worship of human beings

[Guest guest]

Every human is an incarnation of God, right?

So can one reach enlightenment by worshipping any ordinary person as

god/goddess? Does that only work with Avatars, or certain spiritual advanced

persons like ones Guru? Or does that also work with commpletely ordinary

persons? For instance Indian women in erlier times regarded their husbands as

gods, and then there is also the worship of Devi in form of virginal girls.

[Guest guest]

>

> Every human is an incarnation of God, right? So can one reach enlightenment by

worshipping any ordinary person a god/goddess? Does that only work with

Avatars, or certain spiritual advanced persons like ones Guru? Or does that also

work with commpletely ordinary persons? For instance Indian women in erlier

times regarded their husbands as gods, and then there is also the worship of

Devi in form of virginal girls.

 

 

Dear Devotee,

 

In response to your question:

 

Every human being is not an incarnation of God. Our AchAryas recognize three

eternal realities, God, the souls (all of us), and matter. One of these

realities, God, is independent, and the other two are solely dependent on Him

for their being. Out of His Boundless Love, God pervades this universe and

becomes the life-giving energy of each and every soul along with matter, serving

as the innermost being - the antaryAmi - such that the souls can subsist,

survive and move about freely in their interaction with matter. So, it is more

correct to say then that God lies in the heart of every living being.

 

Ideally, if we are able to come to a stage where we can experience and worship

the Divinity that lies at the heart of all beings, it will certainly be possible

to advance spiritually. But, if we limit it to one particular human being, we

must keep in mind that all we will ever be able to see is that one human being,

and in return the human being whom we are worshipping can only operate within

the limits of the conditions of his/her own body, and can never fully grant us

unlimited peace and joy . Consequently, neither we, nor the other human being

can really have the ability to fully experience this God-devotee relationship.

 

What we must experience, then, is not so much seeing human beings as

manifestations of God, but recognizing God's gifts that He bestows to us in our

positive relationships with our fellow living beings. When the Vedas talk of

seeing your mother or father as God, they mean it from the perspective of

marvelling at how God expresses Himself in the unconditional love that these

people have towards you. In a similar way, women should see God operating

through their husbands in their respectful attitude towards them, in their good

character, love, support, friendship, and fidelity. When we see God in our

children, we should see Him in their innocence; in their sheer ignorance of

language, caste, religion and other barriers that divide adults; and in how even

the simplest of things brings them joy.

 

The same holds true in worshipping an AchArya but goes one step further, because

as a direct representative of God through His pre-eminent servant, Sri Ramanuja,

the teacher provides a gift that is far greater than anyone else can, the wisdom

that will lead us to God. This knowledge is so precious that it should be

cherished more than any priceless jewel; and the person who gives it to us with

no expectation of reward should be seen as one to whom a debt can never be

repaid. Indeed, a disciple should see his/her guru to be as great, if not

greater than God for the great gift of spiritual wisdom that he has provided out

of his own compassion and mercy.

 

One of our great scholarly works, Sri Vachana Bhushanam, a set of aphorisms

composed by the esteemed Pillai Lokacharya Swamy of the 13th century, goes into

great detail of how such loving adoration of the teacher - AchArya abhimAnam -

brings pleasure to God and other devotees, and as such, is the surest way to

God realization. But, it should be reiterated that this placement of one's

spiritual teacher over and above even God should be a mood or spiritual feeling

- anubhavam , which requires some amount of emotional and spiritual maturity on

our parts to experience in a proper way. Consequently, it is not to be followed

blindly, based on cursory understanding, such that it creates zealotry and

dogmatism in us. Instead, it should be a feeling of loving gratitude and humble

service as an instrument to our Teacher who serves as an instrument to His

Teacher, who in turn served as an instrument to His Teacher, and so on, all the

way through Sri Ramanuja to God - Sriman Narayana Himself.

 

I hope this helps.

 

adiyEn Ramanuja dAsan

Mohan