- For a devotee, Brahman is with qualities. In other words, God is visible as a person with a form. And it is He who listens to prayers.
- Only the man who is always thinking of God can know His real nature. That person alone knows that God is seen in different forms and in different aspects. He is with qualities, and He is also without qualities.
- This is because He who is Brahman with attributes is Himself Brahman without attributes. He who is Shakti is Himself Brahman. One realizes that there is no duality after attaining the ultimate knowledge.
The Chameleon
ONCE a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree. The second man replied: “When I went into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It is green.” Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among themselves. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: *’Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey and so forth- It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour, and now it has none.”
In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has none. Only the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear in various colours, and he knows further that the animal at times has no colour at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile argument.
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