Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 395

आकाशवन्निर्मलनिर्विकल्पं

निःसीमनिःस्पन्दननिर्विकारम् ।

अन्तर्बहिःशून्यमनन्यमद्वयं

स्वयं परं ब्रह्म किमस्ति बोध्यम् ॥

ākāśavannirmalanirvikalpaṃ

niḥsīmaniḥspandananirvikāram |

antarbahiḥśūnyamananyamadvayaṃ

svayaṃ paraṃ brahma kimasti bodhyam ||

(Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 395)

Like the sky, the supreme Brahman is untainted absolute, limitless, motionless and without modifications; It has neither inside nor outside; It is One Existence and Non-dual and is one‘s own Self. Is there any other thing to be known?

Whether or not God has a form is a perennial philosophical question with arguments on both sides. The way we pray to God, and the way the saints address God in their devotional prayers, suggest that God is a person we are calling. But is personhood compatible with the idea that God must have no limits?

To reconcile these two concepts—personhood and unlimitedness—we need to first understand the definition of God. The Vedanta-sutras (1.1.2) define God, or the Absolute Truth (Brahman), as the source of everything: janmady asya yatah. Another ancient text, the Brahma-samhita (5.1), defines God similarly as the cause of all causes: sarva-karana-karanam. This concise definition of God is essentially in agreement with the understanding of God given by all the theistic traditions of the world. So, if God is the source of everything, then He must possess the essential attributes of everything, or else He would be less than His creation. In this world, both personal beings and impersonal forces exist, so both these aspects must be present in God. If God were not a person, then He, by definition the Complete Being, would be incomplete. Another, simpler way of putting this: If we as the children of God are persons, how can our father, God, not be a person? So, those who say that God is not a person are actually limiting Him, by divesting Him of what His creation has.

Vedic wisdom helps us understand that what causes limitation is not formed, but matter. Due to the very nature of matter, all material objects are limited, whether they have a form or not. We subconsciously project our conceptions of matter on the form of God and so think that a form would limit God. But God is not material; He is entirely spiritual. Spirit has characteristics different from matter; that which is spiritual has the potential to be unlimited, whether it has formed or not. God's spiritual form does not limit Him.