Worship Saguna, Being Conscious of NirgunaSuppose we want to go to a certain place. We take the appropriate train, and alight when the proper station is reached. Similarly, although we remember that God is ultimately, abstract, without form or attributes, we have to assume Him to be saguna. When a man forgets himself in saguna devotion, the ego and the saguna form of God both disappear; and what remains is the true, abstract Ultimate Reality, the nirguna God. Therefore, one should understand the truth and yet practise devotion to saguna. If one forgets oneself while practising saguna devotion, is it not the same as nirguna upasana? A person who has fever loses taste for food, finds everything bitter; similarly, because our entire outlook is thoroughly vitiated by being oriented to the senses, we are not genuinely interested in either saguna or nirguna.
We have some funny ideas about paramartha. Complete ignorance is better than mistaken notions. The sun has been there before, is there today, and is going to be there in the time to come. Consequently we take him for granted, almost overlook him. A like attitude grows up about God. A non-believer may say, 'There is no God; show Him if you claim that He exists.' Actually, even he admits the existence of God, though he may call Him by different names, Nature, the powers that be, etc. Then whatever he accepts to exist, should be regarded as God.
A man cannot write down all that he knows; the reader cannot assimilate every word he reads, nor can he explain all that he has understood; nor again, can the listener grasp everything he hears. Therefore, there is no proof as perfect as personal experience. Experience teaches that all doership finally rests with God; so all that one can seek, is to stick to duty.
The saints observed that prapancha and paramartha are imagined to be in conflict with each other. They synthesized the two, and advised doing prapancha, while keeping aware of God by ceaseless nama-smarana. So, I say again, be in nama-smarana while you go through worldly life; keep firm faith in nama and, without deviating from it, you may do what practical life demands. Nirguna is not perceptible, not comprehensible, so it manifests itself either as divine incarnations or as saints.
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