I live with an understanding that there is no supreme reality (or God) apart from “this”, where everything is an arising. Even as a child, my mind would go blank when I entered places of worship, like temples or Gurudwaras. I could never see anything in form, but I remained curious about the space in which material objects appear. This curiosity led me to investigate “that” which holds the form. That, without which, the form has no independent existence. Now that led to further investigation into what holds objects (thoughts) in the psychological universe.
For example, “Jagjot” is a thought; it is a concept that exists in the psychological universe. Just as clay, when mixed with water, becomes mud. Does mud have an independent existence outside of clay and water? Similarly, Jagjot is simply an inference derived from conditions and has no independent, concrete existence outside of those conditions. Just as you can use mud and give it any shape or form, the divine conditioning gives this entity “Jagjot” shapes and forms that are represented by changing personas.
Therefore, I arrived at the following concept: The formless cannot be known without form, and the form has no existence apart from the formless. In other words, formlessness is both the source and the substance of the form and the formless. To see God in objectivity is to know that God alone exists! There is no God separate from whatever is arising. A separate God, with special attributes (as we imagine IT to be), is a limited entity. And no matter how powerful the limited entity may be, its final destination is its dissolution into its Source.
Shiva and Shakti are one. Shakti is the vibration that materializes the universe, and Shiva is the formlessness or unconditional love that is the source and substance of manifestation. God alone sees, separates, unites, and enjoys itself! It creates a limitation to know itself as the unlimited. Some of you may say that’s a cruel game, as separation causes pain and suffering, but even that is God expressing. Ramana Maharshi said that to be with oneself as one is, is to know God.
With love, Jagjot
