Moderator (RE: Idol Worship)

[Guest guest]

||Hare Rama Krsna||

Dear Members, Namaskar

Please stick to jyotish. If you wish to discuss idol worship or similar

philosophies, then there are many other lists for this. Please stick to

Jyotish or atleast give a jyotish angle to your discussion otherwise i will

be forced to moderate your posts.

Best wishes,

***

List Moderator - Visti Larsen

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[] On

Behalf Of surya

31 May 2006 16:12

 

Re: [Om Krishna Guru] Idol Worship

 

"Bharat Hindu Astrology" <hinduastrology> wrote:

> Namaskaar Sri Srivastavaji

>

> One never prays to an idol. Noone worships an idol. I haven't seen

a single person worship an idol. All I have seen are people

worshiping Bhagawan in all its rupas. This rupa could be of the

material of stone, human, animal, plant, thought, imagination, or

else.

>

> This principle is in every part of our living. A simple Namaskaar

is recognizing the Lord as you. A tilak on your forehead means the

same. It is this bhava that is part of our daily life. As Sri

Ramanarayanan has aptly put it in another post,  one can

mechanically do the above or remember the bhava.

>

> Thanks and Regards

> Bharat

 

 

If Lord also remembers you (maintains good bhava in His mind)and do

not do anything practically, will you be happy? When food or

anything is shown to idol, it is not a real worship as we ourselves

are eating it. Lord is not eating a trace of it. When the material

of the rupa is stone, it is called as Idol worship.

 

Q) You are advising homogeneity in action, words and mind in front

of Lord?

 

I advised homogeneity before the Lord in the spiritual effort. I

never told that you should be homogeneous in this world. Lord

Krishna told Dharma Raja to tell a lie in order to kill Dronacharya.

Lord Krishna tells in that context, that one should cheat the

cheaters in the world. Lord Krishna says "If you go into the world

of Maya without Maya, you will be killed as a soldier who goes to

the war without armor on the body". When you are associating with

Maya for the sake of the world for a long time, the Maya enters your

nature. You are showing the same Maya before the Lord.

 

You are treating the Lord as an outsider and also as a cheater. He

never cheated you. He gave you this human birth even though your

file of Karma recommends the birth of animals. He gave the

longevity, health and wealth and protected you several times in your

life. Why should you cheat Him? You are not cheating your family

members. Can't you equalize the Lord at least with your family

members? If Maya affects you continuously, why are you not showing

the Maya in the case of your family members also? Then the Lord can

excuse you because you are showing Maya everywhere. This means that

you are not treating the Lord equal to your family members. You are

offering the food to Him with your hand and eating. You are putting

your jewels on the statue of the Lord and taking them away by next

day. The statue is in your house. Why don't you keep the jewels on

the statue forever? The wealth is in your house only. Is it proper

to take out the wealth that is donated to the Lord? When you are

donating even to a human being, you are not taking back. You are not

considering that statue equal to even an ordinary human being. You

say that the statue is not inert object and is the living Lord in

your eyes. If it is not statue and is the living Lord, why are you

doing such tricks? While giving jewels to the statue, the statue is

the living Lord according to you. But when you take away the jewels

you are treating it as an inert statue. If the statue is alive, why

is it not eating your food? Why is it not talking with you?

 

You will not accept the human form of the Lord because if you offer

the food He will eat. If you give jewels to Him, He will wear and

will not return to you. On one side you say the statue is not inert.

But on the other hand your practical behavior proves that the statue

is inert. You are fooling the Lord. You are showing false love on

Him. You want to impress Him so that He feels that you have real

love on Him and then get all your desires fulfilled. You show a drop

of real love, which you are showing to your children. You are giving

a pot of cow milk to your children. At least give one spoon of the

cow milk to the Lord. If you can't give even that spoon of cow milk,

keep quite. The Lord is not begging you for the cow milk. If you

cannot please the Lord, keep silent. He will not be furious with

you. Don't show false love and fool Him to get the boons. If you

can't give even a drop of cow milk, keep quite. But don't give a pot

of donkey milk, which is false love, and make the Lord furious. It

is not wrong if you cannot please the Lord but it is the greatest

sin if you fool Him by false love and try to get the benefit from

Him. Without the practical sacrifice that proves the real love, all

your traditional activities and dramatic dress like silk cloth,

sacred ash on the forehead and garlands of beads are only the means

of cheating and fooling the Lord. You can fool a human being who is

ignorant or having little knowledge. But the Lord is omniscient.

Knowing this you are trying to fool Him!! Are you not the biggest

fool before Him? Therefore have the shield of Maya when you enter

the world but when you come to the Lord remove the shield of Maya.

Even if you treat the Lord as the statue in your prayer room, stop

all these traditional foolish activity and be real. Since the statue

cannot eat the food, don't offer the food. Since the statue is not

having life, don't put flowers, don't lit the oil lamp when the

light is present, don't burn the fume sticks and camphor, don't

break the coconut etc., You see the beauty of the Lord in the statue

or photo and fix your eyes. Develop attraction and love. Remember

His qualities.

 

If there is darkness, lit the lamp. To remove the darkness, only oil

lamp is not needed. The alternative electric light is there. Avoid

the oil lamp in order to avoid the pollution. If you want good

smell, burn the fume stick. Burning the camphor has no use and

moreover it causes pollution. To satisfy your vision you can

decorate the statue with flowers. What ever you do, you do for your

self-satisfaction, which is the fruit for all your actions. You can

offer the food to the statue, but it is for your satisfaction only

and don't expect any extra fruit from the Lord. You can break the

coconut before the Lord and offer the broken pieces of coconut to

the Lord. But you are eating the coconut. Don't ask the Lord for any

fruit for breaking the coconut. Therefore you can do all these

things before statues and photos with a divine feeling as if you are

offering to the Lord. Your feeling is definitely better than the

feeling of an atheist. But what I say is that by such feelings you

have attained peace, satisfaction and happiness in your mind. Please

do not ask anything from the Lord because your sacrifice is not a

real practical sacrifice. It is only the sacrifice of your words and

feelings. This is not wrong as far as you don't ask for any fruit

for such actions. Once you ask the fruit from the Lord for such

sacrifice of words and feelings, all those rituals become fooling

the Lord. I am not against the rituals but I am against you if you

say that you have practically sacrificed to the Lord through those

rituals and if you ask for some real fruit from the Lord. By all

these things you have obtained peace and happiness in your heart.

Very good! Be satisfied with that fruit. Don't boast that you have

sacrificed something to the Lord and therefore don't expect any

fruit from the Lord. If you say that you have sacrificed to the Lord

by these rituals, which are only sacrifice of words and feelings,

you are the biggest actor and all your rituals are the dramatic

actions. If you want to sacrifice really to the Lord, search for the

human form of the Lord, with the help of Veda and do any little

sacrifice, what ever you can. In such sacrifice if you aspire

anything in return, you will get the fruit, which is just equal to

your sacrifice. If you sacrifice one rupee, He will give you one

chocolate. If you sacrifice two rupees, He will give you two

chocolates. Let the business be justified. Don't expect ten

chocolates for one rupee. But if you are not aspiring any fruit for

your sacrifice, which is the real love similar to the real love

shown to your children, then the Lord will give you infinite real

fruit in a proper place at the appropriate time. Since you are not

aspiring for the fruit, you leave the right place and right time to

the decision of the Lord.

 

  posted by: His servant

  at the lotus feet of shri datta swami

  www.universal-spirituality.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ om tat sat ~

Thank you for maintaining the decorum of the Achyuta Ashram.

Reminders: (1) Recite the Shadakshari Mantra 'Hare Rama Krishna'

(2) Try to become Vegetarian - remember Akbar the Great who said that the

human stomach should not become a graveyard for animals.

(3) Practise charity in thought and deed - do one free chart reading today