5.4.3. Parabrahman Possesses a Human Form yet Divine

[Full title: Sākāra: Parabrahman as Having Form (3): Parabrahman Possesses a Human Form yet Divine]

When we assert that Parabrahman possesses a human form but here the doubt may arise that do all the imperfections and inadequacies of human form affect Him? As should be apparent from the statements cited above, a term that repeatedly features when the Svāminārāyaṇa Vedanta talks about the eternally human-shaped form of Parabrahman is divine (divya). This is to dispel the doubt that Parabrahman has a human form, then it will necessarily be flawed, sullied, and limited by all the limitations, impurities, and imperfections of humans. The Svāminārāyaṇa Vedanta, in its descriptions effectively saying by adding divine that Parabrahman’s form is certainly human in shape but it is by no means human in nature (anthropophilic) or substance (anthrosubstantic). Subsequently, while ordinarily human bodies are composed of māyā, Parabrahman’s form is not affected by all the māyic imperfections, impurities, and limitations of human.^[1]

Svāminārāyaṇa makes it a point to emphasize that Parabrahman’s form is totally unlike any other form. He explains this at considerable length,

“the Vedas, the Purāṇas, the Mahābhārata, the Smṛtis, and other scriptures proclaim that the original form of Parabrahman, which is eternal, without beginning and divine, resides in his Akṣaradhāma.”

Again he asserts,

“His form is not like any form that can be seen by the eyes. His sound is not like any sound that can be heard by the ears. His touch is not like any touch that can be felt by the skin. His smell is not like any smell that can be smelt by the nose. Nor is Parabrahman like anything that can be described by the tongue.”

In this manner then Svāminārāyaṇa concludes,

“The form of that Parabrahman is such that it cannot be compared to the form of anyone in this brahmānda. Why? Because all of the forms in this brahmānda that have evolved from Prakṛti-Puruṣa are māyic, whereas Parabrahman is divine, not māyic. So, since the two are totally different, how can they possibly be compared.”^[2]

Subsequently, we can submit that Parabrahman’s body is not formed, as human or even devic bodies are, as a consequence of karmas accumulated over numerous lives by way of their association with māyā and ignorance. Parabrahman, rather, is absolutely and eternally unaffected by māyā, controlling it and transcending it instead.

His form is thus never even slightly sullied by māyā. Svāminārāyaṇa states:

“In no way does even a hint of māyā taint the form of Parabrahman.” (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā II/4, p.393)^[3]

Before we start our analysis on this topic, how does Parabrahman remain unaffected even having a human-shaped form? First, we provide the background of the discussion: the objection is about when Parabrahman is the cause of all māyic worldly creation then when He assumes a human form or he becomes the material cause then Parabrahman must be māyic in nature.

The Bhāṣyakāra answers:

“tatra laukika liṅgadoṣāvakāśo na prabhavati” (Brahmasūtra 2/1/28, p.179)

“Not a trace of fault affect Parabrahman.”

Again, the debate proceeds ahead. He claims: Parabrahman is:

“sākṛtitvepi divyakaracaraṇādimattvalakṣaṇasākṛtitvena tatrāpi mānuṣākṛtitvenaiveti saṃkalitorthaḥ” (Brahmasūtra 2/1/31, p.181).

“Not only with any other form but a divine-human form.”

This argument is used to refute one of the objections in Brahmasūtras 2/1/32, which draws from Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII 6/2/1 and the same verse we saw earlier when discussing Parabrahman as the combined efficient and material cause.

Uddālaka explains to his son Śvetaketu:

“Oh dear son, in the beginning, there was verily only this being (sat).”

Citing this, the objectors ask how:

“It can be possible for Parabrahman to have eyes, ears, hands, feet, life-breath, mind, etc., when there was absolutely nothing apart from being to make them from.”

Bhadreśadāsa effectively retorts:

“Indeed! They are not made from anything but are being itself. After analyzing this principle, we come to the point that how Parabrahman’s eyes, ears, and other ‘sense organs’ (as we would call them) are not like the organs of a human. Parabrahman does not need any senses or organs or mental faculty to know. He knows everything directly and independently.”

This is because He is infinitely full of knowledge, and His mind, senses, and organs are all divine, celestial, and unlimited.^[4]

Resuming further,

“This non-material composition of Parabrahman also supports and expounds why He is not ascribed to a particular gender. As we saw in more detail in the chapter on jīva, Svāminārāyaṇa describes even the finite self as ‘neither male nor female’. ‘It is’, like Parabrahman, ‘characterized by pure existence and consciousness’.”^[5]

We find another clue about the non-genderedness of Parabrahman’s form from the new, divine body that the jīvas and īśvaras receive during the state of post-mortem liberation when dwelling in the transcendental abode with Parabrahman.

This transcendental body is like Parabrahman’s two-armed human-shaped form^[6] but adds elsewhere that it is:

“Different from the two genders of the world. It is neither female in shape nor male in shape. It has a wholly Brāhmika body, which is neither feminine nor masculine.” (Svāmīnī Vāto 7/2)

Nevertheless, to explain and understand the form of Parabrahman, we are applying some sort of name or identity to Parabrahman; the limitations of human language and imagination force us to use nouns, pronouns, and imagery inevitably have gender connotations.

Parabrahman remains as one form at all times during the creation, sustenance, and dissolution of the universe but does not undergo any changes as māyic objects do. He always maintains a divine form.^[7] This is because time devours everything except Parabrahman; that is to say, time’s powers are incapable of affecting Parabrahman’s form.^[8] When we say that Parabrahman is unaffected by and any company or surroundings He has, then, is He like space? There should be an inquiry that how Parabrahman could have any form, let alone one that is human in shape, and not be limited to being within a specific ten-dimensional boundary. But as we learn earlier, Svāminārāyaṇa persists that Parabrahman is already unbound by space; there is no place where one can say Parabrahman is not. He is all-pervading, even while having a definite form, because of divine, yogic powers.

The fact being made to any proponents of any formless Parabrahman is this: Svāminārāyaṇa stated in Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 8,

“If you wish to call Parabrahman formless simply to avoid him limited by space, well, Parabrahman for us is already unbound by space. He is everywhere at all times. So, there is no question of avoiding any undesirable but inescapable limitations. Besides, it is not possible to ‘measure’ Him by any physical measurements simply because he transcends all physicality and eludes all measurements.”

Thus, Parabrahman is subtler than the extremely subtle, and...vaster than the extremely vast.

The Upaniṣad similarly declares that Parabrahman is:

“Smaller than a grain of rice, a barleycorn, a mustard seed, a grain of millet or a kernel of a grain of millet.”

And yet equally, He is:

“Larger than the earth, larger than the intermediate region, larger than the sky, larger than these worlds.” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII 3/14/3)

In this way, Parabrahman is:

“Smaller than the smallest, larger than the largest.” (Svetāśvatara-upaniṣad 3/20, Katha-upaniṣad 2/20)

What the Upaniṣads and Svāminārāyaṇa are trying to say, in effect is that such physical measurements or boundaries do not apply to Parabrahman. He is beyond all limitations of space, even as He remains in His original form.^[9] According to the Svāminārāyaṇa Vedanta, then, Parabrahman has an eternal human form that is wholly unique, pure, and divine. After learning Parabrahman’s divine-human form in His transcendental abode, now we analyze Parabrahman’s manifest human form on earth.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā III/37, Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/66

[2]:

Vac. Panch. 4

[3]:

Vacanamrut Loyā 13, Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 7, Vacanāmṛta Pancālā 7

[4]:

Kena-upaniṣad 1/6, p.40

[5]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā III/22

[6]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā III/38; Loyā.18 223

[7]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā II/24

[8]:

Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā III/37

[9]:

Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 8