On Forms

This one's probably gonna be short, given my lack of sleep over the preceding 24 hours. (Yay for calc...) But exciting news! I'm finally starting to show up. Google "The Binary Path hindu" and I'm the first link. Huzzah! Anyways, onto the blog.

The ultimate goal of most dharmic people is to attain moksha and return to Brahman. How do you go about doing this? Well, the stock answer is "realize that God is more than this, or that. Realize that the form is an illusion, and that God has no form." Typically, that'll give somebody enough of a pointer to get them started. However, it does have a curious impact on people.

Because that's the rote answer, it appears to place the Formless on a higher level than the Form. Since it's target #1, and certainly the one that's harped on the most, it's only natural to think that pursuing the Formless is a superior task than pursuing the Form. Granted, it's typically the harder of the two paths, but that doesn't mean it's superior. Quite the contrary. If you follow only a single path, you're going to end up nowhere. Why? Because by choosing to follow on path, you forsake the other. To do so is to deny the validity and divinity of something, either the world we live in or Brahman itself. It can also lead to (idiotic) superiority complexes. "The Form is better because you can touch it" or "My way is more difficult, so I'm much manlier than everybody else!" Either way, it adds road-blocks.

Instead of seeing the Form and Formless as two paths, people should see them as compliments of each other, just like clay and water. Ultimately, people want water. It's life-giving, nourishing, and basically what life runs off of. Without it, we'd all die. However, water doesn't like being scooped up for a drink. It will splish and splash around, trying to find escape crevices in your hand. Obviously, accomplishing anything involving more than a sip of water is going to be very labor-intensive and discouraging. As such, we need clay cups. Although you can't drink the clay or survive off of it, it's still a necessary item. It holds it's shape, doesn't melt in your fingers, and delivers the all-important water to anywhere it's needed without compromising itself or the water. Similarly, people who worship the Form need to do so because the water just runs through their hands far too quickly. Conversely, people who chase after the Formless have a harder time because they don't have a cup to conveniently drink water from.

Now, how's this all relate back to me? Well, it's fairly simple. I'm the backwards oddball, even in spirituality. I've little to no issue worshiping and wrapping my head and heart around the idea that EVERYTHING is God, and the God is everything. However, I still have some troubles packing God into a neat little meat puppet. As such, my worship needs to be directed more towards the Form than it currently is.

I'm sorry for the staggering and stuttering prose. I've been up for little under 23 hours straight, and I'm falling asleep at my keyboard. As such, if it's absolutely horrid, I'll take the time and re-write it in understandable English. Till then,

Naa Varain!