Find more information about the saguna and nirguna schools and their teaching?????
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God can be experienced in two aspects – as NIRGUNA and SAGUNA .
NIRGUNA is the eternal all-pervading and omnipresent divine consciousness.
SAGUNA is the manifestation of God in form.
The sun is a graphic simile for this. Sunlight is the Nirguna form of the sun, and the celestial body is the Saguna form.
When God manifests in form he appears to be limited by his form, but his presence is unlimited and all-pervading. Nothing exists without God’s presence. God is omnipresent and absolute.
God is in everything, and everything is in God. God exists in everything that we call “good” as well as in everything we describe as “bad”. In God there is no limitation or differentiation, only unity. Nirguna God is pure energy, the living and conscious power that is at work in the Universe. Reality, the Supreme Self, is Nirguna God.
88988ramātmā is the same everywhere, in every world, on every level throughout the entire Cosmos. Until you recognise this you will continue to be reborn. Paramātmā remains the same – in past, present and future. It is the same in the heart of an ant or an elephant, in every living being. It is the Cause of everything.”
But how can one reach Nirguna God? How can one meditate on God; how can one become one with God? Our true Self is Nirguna. It is shapeless; it has no form. The opposite of this is Saguna, our physical body, which we will one day leave. In essence we are permanently connected to Nirguna. We are Nirguna, but are not conscious of this.
a part of God. Quantity plays no role in this – it is only the quality and nature that are important. And we would never describe a drop of water as the “ocean”.
When water rises in tiny drops from the ocean we call it “mist” or “fog”. When this moisture rises up into the sky it becomes known as “clouds”, and “rain” when it falls down again. The limited, individual existence of a raindrop comes to an end when it unites with other drops in a lake, stream or river; and the existence of the river ends when it flows out into the ocean after a long journey. Then all the drops of water that had united in the river again become the “ocean”.
In the same way as the drops of water re-united with their source, the ocean, our limited, individual existence and consciousness will one day re-unite with their source – the unlimited, divine essence. Only the same qualities can unite. Only the same can become one. For as long as we still carry our personal qualities and Karmas with us, union with the divine is not possible. Before we can attain God-Realisation we must shed all those feelings, thoughts and qualities that are obstacles to the development of divine principles.
Our true Self is not the body, nor the feelings, nor the thoughts; and it is neither the intellect nor our qualities. The Self is energy – vibration – it is in constant motion. It is only because of the ignorant notion that we do not know God that a difference exists between the Self and God. God-Realisation means Self-Realisation – and at the same time Self-Realisation is God-Realisation. Those who have not yet realised their Self, cannot realise God; and those who have not experienced God do not know who they, themselves, are.
It is everyone’s goal to reach God again. We are all travellers and each soul is striving to return to God, either consciously or unconsciously. Just as a stone falls to the earth because of gravity, and a river flows into the ocean because of the gradient, an elemental force of attraction draws us back to God. We are all seeking God – our true Self. God is actually within us, but until we recognise this we feel cut off and lost in time and space.
God in Nirguna form is in fact everywhere and in everything, but this is not easily comprehensible or “appealing” to our human intellect. The ultimate goal of humans is to become one in consciousness with the Nirguna form of God. But the medium through which we can reach this goal is the embodied form of God, Saguna.
It is difficult or almost impossible for our intellect to grasp and understand the universal, eternal, all-conscious and omnipresent divine energy. It is much easier for us to have a divine incarnation as a figurehead, towards whom we are able to direct our feelings.
In the Saguna aspect, God appears in a human form making it easier for us to come closer. There have been divine incarnations in every age to show people the path to Nirguna God