In the Ekadasa Skanda, Uddhava asks how God is to be thought of in words which are remarkably similar to the words used by Baba. Baba said, If you are unable to think of Nirakara, concentrate upon my form that is think of Me as God.
- In the Ekadasa Skanda of Bhagavata also the same is advised. Sri Krishna says to Uddhava,
- “Portray in your mind the entire body of Sri Krishna, get all the limbs, the ornaments, the colour, the sheen and other attributes into your mind.
- After doing that preliminary work,
- narrow the field of concentration. Proceed from the whole body with dress and weapons to concentrate on the face alone.
- After concentrating on that, proceed further to finer concentration remembering that the essential nature of God is not material but ethereal.”
Uddhava is advised to think of or see within his mind Sri Krishna’s face as nothing but ether. Ether is all embracing, subtle, and unmanifest.
So, from the manifest, Uddhava is advised to pass on to the unmanifest, with the feeling that it is the same, that is, with the conviction that the Krishna’s face that he has concentrated upon is the same as the Universal ether. That gives him naturally
help to reach absorption or laya in the unmanifest Brahman.
The net result of the concentration, in fact of all concentration on a Divine Form would be that the soul of the sadhaka will be filled with the bliss of the ethereal unmanifest. Brahman which as Krishna says is the same as Satchitananda, that is, that which is perceived as bare Bliss within the soul of the sadhaka himself in Sushupti-or- Turiya trance proving Tat Tvam Asi. This process is one of sakshatkara and may also be called God-vision.
Uddhava becomes like a piece of salt dropped into the ocean of God and simply perceives or has experience of unlimited Satchitananda.
"I draw to Me, My man from far off or even across the seven Seas to Shirdi, like a sparrow with a string fastened to its feet"-Shirdi Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Guru-God 