Ananya-Bhakti: Aruṇāchala-Śiva
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2017-07-09

This series is classified Viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda | Bhakti-yoga | Svapna | Anāhata-cakra
Why did Śrī Bhagavān choose to teach us the correct way of practicing dualistic devotion by composing verses addressed to, and in praise of God or guru in the form of the holy mountain Aruṇāchala? 

A clue to answer this question is given by Śrī Bhagavān in Ulladu-Narpadu 4: 

“If we are a form, the world and God will be likewise. If we are not a form, who could see their forms, and how? Can whatever is seen be otherwise than the eye and consciousness that see it? We, that eye—the formless consciousness ‘I am’—are the limitless eye: the infinite consciousness.” 

As long as we continue to separate from our Reality by imagining ourself to be the form of a physical body, we cannot conceive of God except as a form. Until we experience Him as our real Self, which is the formless and therefore limitless consciousness ‘I am’, we can know God only as a thought in our mind, and every thought is only a form—a mental image. 

Though we can imagine God to be formless, that imagination is still only a thought, which is a form that we have created in our mind, so by imaging Him thus we cannot experience His true formless nature. We can experience His formless Reality only by turning our mind inwards and drowning it in the absolute clarity of our Self-conscious Being, which alone is His formless Reality.

As Śrī Bhagavān says in Ulladu-Narpadu 8: 

“Know thus: Whoever worships the absolute Reality or God in whatever form, giving it whatever name, that is a path or means to see the nameless and formless Reality in that name and form. However, becoming one with that Reality, having carefully scrutinized or known one’s own truth, essence or Beingness, and having thereby subsided or dissolved in the truth, essence or Beingness of that true Reality, is alone seeing it in truth.”

Until we know our formless Reality, we cannot experience the formless Reality of God, and therefore we can know Him only as a form. All forms of dualistic devotion are directed to God as a form of one sort or another.

But since God exists as an image in our mind, is it not sufficient for us to direct our feelings of dualistic devotion towards our mental image or concept of God? Why did Śrī Bhagavān choose to exemplify the practice of dualistic devotion by praising and praying to God in the physical form of Aruṇāchala? 

If we prefer, directing our feelings of dualistic devotion towards our mental image of God is sufficient. However, the aim of all forms of devotional practice, whether performed by mind, speech or body, is to focus our love upon the one absolute Reality that we call ‘God’.

Since our love is usually dissipated as innumerable desires for external objects or experiences, it is easier for us to withdraw it from all other external things by focusing it upon a definite name or form that we identify as God, rather than by trying to focus it upon a less definite concept of God. 

Knowing that it is easier for an habitually extroverted human mind to focus its love upon a definite name and form rather than upon a vague concept, Śrī Bhagavān exemplified the practice of dualistic devotion by praising and praying to God in the name and form of Aruṇāchala Hill.

Though God is omnipresent, we cannot actually experience Him as such while we see this world of manifold objects and mistake it to be real. Everything is a form of God, because He is the one real substance that appears as all this multiplicity. But thinking thus will tend to dissipate our mind rather than to focus it upon one point. 

Therefore, to prevent our mind from being dissipated by this illusion of multiplicity, it is helpful to focus our love and attention upon one name and form of God that particularly attracts us. 

It is true that worshipping God in the form of a mountain may not appeal to all people, but that is not the point. The aim of worshipping God is to gain true love for our natural state of absolutely peaceful, infinitely happy Being.

In whatever form we wish to worship God, whether by mind, speech or body, we can learn much to help, guide and inspire us in our spiritual practice by meditating deeply upon the example and meaning of Śrī Bhagavān’s devotional verses.

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