Sarvaantharyaami is One and Only One

The Vedas, the Sastras, and the messages of the Rishis, all have proclaimed uniformly and without any possibility of doubt, from that day to this, that Paramatma is Sarvaantharyaami, present and immanent in everything. So too questions like the relationship between 'He who is served', 'he who serves', and 'the wherewithal of service', viz., 'Prakriti', have also been the subject of endless discussion. Every Asthika has heard the Bhagavatha verse in which the great Bhaktha Prahlada states out of his own experience that Paramatma, the Sarvaantharyaami, need not be searched far and wide and that He is very near the seeker himself.

'He is here, He is not there, give up such doubts;
Listen, Oh! Leader of the Danavas!
Wherever you seek and wherever you see,
There... and there... He is!'

People speak of the Lord as having a particular nature of characteristic, as having a particular form and so on. These statements are true only to the extent that imagination and guesswork can approximate to Truth; they are not the fundamental Truth. Such conceptions are valid as far as practical worldly knowledge goes; they cannot be considered as valid knowledge of the Absolute. For, it is impossible to see the Poornam or speak about it.

In spite of this, however, Bhakthas and aspirants have been framing, each according to the stage of his own inner progress, some form or other of the Divine as the basis of their devotion. They worship Paramathma as existing in some Ayodhya or Dwaraka and nowhere else; as found in places where some image or picture exists and nowhere else. They worship that form itself as Poornam. Of course, it is not wrong to do so. Only, Bhakthas should not proclaim that their belief alone is the Truth, that those names and forms which they have ascribed are the only names and forms of the Divine and that all other forms and names are worthless and inferior. It should be realised that the names and forms which are the ideals of others are as dear and sacred to those others as other names and forms are to oneself.

When a form is idealised like this, it really becomes a symbol of the Universal; but, how can a mere symbol of the Universal ever become the Universal itself? Conscious always of this, every one should acquire, without giving room to senseless hatred, the vision that all forms of the ideal are equally valid and true. Without this, it is impossible to realise the Poornam. All these gross forms of the ideal are fully saturated with the subtle Divine Principle. The taste of the vast ocean is to be found, complete and undiminished, in every single drop of its waters; but, this does not mean that the drop is the ocean. Though we recognise the 'drop' and the 'ocean' as separate entities, the nature and taste of both are identical. Similarly, the sarvaantharyaami Paramaatma and the gross form and name which Paramaatma assumes and through which He is realised are not separate entities; they are identical.

When this All-pervasive, All-inclusive Pure existence is described, the matter and the method depend on the principles of the speaker and the tastes of the listener; when the individual name and form imposed by the Bhaktha are transformed into the Attributeless and the Formless, it is referred to as Brahmam; when this same Brahmam appears with attributes and forms, it is referred to as Rama, Krishna, Vishnu or Siva. Do not the followers of even other religions agree that when the devotee attains the Ecstasy of Mystic Union, all distinction between him and God disappears? The Yogis, Philosophers of other lands and other faiths, too, accept without demur that this distinctionless experience can be earned through Parabhakthi. Even if some little trace of difference is retained, it is due to the individuals own taste and desire and not anything especially basic. It is only when name and form come in that it is named differently as Prakriti, Paramaatma and Bhaktha. When name and form are absent, doubt and discussion whether it is masculine, feminine or neutral will not arise at all. Then any description fits. For something that is above and beyond imagination, any name and form can be ascribed. In fact, It has no attribute and no form; it is All-pervasive, Omnipresent. When this Subtle Omnipresence is systematically worshipped through a gross form and as having attributes, the devotee will clearly realise its nature through the Sadhana itself. To vouchsafe the knowledge of this Sadhana and that Truth, and to bless the Bhakthas with that Bliss, the Attributeless Paramaatma incarnates in this world, assuming name and form, and gives scope for all embodied beings to have concrete experience and joy. Through these experiences, the Incarnations facilitate the realisation that Paramaatma is Sarvaantharyaami and Sarvabhoothaantharaatma, All-pervasive, the Inner Atma of every thing in Creation. Lord Krishna showed in his own form the entire Creation. Until he saw with his own eyes how Lord Krishna had contained in His gross form of entire Creation, even Arjuna failed to understand that Krishna was Sarvaantharyaami.

Love, Lover and the Loved, all those are One, and the same. Without Love, there can be no lover. Even if there are both Love and the Lover without the Loved, Love has no function. In all three, Love is the chief ingredient. That which is saturated chiefly, and uniformly in Everything, that is Paramaatma. So there is no difference between these three. In all three, Prema is discernible as the Sarvaantharyaami; therefore, can it not be realised that everything is Paramaatmaswarupa? Certainly, it can be realised without fail. Everything is suffused with Prema. So, we can unhesitatingly declare the Paramaatma as Premaswarupa. In the entire creation, for all living things, Prema is manifesting itself in various forms. The nature of Prema cannot alter, though it is known under different names like Vaatsalya, Anuraaga, Bhakthi, Ishtam etc., according to the direction in which it is canalised. But, whatever the form the essence cannot alter. On the basis of this knowledge and experience, the conclusion becomes clear that Paramaatma is Sarvabhoothaantharaatma, the inner Atma of all created things.