The role of idol worship

[Guest guest]

A talk delivered by Swami Dayananda Saraswati on the role of Idol worship in

the Advaita tradition.

_____________________

What is an idol? We say that the whole creation is bhagavan, the Lord. Every

form is the Lord's form; therefore in any one form I can invoke the Lord.

Traditionally some forms have been handed over to us and the bhagavad-buddhi

(seeing it as the Lord) is associated with those forms in our mind.

Today, they spend a lot of money for creating such an identity. 7 O' clock

means a blade, Lux means a toilet soap. Who creates that buddhi? The

commercials in the media.

For generations the Lord is worshipped in certain forms and those forms have

been handed over to you. The tradition did not begin just yesterday. It is

coming down to us for generations - a great benefit? When I see Ganesa, I

recognise the form as the Lord, not as a strange creature with an odd head

and a big belly. I recognise the form as the Lord and this is what we call

`tradition'. This is a treasure, we should understand. Just to create that

buddhi of `Lux' as a toilet soap you have to do so much publicity and keep

doing it; otherwise people will forget and soap would mean to them Rexona or

Hamam!

Idol worship is handed over to us generation after generation. Even atheists

in this country have to first accept Ganesa as God and then negate that

there is no God..... We have inherited this particular legacy and therefore

the idol invokes in us the devotee and that is a great heritage.

Nobody worships an idol; everybody worships the Lord. There are sculptors in

Rajasthan, who make marble idols. An idol of Lord Siva was supplied by a

Rajasthani sculptor to a temple in Bombay. Certain parts of the idol, the

eyelashes, the lips, the naga (snake) etc., were colour-painted by the

sculptor. In course of some five or six years, that painting got erased. The

manager of the temple wrote to the Sculptor asking him to come to Bombay and

repaint the idol. Do you know what was the reply of the Sculptor? He wrote,

"Do you realise what you are asking me to do? Who am I to paint the Lord? If

you want a new idol, I will make one and send to you, but I won't paint my

bhagavan." Why? Because the sculptor creates a statue, an idol and not the

Lord. Do you know what he does at the time of installation of the idol? He

also attends the function. Until the installation ceremony, the idol is a

stone only, it is not the Lord. During installation, they do pranapratistha,

imparting life to the idol, by mantra, by samskara - just as, by samskara, a

person is made a dvija, twice-born; by the diksa of gayatri-mantra, you make

him a different person.

Similarly here, even though it is a stone idol, it is given `life' by

samskara and the last act of the sculptor is to open the eyes. He brings a

fine chisel and a hammer with him and when the samskaras are done, he opens

the eyes of the idol. Till then the eyes are covered. The sculptor removes

bits of stone covering the eyes and then he is the first person to fall at

the feet of the idol which is no more an idol for him. Till then it was only

a stone but now it is the Lord and he worships the Lord.

You do not need even a stone for worship. Stone also is Lord for us. But we

do not require even a stone; we require only haldi (turmeric) powder. We

make a lump out of haldi and then say, "asmin bimbe mahaganapatim avahayami"

- I invoke the great Lord Ganesa in this lump. All you have is water in a

bucket and you say, "gange ca yamune caiva godavari sarasvati narmade sindhu

kaveri jale'smin sannidhim kuru"- "O Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati,

Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri, may you all be present in this (bucket of)

water."

In this manner, everybody people bathe in the Ganga, Yamuna, etc. - they

need not go to the Ganga, Yamuna etc., local water is enough. All that is

there is the attitude. It is everywhere and every day it is the same. What

is there is the picture of the your father? It is just a black and white

photograph, but you place a flower there. Why? As a mark of respect to the

father and to the piece of paper. And without such forms of expressions of

respect, of friendship, of love, life will be nothing. So even the people

who criticise idol-worship do worship some books and places.

People worship the Lord. Why do they worship the Lord - you ask me. Don't

ask me why do people worship idols. You never worship an idol, you always

worship the Lord.

Well, for Self-realisation, why do you worship the Lord? To know that Lord

is everywhere. Until you know that, you have to keep your ego under check.

In fact the Lord is everything and so your ego is swallowed by the Lord. But

you think you are different from the Lord and so you place a flower at the

feet of the Lord and your ego is kept under check.

Worship brings about antahkaranasuddhi, purity of the mind, which is needed

to understand that the Lord is everywhere. "I am everything." is

Self-realisation. "Lord is everywhere" or "I am everything", both are one

and the same.

Self-realisation is not elimination of thoughts. Self-realisation is knowing

the fact that I am the Self which is everything or that the Lord is

everything and that Lord I am. This is the knowledge for which I require a

pure mind. For that, I seek the Lord's grace by worship which is an action,

an act of devotion.

 

Taken from www.yogamalika.org