head" - thus realizing Him as both the deity and the formless. Even as the verse refers Him as an unitless light, it also refer to Him as a dancer in the Heavens.
Vaishnavites can recall Nammaazhvaar's verses.
உளன் எனில் உளன் அவன் உருவம் இவ் உருவுகள்
உளன் அலன் எனில் அவன் அருவம் இவ் அருவுகள்
உளன் என இலன் என இவை குணம் உடைமையில்
உளன் இரு தகைமையொடு ஒழிவு இலன் பரந்தே
If you feel God exists then He exists. Everything here is His forms. If you feel He doesn't exists, then He doesn't. His formlessness is what represents all the nothingness here. God exists as the Dualistic Existent-NonExistent state Everywhere sans absence is the song's underlying meaning.
So what does the Hindu tradition say? The divinity being defined by the Hindu tradition is philosophically quite advanced and detailed, when compared with those of other religions. It needs to be understood intuitively. The tradition defines it as a mystery. It is a contradictory truth. This is referred to as "dialectics". Ancient scriptures refers to this as "Yogaathma Sathyam". 'Yogam' means conjunction. i.e. Divinity is the Truth obtained only when contradictory sides converge. That is an unsolvable mystery. "There is a lurking paradox in the heart of absolute", mentions Nataraja Guru.
The 'God' mentioned in the most ancient RigVeda is "Brammam". Its a pure philosophical metaphor. Its formless. It doesn't fall under any of the defined boundaries. It cannot be understood or identified by any means.
RigVeda calls it the "Brammam". The verse defining the "Brammam" is present in that scripture in the 10th episode. It defines the "Brammam" as unexplainable and unfathomable. It is the detailed form of this verse that's being expressed in the words of other Hindu sages.
But this raises another question. If "Brammam" is unfathomable, who recognized it as such? Isn't that realization a sort of understanding in itself? If "Brammam" does exists, then are all things present here different?
"Brammam" cannot be understood nor explained completely. But everyone can feel its presence to an extent at least. We can feel it in the motherhood of a small insect and also when looking at the sky with its billions of planets and galaxies. Even if we watch our body, we can feel it. That feeling is the state where "Brammam" emerges.
If "Brammam" is elsewhere and the nature and the cosmos present here is different from that, then how is it that we are able to feel it? RigVeda answers this by stating that everything present here is "Brammam"; There is nothing except Brammam. It is everything. It is beyond everything.
ஆண் அல்லன், பெண் அல்லன், அல்லா அலியும் அல்லன்,
காணலும் ஆகான், உளன் அல்லன், இல்லை அல்லன்,
பேணுங்கால் பேணும் உரு ஆகும்
While religions world-over identify God as masculine, Nammaazhvaar defines as, "God is not a male, nor a female, neither a transgender, cannot be seen, non-existent, not a non-existent. But if we think of a form, He is the one present in that form.
The concept that whatever we identify as God are all Godforms emerged from this exact premise. Everything are Gods. But Gods are all these and beyond these as well. Formless God was called as "Nirguna Brammam". It is a God sans identities and behaviors. The God that took the form that we were able to identify through our limited knowledge was called "Saguna Brammam". They are Gods with qualities and identities. Shiva, Vishnu, Aiyanaar and Sudalaimaadan are such Gods.
Therefore God is formless, sans origin or end. It is beyond the states of 'Existing' and 'Non-Existing'. Everything present here is God. So, all forms here are God. Whatever form we feel it to be, it is God's form. This dualistic truth is Hindu religion's concept of God. Unless this concept is grasped with at least a pinch of intuition, it cannot be understood.
The song on Sudalaimaadan performed by folk-artists has a sentence like this,
பூவாகி வந்தானே ஏ சுடலை
பூவின் மணமாகி வந்தானே ஏ சுடலை
மணத்தின் நெனைப்பாகி வந்தானே ஏ சுடலை
This is stating the same truth. Flower has a form, while the fragrance is just a feeling, whereas the thought is something beyond the feeling. The soul which originates this thought is also the Sudalai. It is this dualistic symbolism of God that permeates all through the hierarchy of Hindu religion.
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