Idol Worship
In the following discourse, Bhagavan Baba shows us how idol worship is an important tool for our spiritual efforts to attain the goal of being one with the Lord.
“There is only one God and He is omnipresent.” While this statement is true, it is necessary to concentrate on the omnipresent, some fixed point or preliminary form. Certain psychological processes called sadhanas [spiritual efforts] help us to conceive of the Divine as present everywhere at all times and allow our minds to be clarified and purified. This is the reason why, not only among the followers of Hinduism, but even among Christians and Buddhists, regular rituals are prescribed for the worship of idols that represent God. Cynics question the validity of this type of adoration and say that it is superstition. “Can God be a stone or a piece of paper?” they ask. This attitude is not correct. By adhering to the traditionally prescribed ritual worship, many aspirants have attained the vision of the omnipresent, and stayed in that incommunicable bliss.
In fact, puja (formal worship, at regular hours, with the recitation of hymns and songs) is the very first step in the spiritual pilgrimage. Many seekers have undoubtedly achieved an awareness of God by years of asceticism in removed jungle caves. However, starting early with puja and continuing with scrupulous care, the rites of archana, bhajan and aradhana (offering of flowers with the repetition of God’s name, singing His glory, and adoring Him as a living presence) are more fruitful and satisfying. Meerabai, Sakkubai, Surdas, Kabirdas, Sankaracharya, and many other saints and realized souls have proven in their lives that the time, attention, and energy spent in these religious practices are well spent. They were enabled by aradhana to visualize the Divine in the specific form, which they used as the instrument.
The entire English literature is made up of the permutation and combination of the 26 letters of the alphabet. The puja, japa [repetition of the name], archana, and aradhana are the letters of the spiritual alphabet. The collection in time of the various items necessary for the worship (the lamps, the camphor, the flowers, the plates, the cups, the bell, and the book) requires hours‑long concentration on the Divine. The puja itself may take another hour or two of concentrated and purificatory attention, and the performer emerges from the recitations and the meditations, a stronger and steadier pilgrim on the path.
The omnipresent is not absent from the icon or the picture. We do not reduce God and shut Him up in a stone image. Rather, we affirm and realize that He is in the icon also. We raise the image to the dimensions of the Absolute. We expand the picture far beyond its frame and through the processes of sadhana, we become aware that the picture too can be made a tool for the mind to escape from its limitations.
When the Maharaja of Alwar in Rajasthan argued before Swami Vivekananda that God can never be perceived in a picture drawn by an artist, Vivekananda called upon the Prime Minister, who was standing reverently by, to get the Maharaja’s portrait down from the wall and spit on it! He said, “You need not hesitate. The Maharaja says it is just a blotch of colors on a bit of canvas and that it should not be confused with the idea that it is the Maharaja.” But, everyone at the durbar [court] withdrew in fear. The picture of the Maharaja was for them an object worthy of adoration.
The sixteen modes of worship laid down in the Sastras [Hindu scriptures] are intended to make the aspirant aware that he is in the very presence; that every gesture and movement of his has to be motivated by devotion and dedication to ensure the purification of the mind of man from ego and all its brood of blemishes. This is chitta‑shuddhi—the cleansing of all levels of one’s consciousness.
The basic chitta [consciousness] has to be freed from down‑dragging impulses. What good is it to cook a rare and costly dish in a vessel contaminated by dirt? What good is it to plant a precious seed in rocky soil? Puja or archana offered without a purified heart is a sheer waste of time. Even a short sincere session of puja spent in Divine awareness yields much fruit. A Tamil saint has confessed that he engaged himself in the worship of the Lord’s idol in order to cleanse his mind. Care has to be taken that you do not focus on the stone or, for that instant, the Divine will disappear from view. The material and the form are inseparable, but the seeker must dwell on the form that he desires to be manifested in all its glory rather than on the material. He must dwell long and deep on the thought that God is found in every particle in the universe, that He is not bound by any limitations of space and time.
Ceaseless effort is necessary to gain and possess chitta-shuddhi. One has to be ever in satsang [good company] and in activities devoted to the service of God in various human forms. In the Gita, one can notice Krishna addressing Arjuna as “Kurunandana!” The usual meaning given by scholars to this appellation is “the scion of the Kuru clan” but it has a much more profound lesson to teach mankind. Kuru means in Sanskrit, “do;” and nandana means, “he who takes delight in.” So, it means Krishna is appreciating the transformation in Arjuna from inaction to action—Arjuna is the one who takes delight in having some work to do. He is the one who is sad and dejected if he has no work on hand. For most of you, Sunday is a holiday that gives pleasure, but for Arjuna, the day which He can devote to God’s work is indeed a holy day.
You must have been told that common people in India believe that, when thunder-claps are threatening overhead, the recitation of Arjuna’s nine names in a row will save them from a bolt falling on them. This is proof of the power that not only the names of God, but also recitation of the names of His devoted adherents—ever pure and ever in contact with the Absolute—has over the elements. That is the reason why aradhana or worship of the presence is offered even to great devotees like Thyagaraja and Kabir. They have no identity of their own, they have become one with the limitless, through the worship of the limited.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March, 1979
