Vedanta comprises the purport of the Upanishads which contain knowledge of both the personal and impersonal aspects of the Absolute God. Some commentaries sway toward the impersonal understanding of the Absolute, while other commentaries sway toward the personal realizations. Obviously, to reach a mature understanding in this regard, we need to comprehend both of these viewpoints. In fact, it is stated that unless one understands all the features of the Absolute Truth, namely, the impersonal Brahman, the localized Paramatma or Supersoul, and ultimately the Supreme Personality of God, Bhagavan or Krishna, one’s knowledge is imperfect.
When the Upanishads describe the Absolute as being unembodied, without veins, yet runs swifter than the mind, or as being able to walk yet does not walk, or as being within everything and yet outside of everything, how can we know what to think? Does the Absolute have any qualities that we can comprehend?
These kinds of descriptions in the Upanishads are called indirect or contrary descriptions. These are used to indicate the spiritual nature of the Lord’s qualities, meaning that He is not material nor confined to the rules of the material creation. An example of this is found in the Svetashvatara Upanishad, Chapter Three, which explains: The Supreme Lord does not have material hands and feet yet He is able to receive anything and go everywhere. He does not possess material eyes and yet He sees past, present and future. He does not have material ears and yet He hears. He is the knower of everything, omniscient, but Him no one can know. The self-realised and enlightened souls know Him as the Primeval Lord and Supreme Being.
The Svetashvatara Upanishad offers more of these kinds of descriptions, such as “He is having His faces, heads and necks everywhere, yet He dwells in the cavity of the heart of all beings. He is omnipresent. Being the Supreme Godhead, He is present everywhere encompassing all that exists and He is benevolent. (3.11) With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He stands encompassing all.” (3.16)
So the point is that the Absolute has spiritual legs to run or walk with and spiritual senses that are not limited like material senses. One verse that clearly explains this is the following: “The Supreme Reality is far beyond this universe. He possesses no ephemeral form but He is sat-cit-ananda, the embodiment of complete eternal and spiritual bliss. He is free from any ill. He is beyond the illusive world. He is full of all-auspicious divine glories. Those who realise Him as such and render unalloyed devotion to Him become immortal, but others (who remain ignorant of Him) have to undergo suffering through transmigration in the realm of maya (illusions).” (Svetashatara Upanishad 3.10)
Therefore, though the Upanishads generally refer to the Absolute in an impersonal way, they also begin to establish that the Supreme Reality has form, or, in other words, is a person and that there is a Divine Abode, although, the details of it are not always clearly provided therein. So as we go through the Vedic texts, we get clearer and clearer views of the nature of the Supreme Being.
The Isa Upanishad in particular indicates that the Supreme Absolute is both impersonal and personal. Other Upanishads describe the Absolute as, “He who created the worlds,” or, “Who is luminous like the sun,” “beyond darkness,” “the eternal among eternals,” etc. In fact, the basic method used in most Upanishads, as explained in the Hayasirsa Pancharatra, is to first present the Absolute Reality in an impersonal way and then present the personal aspects.
God is both personal as well as impersonal. God is in fact a very complex concept and that is why there are many viewpoints/religions. In Hindu religion there is complete understanding of God. That is why there is so much confusion or difficult in understanding God. The Rigveda verse tells it in this way: "the truth is one, but the wise men describe it in endless ways".
Conclusion is: in some part of Hindu religious text (including Vedas), it is told that God has no personal form and in another part it is told that God has personal form. Both Vedas and Puranas are compiled by Shriman VedaVyasa. When Vedas and Upanishad says that God doesn't have material body and later Puranas (even Vedas and Upanishads to some extent) tells that God have body, you have to understand that God has a spiritual body that is NOT AT ALL like our body. Because the opposite of material body is spiritual or transcendental. So saying that God do not have a material body and saying that God does have a spiritual body is like proving the same point in 2 different perspectives. Suppose if a door is half-open one may have another perspective: door is infact half-closed. So the same truth is told in different ways because God is so much great. You normally see a great film/person/book is seen with different perspectives. Similarly, God who is greatest of all is seen in Vedic text in different perspectives. When God takes a personal form He doesn’t take a mortal body like us and He is not limited AT ALL. If you see the Puranas it will prove this point. Especially when Lord Vishnu takes a avataara(coming down to earth in a particular form), He selects his mother (a devotee who is very dear to him) on his own wish. He is not subject to the conditions of material existence. On the contrary, the living beings cannot select the body (they can take birth in the womb of an animal, bird, etc) he gets when he is born. Lord Vishnu has appeared as the fish incarnation, the horse incarnation, the tortoise incarnation, the swan incarnation, as King Ramacandra, as Parasurama, and as many other incarnations to have leela (divine play) with his devotees. Some people ( Islam religion people) seeing animal forms of the God think that they are not real God. Different avataars of God doesn’t indicate that God is limited. For eg:Lord Vishnu took the form of Boar (Varaha avatara) He carried the Earth out of the ocean between his tusks and restored it to its place in the universe. This shows the greatness of God. Puranas give more information about God in one way. People normally get confused when they read it. God is so great that He can take any form He likes and still be powerful. The personal form of God is not limited is proved in the life-story of Lord Krishna. One day Yasoda saw Lord eating dirt. When she asked Krishna to open His mouth, she felt herself to be whirling in space, lost in time, for inside the baby mouth was seen the whole universe of moving and unmoving creation, the earth and its mountains and oceans, the moon and the stars, and all the planets and regions. The meaning is that God has control over the entire universe and he is holding everything with his power. When Lord Krishna fought with Kuaravas by becoming the driver of Arjuna’s (who is a devotee of God) vehicle it indicates that God is ready to help his devotees at any critical situations even as a driver. Lord Krishna gave directions to Arjuna and helped Arjuna to win over Kuaravas. It is because of Lord Krishna Arjuna won. Isn’t it great that if God becomes the PM of your nation (when God as Raamachandra ruled the India) and looks after the people like the father (in fact He is our real father)? It is told in Puranas God takes a personal form (without any loss of His divine powers) to have divine sport (to give blessing) with his devotees. So Puranas are advanced study on God.
Pāñcarātra are the Vaishnava Sanskrit texts dedicated to worship of Narayana and form part of the Agamas. According to this scripture, God manifests Himself in five-fold forms: Para, Vyūha, Vibhava, Antaryamin, and Archa. This is again the greatness of God. God can multiple himself although He is One. The Taittiriya Aranyaka III.XIV.I states: Although the Supreme Lord is one without a second, He manifests in unlimited places. Although He is the one indivisible Supreme Being, He has entered into the physical bodies of all living entities. This is the advanced study on God’s power.In a work called Panchadasi, in its sixth chapter, the author gives an analogy of how you can conceive the five-fold forms: Think of a painted picture. In order to paint a picture, you require a cloth as its background. You cannot paint on ordinary porous cloth so you have to stiffen this cloth with starch in order that it may become a suitable background. A hard surface, practically, is necessary. First is the cloth only, as it is – pure, unadulterated. Then there is a stiffened form of that cloth. In the third stage the artist draws an outline in pencil of what he pictures the completed painting to be. In the last stage he fills it with ink and colour. This colourful vision, which is the complete picture, is the Virat. The outline is Hiranyagarbha. The stiffened cloth is Ishvara. The pure cloth is Brahman itself. This is one way of looking at the degrees in the vision of God with reference to the concept of vyuha, or degrees. Para is the transcendent Almighty, above all things. Vyuha is this gradational concept.
In this 5 fold-forms, the last one, Archa Manifestation is important now. The Pancharatra Samhitas recognize the archa manifestation of God. According to this, if you worship (love) God in a very very very ….intimate way thinking that you are garlanding him or adoring him with jewels, God will interact to that in a unique way. Here devotional feeling is more important than what you offer to the idol. This is also proved in stories of Puranas. So here you are completely focusing your mind on God by doing service of God. Isn’t it very deep and terrific? Suppose if you feel that God is NOT limited to idol, then you can think that the idol is a medium to focus on God.
Below is the Srila Prabhupada’s explanation on Islam’s impersonal idea of God:
In the Islamic religion, the form is rejected because as soon as we think of form, we think of this material form, just like a beautiful face of woman. That is degradation. Therefore, they are strict not to conceive material form. That is also of course Vedic conception. Apa.ii-padah javano grahita: “He has no legs and no hands.” This means denying the form. But next the Vedas further say, javano grahita: “He can accept whatever you offer to Him.” That means God has no material form, but He has form that not limited like material; otherwise, how can He accept? The great prophets have seen the transcendental form of God and they have drawn images or made sculptures or after seeing Him.
God has got body and it is spiritual. Spiritual in the sense it is of nature: sat-chit-ananda vigraha, which means it, is full of eternal knowledge and bliss. This spiritual form is not limited and He pervades the entire material and spiritual universe and yet He remains as a person. That is the internal potency of the God. You have think that body is used to refer to the inherit characteristics.
God does not have personality would be limiting him. Then you would be saying that we have something that God doesn’t have. That is very limiting. Then you would say that God has no feelings, because feelings require personality, He has no ability to have relationships, because relationships require personality, so you would go on and on like this and ultimately conclude that God can not do anything, and we are so much greater than God because we can do all these things…. But you would be very wrong of course. That is the conclusion. But we cannot see with our present eyes. But you cannot deny the fact that God doesn’t have the capacity to let us see His spiritual form. That will deny the all-powerful aspect of God which is accepted by all religions.
Below are some of the verses that prove that Islam does accept that God has a spiritual form:
The Holy Qur’an (75.22-23) states, “Some faces that day, will beam (in brightness and beauty), Looking towards their Lord.”
The meaning of these ayats is that when righteous people come to Allah, they will be able to see their Lord and their faces will beam bright and be full of beauty at the bliss of seeing their Lord. Thus Allah is not an abstract power or energy, but the supreme living being who has His supreme form. For righteous people will be able to see Him on the Day of Judgment.
The author of Jowhara (p.107-112) says: “It is possible to see Allah in this world as well as in the next. In this world it has been granted to Muhammad only. In the future world however all believers will see Him; some say only His eyes, others say His whole face, others say every part of His body.” (Klein F. A., The Religion of Islam. Delhi, 1987, p. 55)
Once Hazrat Ali was asked: “Did you see the Lord?”
Hazrat Ali replied: “I would not worship Allah if I have not seen Him!” (Qur’ana dair 101 sual, Baki, 1992, p. 13)
Once the Holy Prophet Muhammad said: “You should worship God as if you see Him. Because if you don’t see Him, He surely sees you.” (Ibid, 2.37)
“If one wants to see Allah, then Allah also wants to see him.” (Mahammad Peygambar. Kalamlar, Baki, 1990, p. 34)
In conclusion, Abuhurairah said: “The Prophet said, ‘When the angels go to the court of God, God asks them, (while knowing better than they) ‘What do my servants say and do?’ Then the angels said, ‘They remember You with purity, greatness, praise, and respect.’ And God said, ‘Have they seen Me?’ The angels replied, ‘No, they have not seen You.’ Then God said, ‘What would their condition be if they had seen Me?’ The angels replied, ‘If they had seen You, they would be more strenuous in worshipping You, and in holding You mighty and glorious; and they would be more excessive in repeating Your immaculate attributes.” (Mishcat-ul-Masabin, Calcutta, 1809, p. 535)
So the conclusion is that even though God doesn’t have body, he takes a personal form to have intimate relationship with his devotees. If God doesn’t have a personal form, how can there be compatibility between the human and God for the humans to exchange the devotional love? This also means that God is limited and He cannot take a personal form to interact with his devotees.
So the conclusion is that even though God doesn't have body, He takes a personal form to have intimate relationship with his devotees. He gives power to his prophet or dear devotee to see his glorified spiritual form (which is not limited like us). If God doesn't take a personal form (not that He would become limited), how can there will be very very very very… close relationship between the human and God in heaven atleast so that the humans can exchange the devotional love just like with his father or mother of this world. If you say that God cannot take a personal form and come down to earth (concept of Avataar in Hinduism) that means that you are saying that God just stayed in heaven after He created this world. There is one verse in Srimad Bhagavatha which says that those who are low class people sees God only in the idol which reacts to the devotee’s feeling in the disguise form and the high class people sees God everywhere( because everything in this world is nothing but the expansion of God’s energy). The impersonal form of God is the energy that is all-pervading and there is separate personal form of God just like the ray, although it radiates from the sun and is part and parcel of the sun, is not the sun.
Although there are many ways of communication now (radio signals, electric signal, etc ) even now we consider the face to face (or person to person) relationship to be the best way to communicate or reciprocate the feelings.
Exodus 33:20-23
Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put theein a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
In Ex 33:18-23 Moses was told he could not see God’s face and live. But in Numbers 12:6-8 God said He spoke to Moses face to face. In Numbers 14:14 Moses says to God that He is seen face to face by His people.
