Idol worship and Hinduism

11-03-2005, 03:31 AM

Hello everyone,

Since childhood, I have seem my family going to temples, performing pooja at home and I have been part of this. I myself, have been vising temples regularly.

But since some time, I have a feeling that Idol worship is ok (not bad), but even if you just worship in your mind, that should be equally good.

I prefer this method of worship, where I visualize God in front of me wherever I am and pray.

But at times, My family wants me to visit temple (as they did today. Its my birthday today), and I just skip it because of lack of time/motivation etc. Then I have a feeling of guilt.

Please Advise
Shravan

11-03-2005, 10:53 AM

Hare Krishna!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada! I offer my humble obeisance unto him!

Happy Birthday Mr.Shravan Kumar!!

First i think we should address idol worship as not idol worship but as deity worship. GOd is not mere an idol but He decided to take the form of Murthi for the sake of His devotees. So, in other words, it is not a mere statue and hence not idol. We can address God in deity form as archa vigraha and moola vigraha.

Coming to your point of mental image, it is ok, and is not an issue. But, the difference between actually going to the temple and having a mental image reflects your level of devotion to God.

I want to say one thing, nowdays in India, people go to God for some material benefits, that should not be the case. One should approach GOD to LOVE HIM unconditionally. So actually going to the temple(which takes time and effort) and visiting GOD shows you LOVE HIM. However, it is easy to show respect mentally but it is not easy to go to temple cos it takes time and effort.

The point iam making is while both forms of worship (mental and actual temple visit) is ok, the later shows that you are more committed in serving GOD with LOVE and hence it will make you more in LOVE with GOD as opposed to just imaging HIM in the head.It is only that differemce.

It is something like this, if you love a girl and she lives in the same town as you. How do you show your love to her? Do you go personaly to meet her to make her happy or you just imagine her or call her over the phone to make her happy. While both are ok, going personally has more effect to her and to you as well as your love will increase and she will also be happy.

Similarly, this is the difference between going to temple and imagining God. God is more happy (not that He is not if you dont think) but He is happy to see you take time and effort to show your love to Him in person.

So, it is all about showing LOVE to GOD and the more energy and time you spend on showing LOVE, your love can only increase as GOD is happy seeing you commitment. But it is also ok to pay respects to HIM mentally but i reccomend, if a temple is near by, to go to Temple!

This is the difference...Hope you understood what i said.

Haribol!

anand

11-03-2005, 01:08 PM

The guilt in you may be a good thing, as it might be representing your quest for spiritual knowledge and thus to contribute to your own family with the knowledge.

The guilt may be a bad thing, if you begin engaging in debates as to Why you want to go to temple or why you don't want to go to temple. Completely avoid reasoning to questions of 'Why'. Play indifference to sarcasm as well.

Visualizing god in fronnt of you is good. I have seen a good mantra always helps, as it doesn't try to pin the mind down to a picture or anything. But over a period of time, you would realise that the mantra has alredy shown you the way to spirituality. And that controlling the mind from wavering is too small a challenge. Mantra takes the form of a guru and shows you the way to spirituality.

11-03-2005, 04:31 PM

the guilt you feel is interesting. do you believe that what you are doing is wrong? It seems you want to believe one thing, but inside you feel the other secretively and dont want to.

your decicion to picture god in your mind rather than the temple is your choice and should be respected. If one can do it and do it right, then more props to you.

Your family wanting to see you go to the temple, is a result of social pressures that build up in our community where we see the temple as one ultimate must. Many people feel that going to the temple is a must ad is good, which it is good. but due to social pressures from the people in our life - our family, our friends, co-workers, etc. - thse and other people are the people we turn to for acceptance within society and if all go to the temple, it is seen as something outside the norm when one does not.

but they fail to see your genuiness in worship, only worship differently. it is not wrong. only different. teach them this. Teach them that hinduism preaces a toleration of many differnet paths, so long as the path is genuine and true.

They shouldnt feel that you should be obligated to go to temple. You should go because you want to go because it contributes something to you.

As for idol worship being wrong, why do you say that? An idol isnt actually god. its a representation of god. Since god has no form, in actuality he has all. he cant be limited to one form, so he must take any and every form he wants. And any form that you want. Any form that you worship god, so long as it is genuine and you are improving yourself, ethically and spiritually, then god will gladly be in that form.

Each idol only represnts another form that was craeted by our ancestors in their quest. It is not however laid in stone that each form is exactly what god looks like. remeber, he as NO form AND EVERY form.

maadhav · 11-03-2005, 09:55 PM

going to temple always benefits all, except the atheists.
if you love god, there is no reason to not love temples.