There is also a monotheistic Shaivite sect called the Pashupati school, who sees Lord Shiva as a Primal Yogi, a Guru...A great teacher and a shapeshifting being, who can appear as anything He wants to... including a human, a stone Lingam or a point of light and isn't limited or defined by ANY of that.
God tends to appear to us in the way we can immediately recognise him/her AS God...from an ascetic monk, to an endless pillar of light.... because it would be remiss of God not to take our perceptions and cognitive biases into account....but when a picture of Bhairava or Mahakaal melts my heart and gives me goosebumps, I know to what school/sect I belong already.
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