The Rays Are Not Different from the Light
Hislop: We see here the form of God as Swami. How are we to understand that form? Does God appear only as that one form? If the question is improper, may Swami please disregard it.
Sai: The question is all right. Wires in the room are everywhere, but only one bulb is connected into the wires. Only the one light is seen in full power. The same current is in all the wires. The Avatar is one only, and this one body is taken by the Avatar. Of course, a brilliant light spreads outward into rays, but the rays are not different from the light.
Hislop: Swami, please go a little deeper into ‘form’ and ‘formless.’
Sai: The body is not the truth we attribute to it. An example: For 30 years a man worships the mother who gave him birth. He massages her feet, prostrates before her, gazes into her eyes with love, listens to her voice, is warmed and made happy by her affectionate and loving regard. At age 60, the mother dies. At once the son cries out, ‘Mother, mother, why have you left me? To whom did the man cry out? The body he worshipped was there, the feet he massaged daily were there, but he cried out that his mother was not there, that she had left him. We have to conclude that even though the man had for the past 30 years regarded the body and mother as one and the same, yet when mother died he instantly knew that mother was not body and that mother had departed even though body remained. So, of what value was the body that never was mother even though for a time it had been regarded as mother? Contemplating this mystery, it is apparent that had it not been for the body, mother could not have been known. It was only through the medium of the body that the man had been able to experience and thus know the tender, loving, sublime quality of mother that resulted in love rising up in his heart. The formless, timeless quality of ‘mother’ could be known and attained only through the impermanent form.
Hislop: Swami! This is wonderful! This explains the real significance of form!
Sai: The same is true of the formless, transcendent divine. Without form, it is non-existent for us. We become cognizant of the Divine through the medium of form.
Hislop: Sai has told us the secret of form and formless! How is transition made from worship of God in form to worship of the formless Divine?
Sai: Transition is made by full adoration of God in form, then seeing that beloved form in everyone, then God is every place and loving others comes naturally and easily.
Source: Conversations with Bhagavan
