Hinduism: Temple and Idol worship

TEMPLE WORSHIP:
quoted by Swami Chinmayananda
God is all pervading but why do we have to worship at temples? You know that the essence in the cow is in her milk and it pervades her entire vital body. Yet, if I want to milk the cow, though milk is all pervading, I cannot get it by squeezing her horns or tail. We must go to the udder. In a democracy, the government of a country is present at every pint within the frontiers of that nation. Yet when I want to invoke the government for permit or for help, I must reach the capital city, approach the right departmental head, and invoke government's protection or patronage. Though the Lord is all pervading, to invoke Him we need an altar. Think!

IDOL WORSHIP:
quoted by Swami Chinmayananda

when your dear son is away from home, and you cannot see him whenever you want, do you or do you not get solace by looking at his photograph? You do know that the photo is not your son, but only a piece of paper with various tones of gray, but it reminds you of your beloved boy and his great love for you. So, also the idols in temples are to remind the devotees of the ideal, the Supreme. Since the human mind cannot conceive of a formless Supreme, God is conceived of in the form as represented by an idol. Through a symbol or idol, we come to adore and be aware of the ideal. Whether the symbol on the flag is Sickle and Hammer, the Wheel, or Stars and Stripes it does not matter. They represent the ideals of each country stands for, and thus can invoke certain feelings and consciousness in those who salute them. The piece of cloth is not my country. The idol is not the ideal. The wedding ring is not my wife. All these help to remind me of the noble ideals, which they symbolize. To the earnest devotee, the idol appears as a living embodiment of his Lord, and he goes into ecstasy of its sight. But alas! We usually forget the ideals and hug on to the idols. This has happened in religion, in its temples, rituals, and ceremonies. Most of us have not been educated in the ideals behind all these apparently meaningless paraphernalia. So, they have become meaningless formalism and mechanical routine. it is, however, necessary to remember that the idol is not God, but represents God.

# posted by devishakti_india @ 11:12 AM

Comments:

Definitely, my son's picture when he is away gives a solace, but the GOD cannot be photographed. My son's picture was taken by the photographer as he could see him with his eyes, whereas GOD is not perceivable with our physical eyes.
Secondly, Only Human soul can perceive the formless GOD. It needs lot of effort, follow some practices such as yam,niyam,aasan,meditation, mainly the astaang yoga and not simply going to some temple and prostrating to idols cannot perceive the true GOD. Our great rishis did that and they attained saakshaatkar by deep meditation and not by worshipping idols.
The paintings, idols or any other such pictures definitely remind us of their great qualities for us to follow and inculcate. But the form or worship today we do at temples is not acceptable in anyways. Garlanding the idol, pouring milk over the idol, rotating around the idol, presenting food to the idol,breaking coconut, ringing the bell and other such unwanted activities have become the core of worship. By doing all these, we have forgetting the true way of worship. My father will be happy if i follow what he said and not by idolizing his picture, garland the picture and putting agarbathi in front of his picture. His soul would curse me. True gurus should teach the way of attaining moksha or knowing oneself and then knowing the supreme as prescribed in vedas.
Vedas clearly said, Na Tasya Pratima Asti (yajurved). There is no image of GOD.

# posted by

Ram : 8:06 AM

Hinduism

Monday, September 12, 2005

Temple and Idol worship