Question: Do you think it is better for us to think of God in personal terms or in impersonal terms?

Sri Chinmoy: God can be seen with form, with personal attributes, and He can be seen without form, with impersonal attributes, but it is easier to approach God in His personal aspect. If we try from the very beginning to enter into the impersonal God, it will all be very vague. Then our physical mind — which is so clever — will try to convince us that God is unreal, that our goal is all imagination. But if we see something solid right in front of us — a most luminous being, let us say — and then if we try to enter into the heart and depth of this being, there we will also see the formless. If we go from the form to the formless, the process is easier.

Suppose we see someone standing in front of us. If we know that this person is our father, then we can try to see how much knowledge, wisdom and capacity he has. But if we first try to fathom his knowledge without thinking of the person as our father, then we will be totally lost. If we know that he is our father, immediately his affection and love enter into us and then we can easily see his capacity. At that time, it is impossible for us to separate his capacity from his reality.

A commander has a big battalion and inside him is the power to make this battalion do something. He may say just one or two words and then the power that he controls acts and leaves the whole world stunned. He utters the word of command and immediately his power is seen all over. Once we see him and his capacity, it is impossible to separate his capacity from his reality. It is the same with the personal God. Once we see Him and realise where this immense capacity is coming from, then it is impossible to separate the Being and the capacity.

First let us take the form as reality and from the form let us go to the formless reality. For a seeker, form is a reality and formlessness is also a reality. But to go to the formless reality from the form is infinitely easier than the other way around.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Canada aspires, Canada receives, Canada achieves, part 2, Agni Press, 1974
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