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The Human Body GOD dons a human form. But
often it is not possible for the common run of men to recognise Him. In good
many cases not only do we fail to know or recognise Him but we disbelieve and
despise Him. Where has man the vision to see the inner truth? The
human form is a unique thing. We have said that God makes it His own abode. But
all kinds of non-divine existences too may appear in it. The Pishacha or
Rakshasa or Asura can become manifest in the human form; so may the Gods. In
man exist all the worlds and all the elements of these worlds. Therefore any
being from any world may possess him and through him can establish and reveal
itself. Why are beings of other planes so eager to have the human body? The
reason is: this physical, inert world, this earth is, as it were, the centre of
the world-play; it is a profound mystery, a unique fulfilment of creation. All
beings have an irresistible urge to enjoy happiness in the physical, to lord
it over the earth and here in this very form grow up into "His Imperial
Majesty". And to fulfil this purpose, to gratify this desire there is no
other vessel and instrument more perfect than man. All his limbs, well-formed
and well-constituted, can reflect and harbour all the faculties beyond the
power of any other being. Is it for this reason that in order to exorcize a
man, Christ compelled the evil spirits to get into the animal body – the herd
of swine – and put an end to them by getting them drowned in water?
Page – 273 Creation
originated from the urge of a descent – the descent, of the highest, the
transcendent, the supreme consciousness on this dense, hard and solid earth of
Matter in the form of a mass of atoms. The urge of this downward tendency
continues also in the personalities and the beings that have appeared in the
different stages of this descent. They or something in them wants to come down
to the level of the earth. Again, in the upward movement as well, their urge is
to come up to the status of man, or, it may be, ultimately to partake of the fulfilment that is in bloom or will bloom in the physical. However, we shall
shortly deal with that mystery. Now
we were referring to the descent of God in human form. Why has God become man?
For what purpose? Regarding this we find a fine principle, a subtle truth in
the Christian way of spiritual practice. And it can be said even that it is a
unique discovery, a speciality of the Christian sadhana. According to the
Christian doctrine, God as such has not come down on the earth, but He has sent
His own Son in the form of man – even then the Father and the Son are at bottom
one: "I and my Father are one." What for? To take up the sins of man –
that means man is a store-house of sin. By his own effort, by his spiritual
practice to get rid of sin and to attain to the spiritual divine consciousness
and life is not possible for him. Therefore, the supremely gracious God has
come down in the human form to expiate the sin of man on his behalf and thus
make him fit for receiving the Grace of God. This is the reality of what is
called vicarious atonement and redemption. Through
the allegory of bread and wine, the Eucharist, it has been indicated that a
true disciple of Christ turns his blood into that of Christ and his body into
that of the Messiah; he makes the body of Christ a part and parcel of his own.
As lime clarifies turbid water, so by drinking the physical consciousness of
Christ his follower purifies his own physical consciousness. To confess one's
sins is to accept the Cross:
Page – 274 the tragic end of Christ
signifies God's compassion for man, because the crucified Christ is the Life
everlasting. In
India God has not been depicted in this way. God himself takes away the burden
of sin: "I shall deliver thee from all sips" – this is the message of
God in this land. So there is a difference between the two approaches. That
the preceptor takes upon himself the sins of his disciple, that is, his
impurities and weaknesses, in order to help the disciple in his
self-purification, is well known to us. The reaction that the Guru has to
undergo as a result of accepting the impurity of the disciple and the
consequences he has to suffer, such as disease, we can know from the example of
Sri Ramakrishna. The origin of the malignant disease that had attacked him was
the close contact and intimacy with his disciples. Sri Ramakrishna himself has
said so. And it is because of the incidence of this disease that the atheist,
the wiseacre foolishly say, "God incurs cancer! What a helpless and poor
God!"¹ But
herein lies the real mystery. God has become man; that means he has assumed the
human nature and has accepted the human weakness not only in word or
allegorically but in fact, in actual practice. That is why we see this human
weakness in Christ on the last day of his life when he asks God to remove the
vessel of deadly poison from his lips, so that he may not have to drink of it
any more. God having become a man shows by example how one can rise to a godly or divine nature from a human nature. God reveals this sadhana through his human life. Man knows himself as sinful, afflicted, weak and helpless. To him the spiritual realisation, the divine Life, the divine Consciousness may seem to be futile and hollow dreams, like the castle in the air. These are only luxurious idealisms which are not for all, at least for many. Only a few that are heroic, adventurous and self-confident can afford to spend time and labour in this direction. In order to drive away this error, this false
¹ Compare: "the stupid disown me..."
The Gita.
Page – 275 notion, this familiar and
common disbelief, God has wanted to show, by way of a practical demonstration,
as it were, how to rise above human weakness. In man, in spite of his numerous weaknesses, there abides a
divine Power by virtue of which even the dumb can be endowed with eloquence. The
second mystery is this that not only for the individual but for the
collectivity the human form of God has a special significance. God comes down
to the lower level. He abides by His own laws to transform them. He destroys
whatever has to be destroyed. He purifies whatever has to be purified. He
protects and enriches whatever has to be protected and enriched. This is His
mission. That means a collision, a definite battle. Consequently the divine
Body too has to undergo scars. That is the law of this plane, that is the rule
of His game. But it is thus that God clears the road, makes the path easy. On
behalf of man God conquers Nature so that it may be easy for man to reconquer
it. A question may be raised here: "the conquest of nature or the
transformation of nature – cannot God effect it from His own Self or the
World-Self? What necessity is there to accept a human form in order to do the
work?" First of all, if God were to do everything in a subtle way, then
why was the physical created, for what purpose? We have said that this Matter,
this world, this very earth, this earthly body itself, are the field for God's lila,
the centre and knot of the mystery of the creation. All disembodied powers
and personalities want to come down on earth and be embodied in order to have
all the privileges of this place. The Asuras want this, the Gods want this,
therefore God too has to come down. He has to experience the full expression
of body by becoming an embodied being. Secondly, this body has its own purpose
and fulfilment. The body has grown out of inconscient Matter, it is born here
below to become purified and transformed into the divine substance. Moreover,
from some other sphere, from a consciousness transcendent and immanent, to act
on the earth or its Matter or on some particular receptacles, means to apply
Page – 276 an alien force, an
attempt to impose a different principle. There is a necessity for this process
and the power does act in this way, but something else must accompany this
process. On our part that something is more important. It is the body's own conscious
will, the self-offering and the self-opening of Matter – not because of an
influence, impulsion or pressure from elsewhere; the material body of its own
accord, by a demand from within, has to seek the Reality beyond Matter and
body. That is why the divine Body shows how even Matter can aspire for
spirituality and proves that Matter is not absolutely inert, in it too abides a
consciousness and a conscious aspiration. There
is a tradition that if the inhabitants of the other worlds – the Demons, the
Giants, the Titans and even the Gods – want liberation or seek to be raised to
a higher or to the highest status, then they have to come down to the earth and
be born as men. In this human body alone the sadhana for ascension is possible.
To use the language of the Puranas, the other worlds are the fields for
enjoyment while this earth is the field for work. That means the other worlds
are the regions for some definite and fixed qualities. They are typal
existences. The inherent quality of any of them does not change. One's own
nature or one's own accumulated actions find their manifestation. One spends
and enjoys there. But to acquire new merit, to introduce a new trend in one's nature,
to turn its course, one will have to accept this human body. For, as we have
said at the outset, man is a combination of all the planes of creation.
Therefore, the consciousness can go up and come down and can stay on any
level. It can be said that in man there is, like his very spine, a stair of
consciousness – the Vedic seer has spoken of the possibilities of going up as
on a bamboo ladder. But the most secret mystery is this that in man there is
that unique part – the divine heart-cave – which is the fount of a new sight
and a new creation and which guides and gives sanction for the change and the
return, and which is the open and illumined
Page – 277 gate towards the
supreme fulfilment, the highest consciousness, an immortal bridge between this
world and the other worlds. All want to possess and enjoy the plenitude of the
earth, and want to establish themselves in an embodied existence here on the
earth. Men as well as the denizens of the other worlds – all of them are given
one more and a greater opportunity. Many of them accept, some consciously, some
unconsciously so that they may evolve without remaining confined to their own
characteristic qualities for all time, may gain a footing on the ascending
levels of consciousness and thus make a constant progress, nirarata (Rig
Veda), may accept other qualities and transformation and thereby achieve the
higher and the nobler existence. The human receptacle acts as a unique
catalytic agent in this chemical progress. A benediction, a divine Grace reposes on this apparently
weak and perishable human body. God
accepts this human body burdened with diseases and afflictions, because there
is no other way of accepting the world and humanity. This indeed is the work of
God: to accept the creation as it is and to purify and transform it gradually
from within. If God comes down to stand before us with an immortal embodied
consciousness free from decay and disease, then we shall keep at a distance
from Him. We shall not be able to receive Him as our own. How close to Arjuna
was
Page – 278 them all in order to make
the body free from them and to fill it with immortality. Matchless
is the description of the glory of the human body of God found in the Vaishnava
cult of
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