DIVINE ABSOLUTE IS BEYOND GENDER

The Divine Absolute is beyond gender. The Sanskrit language is a gendered language, with three genders: masculine, feminine, and neutral. Our word for the Divine Absolute is Brahman, which is grammatically neutral, not gendered. It is beyond body and all form as well, beyond any anthropomorphism or personification. It is pure Being, pure Consciousness, and pure Joy, infinite and eternal.

But as Divinity manifests into the world, it takes on attributes. The One stream of pure Divinity diversifies, like light refracting through a prism. It takes on genders, as Gods and Goddesses - and not merely in a rigid gender binary, but with explicitly transgender and gender-fluid aspects as well. Our Gods and Goddesses have many forms that are not at all anthropomorphic, but multidimensionally geometric. This is an image of a Deity. Not of a Deity’s symbol, but of the Deity Herself, in actually a purer and more spiritually true form than most anthropomorphic depictions:

But most humans wouldn’t have an easy time feeling an emotional connection with such an “abstract” form. Most human devotees naturally form heartfelt connections with Gods and Goddesses who have at least roughly humanoid bodies, and human-like faces, because that is how humans are naturally wired to form emotional bonds. And so the Divine appears to us in ways that will work for us, as It has since the most ancient times in our pre-history.

“Whichever Divine form a devotee desires to worship with faith, I assume that form which is firm and in accordance with their faith.” - Bhagavad Gita 7.21