Swami Vivekananda's Quotes On Form ~ Swami Vivekananda Quotes

What is this universe but name and form?

—Swami Vivekananda

In this article you'll find Swami Vivekananda's quotes on form. Here "form" means a structure or appearance. For example, human body is form, sky has a form. On the other hand Vednatists consider Brahman (or God) as formless.

A form comes out of a combination of force and matter.^[Source]
A wave in the ocean is a wave, only in so far as it is bound by name and form.^[Source]
All forms are transitory, that is why all religions say, "God has no form".^[Source]
Anything that is in space has form. Space itself has form. Either you are in space, or space is in you. The soul is beyond all space. Space is in the soul, not the soul in space.^[Source]
Change is inherent in every form.^[Source]
Differentiation is in name and form only.^[Source]
Everything is substance plus name and form. Name and form come and go, but substance remains ever the same.^[Source]
Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha.^[Source]
Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end.^[Source]
Everything that has name and form must begin in time, exist in time, and end in time. These are settled doctrines of the Vedanta, and as such the heavens are given up.^[Source]
Everything that occupies space has form. The formless can only be infinite.^[Source]
Everything which has name and form must die. If there are heavens with forms, these heavens must vanish in course of time; they may last millions of years, but there must come a time when they will have to go.^[Source]
Form and formless are intertwined in this world. The formless can only be expressed in form and form can only be thought with the formless.^[Source]
Freedom can never be true of name and form; it is the clay out of which we (the pots) are made; then it is limited and not free, so that freedom can never be true of the related. One pot can never say "I am free" as a pot; only as it loses all ideas of form does it become free.^[Source]
From Him are all name and form; all the animals and men are from Him. He is the one Supreme. He who knows Him becomes free.^[Source]
In nature alone are forms. That which is not of nature cannot have any forms, fine or gross. It must be formless.^[Source]
Name and form constitute the universe.^[Source]
Space-time-causation, or name-and-form, is what is called Maya.^[Source]
The forms are evanescent; but the spirit, being in the Lord and of the Lord, is immortal and omnipresent.^[Source]
The forms have value only so far as they are expressions of the life within. If they have ceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.^[Source]
The Indian idea is that the soul is formless. Whatever is form must break some time or other.^[Source]
The soul ... is nameless because it is formless. It will neither go to heaven nor [to hell] any more than it will enter this glass.^[Source]
The whole universe is composed of name and form. Whatever we see is either a compound of name and form, or simply name with form which is a mental image.^[Source]
There cannot be any form unless it is the result of force and matter; and all combinations must dissolve.^[Source]
This is the work of Nâma-Rupa — name and form. Everything that has form, everything that calls up an idea in your mind, is within Maya; for everything that is bound by the laws of time, space, and causation is within Maya.^[Source]
We have none of us seen a form which had not a beginning and will not have an end.^[Source]
What is this universe but name and form?^[Source]
Whatever had form or shape must be limited, and could not be eternal.^[Source]
Whatsoever has form must be the result of combinations of particles and requires something else behind it to move it.^[Source]
When we free ourselves from name and form, especially from a body — when we need no body, good or bad — then only do we escape from bondage.^[Source]
You are in space and must have a form. Space limits us, binds us, and makes a form of us. If you are not in space, space is in you. All the heavens and the world are in the person.^[Source]