Idol Worship

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 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 Ganesha , I recognize the form as the Lord , not as a strange creature with an odd head and a big belly . I recognize 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 Ganesha 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 . An idol od 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) and 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 realize 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 , and idol and not the Lord . Until the installation ceremony , the idol is a stone only , it is not the Lord . During installation , they do prana-pratishta (imparting life to the idol) by mantra and samskara – just as , by samskara , a person is made a dvija (twice-born) ; by the diksha 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 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 . Now it is the Lord that he worships .

Even in a lump of haldi (turmeric) powder , we can invoke the Lord by saying “ asmin bimbe mahaganapatim avahayami ” – I invoke the great lord Ganesha in this lump . In water also , you can invoke the Lord . All you have is water in a bucket and you say , “ganga 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 , everyday , you bathe in the Ganga , Yamuna , etc. without having to go to the respective rivers .

All that is there is the attitude . It is everywhere and everyday , it is the same . What is there in the picture of your father ? It is just a photograph , but you place a flower there . Why ? As a mark of respect to your father . Without such forms of expressions of respect , of friendship , of love , life will be nothing . Even the people who criticize idol-worship do worship some books and places . So , you may ask me , “ Why they worship the Lord ?” . 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 the 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 Lord’s feet and you 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 and it is the same as “ The Lord is everywhere .” Self-realisation is not the elimination of thoughts . It 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 .

~ Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati