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Chapter 11
VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM OF GOD
56. Full Vision Even In A Small Image
6. This Chapter contains the beautiful and magnificent description of that supreme divine form. However, I am not particularly enamoured of it. I am quite happy with the small and lovable form which I see. I have learnt to appreciate the beauty therein. The Lord is not made up of a number of parts. It does not appear to me that what I see is only a part and the rest of Him is somewhere else. The Lord who pervades this vast universe is present in His fullness in a small idol; and even in a speck of dust. He is not a bit less there. An ocean of nectar and a drop therein have the same sweetness. I am inclined to enjoy the sweetness in the little drop of nectar that I have got. I have purposely chosen the example of nectar and not that of milk or water. The sweetness that is in a cup of milk is certainly there in a jar of milk; but the nourishment they provide is not the same. But such is not the case with nectar. Even a drop of nectar will make you immortal. In the same way, the divinity and sanctity that are present in the Lord’s supreme form are there even in a small idol. If I cannot judge the quality of wheat from a handful of grains given to me as a sample, how can I judge its quality from a sackful of it? If I fail to recognise Him in His small form that is before my eyes, how can I recognise Him in His cosmic form? Hence I am not eager to have the vision of His cosmic form; nor am I worthy, like Arjuna, to ask for it. Moreover, what I see is not a part of the cosmic form. We would not have an idea about the whole of a photograph from its fragment. But the Lord is not made up of parts. He has not been cut up and divided into fragments. He is fully there even in a small form. What is the difference between a small photograph and its enlarged copy? Everything that is there in the big photograph is there in the small photograph too. The latter is not a fragment of the big photograph. A word may be printed in big type or small type; this makes no difference as far as its meaning is concerned. Idol-worship has its basis in this way of thinking.
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