Idol Worship

[Guest guest]

dear friends

 

The statue or photo is the inert object. The form carved in a stone or painted

on a paper is also an imaginary form and not even a direct photo. The statues

and photos are only models representing the concept, which is knowledge. The

form of statues and photos is mainly human form, which represents the concept

that the Lord always comes to this world in human form as said in Gita

(Manusheem Tanu Masritam).

 

Please remember that Gita did not tell that the Lord would come in any other

form. The forms of fish, tortoise etc., were only temporarily to kill the

demons and nobody worshipped such forms during their time. But Rama, Krishna

etc were the human forms worshipped by several devotees like Hanuman and

Gopikas. The Lord will come in every human generation; otherwise, He becomes

partial to a particular generation. If necessary the Lord can come whenever

there is necessity as said in Gita (Yedaa yedaahi).

 

Once this concept is realized, there is no need of temple and statue for you.

You should go from school to college and then to university. This does not mean

that when you leave the school, the school should be destroyed. The school must

exist for the future batches. Therefore for you, the statue and the photo are

not necessary and this does not mean that the statues, photos and temples should

be broken. They should be protected and must be respected as the models of

divine knowledge for the future ignorant devotees. Some devotees cannot accept

the human form, which is before their eyes as said in Veda (Pratyaksha dvishah).

 

For such devotees the statues and photos are necessary for meditation since

they are at the school level. The statues and photos are useful for the

meditation of such limited minds as said in Sastra (Pratima svalpa buddhinam).

Veda says that the Lord does not exist in the inert objects (Natasya pratima,

Nedamtat), but says that the inert objects can stand as models representing the

Lord (Adityam brahmeti).

 

Therefore seeing and meditation upon the statues and photos are correct in the

case of the ignorant devotees. But the other rituals like offering food,

burning camphor, fume sticks, oil lamps and breaking coconuts, offering flowers

etc. are not mentioned in Vedas and there are unnecessary and are causing the

air pollution harming the humanity. All these unnecessary rituals should be

avoided.

 

Offering food should also be done to the human form of the Lord only but not to

the inert statues. Ijya or Yajna is cooking and offering of the food. Gita says

that such Ijya should not be done to the inert objects. In the name of the

statues, people are stealing the food and money. The statue and photo is not

taking the food or Gurudakshina. The people behind the statue are taking those

things and most of them are either cheating or wasting the money with ignorance.

Whatever the Gurudakshina is given should go only to the priest and not the

managing devotees. The business of the merchants by selling such materials in

the temples should be stopped, because such materials are not even heard in

Veda. Of course, the priest should be a Satguru and preach the divine knowledge

to the devotees and the devotees should give Gurudakshina to such Satguru only.

Thus, the temple should become a center of learning selfless devotion and divine

knowledge and the priest must do only ‘Janna

Eagan’ in the temple and not the ‘dravya Eagan’ as said in the Gila (Sreyaan

dravyamayat).

 

Gita condemned such Ijya before inert objects because such Ijya is only cheating

and business. Such a devotee will be born as inert object (Bhutejya yanti). This

business is connected to removal of the fruits of sins and getting the fruits of

good deeds, which are not done.

 

All this is false, because the theory of ‘karma’ says that one has to suffer

for all his bad deeds and can never get the result of any good deed without

doing it (Avasyamanubhoktavyam…kalpakotisatairapi). The spiritual path should be

preached in the temple, which must be ‘nishkama karma yoga’ i.e., sacrifice of

work and sacrifice of fruit (money) of the work to the Lord without aspiring any

fruit in return. Remember, that only the Ijya is condemned and not the temples

or statues, which are the models of the divine knowledge.

 

at the lotus feet of shri datta swami

 

surya