The Form and the Formless

There is always debate happening in this world about "is God having a Form? Or is He Formless?" People ask "Do we have to worship Him in a form like and idol? Or do we worship him as a formless ultimate power?"

But these people, who argue on the form or formlessness of God and those, who even try to enforce their thoughts regarding this on others even by force or violence are forgetting a few things here.

The first thing is, all the religions and theists agree that God is almighty - meaning he is omnipotent, capable of doing anything. So, why can't these people agree that God has the power to be formless and at the same time the power to take any form he wants. Doesn't he have that much freedom? The truth is, there is no difference between the form and the formless. Aren't ice, water and water vapor the different forms of the same substance?

Now, let's come to the different forms of worship. People of all religions believe and agree that God is the creator of the whole universe. That means we are all His children, right? Let's say a father has 10 children. One fine day they all got the great desire to serve their father. Now do they make their father happy by sharing the work on different things he needs? Or by every child doing the same kind of service to him? He will be more happy if one child cooks food, a second child feeds him with love, another one buys him new cloths and some other child helps him in the gardening. Isn't it?

We hardly live for 70-80 years and in this minuscule lifespan itself we crave for variety in our food, clothing, entertainment, work and other day-to-day activities. We easily get bored doing or having the same things again. God has been here since well before the beginning of the universe and he will be here forever, even after the whole universe is destroyed. Then why do we expect (and try to restrict) God to be in the same form and to accept same kind of worship? What can we call such people who try to enforce this restriction?

This is the same reason the ancient Indian philosophy provided for worshiping God in different forms, with different names and rituals, including the formlessness. No father will be happy seeing his children fighting in his name. At least for his sake, he expects his children to love and respect each other. Let's make our father, the God, happy by not fighting in his name and loving and respecting each other, no matter what name or form or ritual each uses for addressing/reaching our common father.