IDOL WORSHIP  

By 

Achala Bhakthan

If God is one and not many and He cannot be seen or felt, that He has no name or form, that He is not outside but in us and He can be experienced only through Self Enquiry etc. etc. what is the purpose of Idol worship?Has it got any effect?  Why different Idols (different Gods) worshipped? To answer this question, we must first make our belief on a sound base, which we have so far learnt.  Let us summarise our learning, and accept it as the base from which we can analyse this question.

God is not an object and hence cannot be visualized.  It is an energy like Electricity passing through various electrical apparatus, giving different experiences or effects.  He is the substratum of our life.  Body, Mind and Intellect are only the instruments through which God (Energy) projects Himself, seemingly giving different characteristics through different bodies.  These characteristics are based on Vasanas, which again project actions through the three layers called Sathwa, Rajas and Thamas.  There is an abstract entity in us called Ego (effect of Maya – Ignorance), which identifies always with the sense objects and functions as individualized Soul (Aatman) known as Jeevaatma.  God is termed as Paramaatma (Consiousness), which is the Reality and our aim should be to unite ourselves (Ego centric personality) with the Reality through Self Realisation.  It is this Reality (Consiousness), which is ever present in each and every being – not only living beings but also mountain, trees, river etc. (the entire nature). This Reality is seemingly appearing (due to our limited vision) as many, though it is only one.  This is called Unity in Diversity.  We should be able to observe this Unity principle in the diverse appearance of sense objects in the world.  Thus, God is not outside of us but within us, i.e. the very Consciousness, which is present in all the three states called waking, dream and deep sleep.  Unless this Consciousness is present in all the three states, we will not be able to know that we slept or dreamt, which we are aware of in the waking state.  This Consciousness, which is present in all the three states, is called the Sakshi or the Witness.  Thus the Life Energy is variously referred to as God, Witness, Sakshi, Consciousness, Rality, Truth etc. etc. 

Thus, God is only one and not many, He is not outside of us but within us, He cannot be seen or felt but only experienced within us, He is the very substratum of our life, the entire nature including all living beings are only instruments through which He projects himself and all differences are due to the characteristics of these instruments and not related to Him.This is the strong basic belief from which we should try to analyse the above question, which is worth looking into.   

In contrast to the above belief, we engage ourselves with Idol worship – worshipping God in an Idol.  When Goid is said to be within us and we are the projection of God through the three layers, how can there be a God outside.   God is everywhere – Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient.  Hence He is within as well outside.  So worshipping God in an Idol is not at all wrong.  But, why should we do it?  What is the basic principle in it?  We are unable to assimilate anything which is abstract – not known, not seen, not felt.  We are used to name and form.  Unless we get something in a form and with a name, we will not be able to assimilate or grasp anything. Someone said that the idols in temples are all made up of stones, carved out of mountains, which are climbed by us with our legs etc.  But Idols, when installed in temples, go through various religious practices and through chanting of Vedas, are purified with various manthraas and the faith instilled by us..  Manthraas have effect if chanted properly.  The sculptor who is making the form in the Idol has his own impression of God either heard or seen by him and he carves the stone into that form.  We beautify the Idol with our own imagination and project our desires.  Thus, we superimpose a God onto the Idol, beautify the Idol with ornaments, cloths etc. and enjoy His appearance in the form and name given by us. Thus, form and name are man-made. While decorating the idol, we are really projecting our own desires formed in the mind.  Where from the Idol got the power to heal our mental scars or wounds?  While consecrating an Idol, we utter many manthraas and slokaas, full of meaning and these are done with full faith on God.  All the devotees are pouring their mental and intellectual powers on to the Idol through chanting of slokas with the base as Faith.  These are like deposits made in our banks, which grow day by day and when we need we withdraw from our account.  Thus, we deposit the energy from within on to the Idol and instill Faith as the basis and whenever we pray we get a solace as mental peace.  The effect of Manthraas and our faith together function as miracle when our desires are  fulfilled through prayers.  This we call as the power of God in the Idol. Looking at it another way, the form on the Idol is our own projection of God in form, which is coming from within us. While worshipping an idol (God in a form), you get fully engrossed, concentrate on your pooja or dhyana to the exclusion of all other things and even forget your surroundings.  While worshipping sincerely and with faith, you lose sight of your existence in this world, you are with the worship totally, just as while dreaming you are not feeling you are the dreamer but you are involved in the process going on there, which you believe then as true.  Only on waking up you realize it was a dream.  Similarly, you lose your normal identity with the waking world and merge in what is happening at the time of worshipping.  Thus, your Mind is at rest without its monkey tricks.  You experience a peace, calmness, serenity etc. which is called spiritual existence.

Thus, Idol worship fulfills our desire to see God in a form, trains us to concentrate, leads us to belief, puts our Mind at calm, helps us to develop faith, and ultimately makes us happy in the material world.

Idol worship involves extraverted-ness and plurality, i.e. we are worshipping God outside of us with different names as Ganapathy, Rama, Krishna, Siva, Parvathy, Vittal etc. etc. as per our taste.  All are called God.  These Gods are appearing in temples or our pooja rooms as idols in different forms. Thus, contrary to our above basic belief we indulge in worshipping God with many names and forms.  What a pity?  Why so?  Let us try to go deep and think.  Let us look into our status.  Who are you?  Are you one or many? You have a name & form but function as many, such as son, husband, brother, father, uncle etc. etc. in relation to your family members.  Thus, you function as many though you are only one.  This is so because others are looking at you from their relationship with you through family bondage as many, though you are only one.  Let us consider another example.  You have gold chain, earings, neklace, ring, bangles etc. all made up of gold.  Though they are known with different names, depending on form and use, they are all one as far as the basic metal in them is concerned.  All of them are gold only but we call them differently.  You eat jilebi, rasgullah, burfy, peda, halwa etc. Though they are different, as far as the taste is concerned, they are all sweet.  What is the charecteristic of sweet?  Is it different?  Though all of them are sweet, they appear differently & they taste differently. Thus, God projecting through various instruments appear differently due to the nature of the instruments or their characteristics. The form of each God represents some aspects of our daily life.  Ganesa is the embodiment of Knowledge Supreme, Saraswathi is the giver of Vidya, Subramania represents beauty, Ayyappa is the embodiment of Adwaita principle, Siva appears as the annihilator etc. etc. Each one of us worship different Gods as per our own taste or the predominance of a particular layer – Satwa, Rajas, Thamas.

But, when we have understood the above principle, why should we follow idol worship?  You know all the above dishes taste sweet.  Can you abstain from eating or tasting all of them?  Are you not still eating them? Can you do away with all relationships and function only as one?  Can you refuse wearing all the gold ornaments?  No, isn’t it?  The answer is simply ‘your taste’ or ‘your desire’.   These are all objects of enjoyment.  You like to appear as many, function as many, taste many foods, wear many ornaments etc. even though you know all these appearing as many are really one only.  This is because of our Vaasaanaas, rudimentary unfulfilled desires.  We are worshipping Idols with a desire, selfish nature, seeking for some benefit etc.  If we do it with full Faith, we may even feel benefited.  However, without selfish desire if we worship idol, we will be able to achieve more and better standards of spiritual progress, leading to peace of mind. 

Idol worship has an advantage. You cannot worship an abstract thing, you need a form since you want to see while worshipping.  However, unless you have Faith in God, Idol worship will not be fruitful. It appeases your hunger (desire), you get peace of mind, you believe your wishes are fulfilled by Idol worship.    The ultimate aim of Idol worship is appeasing your mind, calming it and regulating it. It enables us to worship the God of our choice (Ishta Daivam).  It helps to follow the path of salvation prescribed by our scriptures.  Idol worship is the method to inculcate Bhakthi in us, which is essential for salvation. 

In conclusion, what we do is not important but how we do it – with what intention we do it is to be considered. So far as any process helps us to evolve, that process is good.  Idol worship, therefore, has advantages provided your understand the underlying principle and use it as a tool for evolution.

HARI OM TAT SAT