Swami Sivananda Vani

[Guest guest]

Q & A on Spiritual Life & Sadhana from “May I Answer That?â€- by

Holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.

 

God is all-pervading formless Being. How can He be confined to an

idol? What is the use of idol worship?

 

The divinity of the all-pervading God is vibrant in every atom of

creation. There is not a speck of space where He is not. Why do you

then say that He is not the idols? The idol is a support for the

neophyte. It is a prop of his spiritual childhood. A form or image is

necessary for worship in the beginning. It is not possible for all to

fix the mind on the Absolute or the Infinite. A concrete form is

necessary for the vast majority for practicing concentration. Idols

are not the idle fancies of sculptors, but shining channels through

which the heart of the devotee flows towards God. Though the image is

worshipped, the devotee feels the presence of the Lord in it and

pours out his devotion unto it. The idol remains an idol, but the

worship goes to the Lord. To a devotee, the image is a mass of

Chaitanya or consciousness. He draws inspiration from the image. The

image guides him. It talks to him. It assumes human form to help him

in a variety of ways. The image of Lord Siva in the temple at Madurai

in South India helped the fuel-cutter and the old woman. The image in

the temple at Tirupati assumed human form and gave witness in the

court to help His devotees. There are marvels and mysteries. Only the

devotees understand these. Idol worship is not peculiar to Hinduism.

The Christians worship the Cross.

 

They have the image of the Cross in their mind. The Mohammedans keep

The image of the Kaaba stone when they kneel and do prayers. The

mental image also is a form of idol. The difference is not one in

kind, but only one of degree. All worshippers, however intellectual

they may be, generate a form in the mind and make the mind dwell on

that image. Everyone is an idol worshipper. Pictures and drawings are

only a form of Pratima. A gross mind needs a concrete symbol as a

prop or Alambana; a subtle mind requires an abstract symbol. Even a

Vedantin has the symbol OM for fixing the wandering mind. It is not

only pictures or images in stone and wood that are idols. Dialectics

and leaders also become idols. So, why condemn idolatry?

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An Incidence From H. H. Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj's Life

 

With all his busy schedule round the year, the itinerary extending to

distant parts of the globe, Swamiji yet succeeds in wrenching himself

free every now and then to be in the company of some saint or other.

That is the atmosphere he longs for; at the mental plane that is the

world which perhaps he continually inhabits. Nimkaroli Baba, a wonder

mystic of North India, a Hanuman Siddha, was one such saint for whom

Swamiji had very high regard. Swamiji knelt down beside the cot and

humbly offered his homage to the Baba and after sometime sang a few

Bhajans and Stotras in praise of Lord Hanuman. At the close of

Swamiji's Kirtan the usually reticent and severe-looking Baba

instructed all his disciples to bow down at the feet of Swamiji

and declared that if they did not do so, they would miss a unique

opportunity of prostrating before an illumined sage of high order. In

his inimitable way, Swamiji said that if a person held a flower for a

considerable length of time it was natural that the fragrance could

be smelt on the palms. Therefore, it was no wonder if the fragrance

of Gurudev's virtues was sometimes wafted through him because of his

fortunate protracted contact. Swamiji never misses the opportunity,

if any, of meeting a saint. Public stature, expansion of an

institution, name of the sect or number of disciples are matters of

no concern to him. A saint, whether he be in a Muth or in a forest,

in public life or in Sannyas, is equally alluring to him. In this

manner he had met Acharya Vinoba Bhave at Paunar and offered him

salutations, as he would do to any senior Sannyasi.