In the Rasa Lila dance at Vrindavan, the Lord manifests a separate, intimate, personal form for each of the Gopis, while remaining transcendent unmanifest unity. The divine Self is One in all, yet gives to each who yearn for His love an intimate relationship.
You can have your chapati and eat it too. God is both formless and personal, bheda-bheda: 'two and not-two.' This is the mystery of devotion. There are as many ways to God as there are human hearts.
Through devotion, we humbly embrace the paradox and avoid the conflicts. Devotion invites us to transcend the fundamentalism of the Vedantist, who insists on reducing all to an impersonal Self. Yet devotion also invites us to transcend the exclusivism of the True Believer, who insists on a limited personal form.
Happy Birthday, Krishna!
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