Hill Where the Lord Hides

Finger Lakes

New York

from:  Ramakrishna: His Life And Sayings

"God is the Absolute and Eternal Brahman, as well as the Father of the Universe. 
The indivisible Brahman is like a vast shoreless ocean, without bounds and 
limits, in which I can only struggle and sink. But when I approach the always 
sportive (active) personal Deity (Hari), I get peace, like the sinking man who 
nears the shore.

God is formless, and is with form too, and He is that which transcends both form 
and formlessness. He alone can say what else He is.

At a certain stage of his path of devotion, the devotee finds satisfaction in 
God with form; at another stage, in God without form.

The God with form is visible, nay, we can touch Him face to face, as with one's 
dearest friend.

As at one time I am clothed, and at another time naked, so Brahman is at one 
time with attributes and at another without.

As water when congealed becomes ice, so the visible form of the Almighty is the 
materialised manifestation of the all-pervading formless Brahman. It may be 
called, in fact, Sat-chit-ananda [being-knowledge-bliss] solidified. As the ice, 
being part and parcel of the water, remains in the water for a time and 
afterwards melts in it, so the Personal God is part and parcel of the 
Impersonal. He rises from the Impersonal, remains there, and ultimately merges 
into it and disappears.

His name is Intelligence; His abode is Intelligence too, and He, the Lord, is 
Intelligence Himself."

Sri Ramakrishna

~

...with special thanks to Tom H. for sharing this gem...