God Is Beyond Description Through Words

May 1977, Summer Course 1977, Brindavan

Published English.

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It is not possible for any one to say what is. One can at best say this is not , that is not , but no one can say what is. Truth, which is permanent, and wisdom, which is infinite, are in some ways related to . These or other words do not describe at all. In the same manner, it is impossible to describe what Divinity is, what God is.

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The story of is as sacred as it is surprising. Although , , and have tried to describe the qualities of , they have only succeeded in saying that this is not God, that is not God, and so on; but they have never been able to pinpoint and state what God is and describe His attributes and qualities by positive statements. However great the person concerned may be, it is not possible for him to say that God is like this or like that. God is beyond all description in terms of words we know and use.

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Many poets and many speakers could talk about God, God's , God's powers and God's manifesta-tions in their writings; but it was not possible for most of them to experience the true greatness of God. Till now, no one could find either an individual or a text, which has described truly the great form of God. To some extent, limited by their own beliefs, based upon their own faith, they can say God is like this. They can only point a finger as we point at the moon, which we can see only from a distance. Such a description is of limited validity, within the context of their own faith and their own belief.

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The ancient poets and the ancient , were all knowing and so they were only talking about in a very modest way and were describing parts of this glory. These great men had great powers, had great strength and were selfless people, and had divine qualities in them. Because of these qualities and because they were all-knowing they tried to picture God in the world, to some limited extent.

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The poets of today also describe God in their writings and in their poems and thus try to picture Him to the rest of the world. But they should ask themselves the question whether a thousandth of what they say in their descriptions is based on their own belief and on their own faith in God. We read in such writings that is the incarnation of , that is God in human form and so on. But we are not able to get the faith and confidence in the human form of God. Truly, if the statements that are in such writings are put into practice, the world will be a very good one.

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There is a great difference that we perceive between the poets of today and the poets of earlier days, the of today and the of the ancient lore. The of those days were picturing God in the usual way in a human form, as a human being, in their speeches and writings. But in their minds and in their faith they were regarding the human form as an incarnation of God Himself. Here we should ponder over one aspect of the with great care. , along with and , entered the forest of . The in the knew very well that was an incarnation of God, and so they came to and placed their difficulties and troubles before Him. Not only this, many were killed by the demons. These incidents were brought to the notice of , and he was moved and his heart melted. He could not bear this any longer; and so He took a vow at that very instant of time and gave His word to the that from that time, He would undertake the task of exterminating the .

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In this vow of 's noticed what is usually referred to as the vow of . came and cautioned that He was taking a vow, which was very difficult to fulfil. Then answered by saying that the Himalayas can give up the ice on them, that the moon can give up its brightness and the oceans may flow beyond their boundaries, but will never give up His vow unfulfilled.

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From that day onwards, saw to it that the in the were removed from their positions of strength, and He has been protecting the from the hands of those . He spent ten years in the forest fulfilling His vow and the task He took upon Himself. He was tired. He wanted to take some rest and then wanted to move to the of Rishi . He wanted to see Rishi and ask him where he could put up a hut, and live along with and . In fact, he wanted to live in 's . thought for a while, and smilingly told that sixteen miles from his , there was a beautiful place on the banks of the river . He suggested that can have his hut at that beautiful place and live there.

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It is not as if did not know that was an incarnation of Himself. We should recognise the inner meaning of the fact that while knew very well that Him-self came in human form and asked for a place in his , he suggested that take up a hut sixteen miles away from his . The idea that was in the mind of was that, if stayed along with and in his , then could not possibly (as was to happen later) be stolen. In that context, the killing of would become even more difficult and would not have taken place at all. Thus, the had already made a master plan for the destruction of all the .

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It is at the time when , along with and , was having His sacred hut sixteen miles away from the Rishi's that came there and was humiliated. Later, the entire drama unfolds itself.

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Not only this, while was wanting to stay sixteen miles away from his , took care to see that the bow and arrows which were given to him by were also handed over to as weapons. There is an important truth here. These knew well when the destruction of the was coming. They kept these weapons with great care in order to hand them over to when time was ripe for such destruction.

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The second thing we should notice here is that took for the sake of protecting his in his . After , the , was killed in the , there were two sons of who were still alive. They were and . While was killed, was allowed to go alive. There is some significance which we should recognise here. The reason for this is that had a future role to play in the destruction of . So that the task of destroying the by can be completed according to plan, was allowed to go alive.

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After was disfigured, she went to and conveyed to him a description of . Then went to and sought his help for killing . knew the power and strength of . So, he described the power and strength of truly to . made it quite clear to that is not an ordinary person and that is God Himself; and with His power and strength, He can achieve anything. As a result of such a description, it is quite natural, however brave and however courageous an individual may be, that some kind of fear will naturally enter his mind. In that context, turned back and returned to . While was in that hesitant mood, went again to and told him that while he is brave and beautiful, while he had everything in his favour, that he is not able to get for himself is something which is difficult to understand. Thus, she poisoned 's mind.

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When such words were heard by , he became rather weak, succumbed to temptation and went again to for advice. again told all that had to be told. But since was all the time recollecting what his sister had told him, he was not listening nor paying any attention to what was telling. In that conversation, became very angry and threatened to kill if he did not obey his orders. then thought that anyway he was going to die and decided that he would prefer to die in the hands of , rather than in the hands of . Accordingly, he accepted the orders of and took the form of a deer and went to the hermitage where and were living. We notice here that if was killed earlier when killed , then would not have fulfilled this part of his in the drama.

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Here we see that not only did the realise the divinity of , but also knew that He was God in human form. In order that He may fulfil the task for which He had come, He spared earlier, so that could play his part in 's master plan.

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These , while projecting a picture of to ordinary persons as an ideal human being, an example for all of them, knew that they were hiding to some extent the truth of as an incarnation of God. This was the reason why , when he took for the protection of his own , handed over all his weapons which were in his possession to . God took the human form of as a leela of His. The took advantage of this human form of and used Him for the purpose of the destruction of the .

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took for the protection of his in the normal course. As soon as his was over, it was 's duty to take and back to . He did not do that. From his , took them to . There, the Bow of was broken and thereafter the marriage of and took place. Thus every step taken by was indeed planned for the ultimate destruction of .

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The of those days worked in a selfless manner, for the prosperity of mankind. In fact, they were using their and their strength for helping mankind. A human being, on the day when he can push away his selfishness, when he can push away his ego, will really acquire his entitlement for . On one occasion, when entered and looked at the beauty and brilliance of the city built by , he thought that there could be no one else anywhere in this world who can equal in his strength, his brilliance and his ability. Simply because of some bad qualities in him, should have been subjected to these difficulties. Some amount of ego and selfishness in him should have degraded him to that position.

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Man may be very wealthy, man may be very prosperous, but if man suffers from selfishness and ego, he is undoubtedly going to suffer difficulties and pain. In this context, we should realise that it is the duty of every human being to give up his selfishness and to be able to serve others in a selfless manner. In the story of , especially in His younger days, the manner in which He used to respect the elders, the manner in which he used to show affection and obedience to his mothers, and the manner in which He treated others around Him must be taken as an impor-tant lesson and as an example to all of us. These are things which young students should know very well. In , we see a great amount of humility. There were many in the forest, and used to go and pay respects to them, but the were all the time proclaiming, apparently only as a facade for the world, that they were very wise people, and that was only the son of a king. The truth is that behind this facade, in their minds, they had the greatest devotion and respect for the divinity in .

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When was nearing his end, he recognised the divinity in and he surrendered to . It is not as if there was no good reason for these to refrain from proclaiming the powers and the strength and the divinity of .

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The of those days exceeded all limits of decent human behaviour. They were terrorising people; and the thought that if they proclaimed the divinity in immediately, the destruction of the , which was to take place at the hands of , would not take place. It is in this context that throughout the story of the entire , from the time of the birth of till the time when was destroyed, was describing only as an ideal human form.

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was aware of all types of . He had intelligence which could cover every aspect of life. He could demonstrate the need for humility, respect and devotion under the most trying conditions. He was a great individual who conducted Himself and His life consistent with the conditions prevailing around Him, at that time, in the country.

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Looking at the body of after his death, expressed unwillingness to perform the last rites that are usually performed. thought that was a very great sinner, that he was thinking badly of , the incarnation of the Lord, and that it was not right to perform the obsequies of such a person. , who was an embodiment of , called and said, “If there is any dislike for a person, that should not go beyond his death. Let it end with his death. All hatred should disappear with the death of the person.” asked , “Will you, as a brother, perform the obsequies or shall I perform the obsequies?” As soon as he heard these words from , realised his mistake and was prepared to perform the last rites.

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It is because knew all the aspects of , he is referred to by saying “.” (He is the very embodiment of .) Thus, , the Lord, took the human form in and by His conduct and by His adherence to , he demonstrated that is part and parcel of the ordinary daily life of a human being. How should one conduct oneself in a family? How should one conduct oneself towards a friend? How should one conduct oneself towards the community? In this manner and in all aspects, was translating every moment of his life to be an example for ideal behaviour.

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By showing equal affection to all people, used to attract all the people. In His childhood spoke very little. He was conducting Himself in that manner in order to show the world the ideal that is contained in limited speech. Limited talking will always promote the divine strength in one and will also promote his memory. It creates respect for him in the community. If one talks too much, it will, to an extent, destroy one's memory. Not only this, if one talks too much, the strength in the nerves will diminish and the person will become somewhat feeble. It is in this context that all great saints were observing the path of silence, whenever possible. By observing silence, one can get strength. Because the youth of today talk too much, it so happens that their memory becomes weak; and when they go to the examination hall, they forget what they have read. Amongst the many ideals which has given to the young people, the first one is to talk less. The second one is that when you meet elders, to show them respect. The third one is to happily obey the orders of one's parents.

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went and saw just before taking and for the protection of his . As soon as asked for his two sons, was quite pleased and sent for his children. In that meeting were , , and . When and came in, they first touched the feet of the mother, then the feet of the father, then the feet of and . According to our traditional concepts, one is asked to regard one's mother, father, and guest as Gods; and they set an example for this in acting thus.

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When the rituals in the forest were completed, and came to and requested him to permit them to go back to as their work was over. then told them that he had just received the news of celebrations that are taking place in and suggested that they all go and participate in the celebrations.

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, who was very smart, reacted to this and said that their parents had sent them for the protection of the , but not to go to . then addressed and said that they were asked, by their parents, to do whatever asked them to do. He, therefore, suggested that they should follow and do whatever he asked them to do. Here, we should carefully see how much respect and attention is giving to the words of . Later, even at the time of going to the forest, it was not who gave the orders. When saw , he was simply steeped in sorrow. How could , in that sorrow, tell to go to the forest? How could he speak at all when he was steeped in such sorrow? Recognising the situation, gave expression to what she thought was in the mind of . Accepting the decision and the orders of , went to the forest. Here, we should recognise as a person who implicitly obeys the orders of the father, whether they came directly from the father or indirectly, through someone else. The sacredness that is contained in obeying the orders of the parents and the beneficial results that will flow by following the orders of one's parents is something which we should note very carefully. By looking at it in a worldly manner, one may ask the questions, why should I continually go on respecting my parents? I have grown older, I have become an important person and I am strong. Why should I still respect my parents?

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Young people, the wealth which we may earn, the prosperity which we may acquire, the mansions which we may build are all transient and temporary. Our conduct is the most important thing in our life. Our conduct is the one which lays the foundation for our future life. It is only when we can shape our present conduct along a proper path, that out future can hopefully be peaceful and happy. In this context, we can take a small incident from the as an example. , who was wanting to be close to , was willing to sacrifice all her ornaments, sacrifice all her wealth and every one of her possessions. Because of this supreme sacrifice, it was possible for her to go close to . But in the forest at , the moment developed an attraction to the golden deer, became distant from her. If our worldly desires and worldly attachments become stronger, we move further away from God. If we cut out the worldly desires more and more, we get closer and closer to .

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We are now neither here nor there. We are in the middle. We are living in the along with human beings. On one side there is the Divine world, and on the other side is the Netherland, the lower world. If we develop qualities like lust and anger, we will move closer and closer to the lower world and we will become more and more distant from the Divine world. But if we travel towards the Divine world, then we will become more and more distant from the lower world. To attach importance to the transient pleasures is the same as moving away from divinity.

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In the spiritual sphere, it has been said “.” What exists in reality is only one, there is no parallel second that exists. All other things that we see in this world are manifestations arising out of changing time. Man is one, but changes come in him because of changes in time. When he is ten years old, we call him a boy. When he is thirty years old, we call him a man; when he is seventy-five years old, we call him a grandfather. The different stages, described as child, boy, man and grandfather, have come about because of changes in time. At all times there is only one aspect of this individual which is common. So also, it is by the change in time that good and bad appear. There do not exist two separate things called good and bad. Good is simply the opposite of bad. Absence of good may appear as bad.

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There is a reason for my talking to you on an example like this today. For our summer classes, today is the third day. For another twenty-seven days in these classes, we have to collect sufficient amount of pleasure and happiness. In your heart, in the vessel of your heart, you have to create sufficient space for gathering such good material during the next twenty seven days. Today by my talking to you at some length, I can remove all that you may have used earlier for filling the vessel of your heart and make a place so that you can fill in it the good things that will come your way. If the head is empty, you can put whatever you want to in that empty head. But if the head is filled with all kinds of things, where is the place to put anything else into the head? If the head has no place in it, how is it possible to fill it at all? It won't be possible to establish what is good in our . In order to establish and resuscitate our ancient , the students must take a vow to bring about necessary changes in their conduct. If bad ideas have already filled your head, if you have got such ears which wish to listen to bad things, if you use your eyes only to look at obscene and bad things, if you have a mind which is crooked, if you want to deceive others by your ideas and if you have a heart that can love only one person, how can good things thrive in your presence? Truth and justice must be established. Untruth and injustice must be pushed away.

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When you are young, you will have physical strength, spiritual strength and the ability by which you can establish good things. If you waste this part of your life, you are not going to get once again this strength and time. If you let this opportunity slip away once, it will never come back again. The youth that has slipped away and the water that has flowed down the stream, can never retrace their path. This time of your life is a very sacred age for you. You must make a sincere attempt by which you can make this part of your life very sacred. Everything in , every incident in , relating to and are such that they offer good ideals even to this day, to young people. Make an attempt to regard them as ideal examples and try to follow them. More than worshipping God, to regard God as an ideal example of a perfect human being is important. To worship God and cause pain to human beings cannot be called devotion. If you want to proclaim to the world that you are true devotees, then you must show that in your conduct and in your daily life.

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In the world, there are so many people who are educated. But this education is not giving us the necessary happiness. True peace is present within your heart. To go out and search for true peace of mind is a waste of time. All that you wish to acquire is within you. You are God. That is why I often tell you that you are not one person, but you are three persons: the one you think you are, the one others think you are, the one you really are. That is why we say that in the aspect of your body, in the aspect of your mind and in the aspect of your , you have three different facets of your personality. In the aspect of your body, you do physical work. Take the decision to do good work. was always devoted to work. It is in doing your work, that you derive happiness. In the aspect of your mind, promote good ideas and good thoughts. If in these two aspects of work and worship, we take the proper path, then comes the important role of your heart, which signifies wisdom. Wisdom is the third aspect.

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Young people, you now have an opportunity to understand the meaning of these sacred things. I am hoping that by understanding the meaning of these sacred things, you will be able to change your ideas, and develop good conduct and good ideas. Derive examples from and 's life and thereby improve your life.