Saguna and nirguna worship

Saguna is worship of God with form and nirguna is worship of God without form. There are two sides of the same coin. The Guru is the embodied form of the formless Absolute. He or she is none other than God himself because God is a name attributed to the Supreme Self when it chooses to assume name and form.

“All forms”, the Mother explains, have limitations. There is no tree which touches the sky and there is no root which touches the netherworld. This means that all names and forms are finite. We should go beyond names and forms. Even though God is devoid of all qualities and all-pervading, He will come in a form according to our sankalapa or resolve.

Bhakti or devotion and jnana or knowledge are not different: Bhakti and jnana, though seemingly different are not two. Bhakti is the means and jnana is the end. Bhakti without jnana and jnana without bhakti are both harmful.

In fact, bhakti is the easiest and least complicated way. Anyone and everyone can follow it. Bhakti culminates in jnana. The Lord of a true devotee and Brahman, the Absolute Reality of the jnani, are both one and the same.

 Bhakti is usually prescribed for people who are predominantly emotional and jnana for intellectuals. Jnana without bhakti is dry and bhakti without jnana is blind. One can reach perfection, concludes Amma, merely through faith in the Guru but external love alone is not sufficient. Devotion strengthened by knowledge of spiritual principles is needed.
Dedication of the body, mind and intellect is required. If one has faith in and obedience to the Guru coupled with knowledge of spiritual principles, vasanas (inherited tendencies) will quickly get destroyed.

Elsewhere, Amma says the nature of things in this world is determined by our actions. It is human character that is responsible for both good and evil. We must live with caution because human action is the basis of Nature’s goodness.

Finally is faith and experience that must triumph over doubt and reason: There is a Power beyond words, an Inexpressible Power and that is God. Everyone says that it is within but it is not enough to merely say so. It should be known through intuitive experience.