Idol worship

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IDOL WORSHIP:

quote by Swami Chinmayananda

 

when your dear son is away from home, and you cannot see him whenever you want,

do you or do you not get solace by looking at his photograph? You do know that

the photo is not your son, but only a piece of paper with various tones of gray,

but it reminds you of your beloved boy and his great love for you. So, also the

idols in temples are to remind the devotees of the ideal, the Supreme. Since the

human mind cannot conceive of a formless Supreme, God is conceived of in the

form as represented by an idol. Through a symbol or idol, we come to adore and

be aware of the ideal. Whether the symbol on the flag is Sickle and Hammer, the

Wheel, or Stars and Stripes it does not matter. They represent the ideals of

each country stands for, and thus can invoke certain feelings and consciousness

in those who salute them. The piece of cloth is not my country. The idol is not

the ideal. The wedding ring is not my wife. All these help to remind me of the

noble ideals, which they symbolize. To the earnest devotee, the idol appears as

a living embodiment of his Lord, and he goes into ecstasy of its sight. But

alas! We usually forget the ideals and hug on to the idols. This has happened in

religion, in its temples, rituals, and ceremonies. Most of us have not been

educated in the ideals behind all these apparently meaningless paraphernalia.

So, they have become meaningless formalism and mechanical routine. it is,

however, necessary to remember that the idol is not God, but represents God.

 

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