Hindu Article-Worship of God

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Worship of God

 

 

CHENNAI OCT. 9 . A common tendency of a spiritual

aspirant who has undertaken scriptural study and thus

gained some knowledge about the methods to liberation

prescribed in them is to draw comparisons and rate one

greater than the other. This begs the question, "Why

have the scriptures recommended different methods?"

The consolation is even Arjuna was beset with a

similar dilemma even after having been taught at

length by Lord Krishna, as the 12th chapter of the

Bhagavad Gita starts with the question he posed to

Him, "The devotees exclusively and constantly devoted

to You worshipping You as possessed of form and

attributes and those who worship as the Supreme

Reality only the impersonal Absolute— which of these

has a greater understanding of Yoga?"

 

The Lord's patience with erring humanity comes through

in this context for without pointing out that his

question was wrong in the first place, He explained

the difference between the two to show that a

spiritual aspirant has to graduate from one to the

other and hence they were not meant for different

types of practitioners as Arjuna had assumed.

 

As long as man identifies himself with his

body-mind-intellect personality he can relate only to

God with a form. If his mind has to conceive of the

Absolute Reality then he must be able to go beyond

this level. So the choice of the method of worship

depends on how evolved spiritually a person is to

undertake it. Arjuna should instead have asked the

Lord which of the two was applicable to him as that

must have been the intention of his question, said Br.

Sarveswara Chaitanya in his discourse.

 

Arjuna is the archetype of the majority of spiritual

aspirants and hence relevant to us. The Absolute

cannot be worshipped by one who has not evolved to the

level of contemplating on the abstract. As in the case

of all spheres of knowledge a person has to progress

step by step in spiritual practices also. But this

final level of comprehending the Ultimate Reality

through knowledge (Jnana) has to be reached by

everyone ultimately. Just as it is not possible to

cook food without fire even if all the ingredients to

cook a meal are available, so also it is not possible

to realise the Absolute without Jnana. It is apparent

then that a beginner cannot embark on this method and

has to worship God with form till his mind is rid of

the negative tendencies, which are distracting and

hinder progress like anger, greed, jealousy and so on.

 

copy right: The Hindu Daily

 

 

 

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