15 Jul 2011
God is unimaginable and hence, cannot be imagined by even sharp intelligence. Therefore, there is no possibility of any kind of interaction with God. God knows all of us, but, we can never know God. Hence, the interaction with unimaginable God is one sided only. But, we like to have an interaction, which is on both sides. We like to know, see, talk, touch and live with God. We like to serve God because service is the practical proof of love or devotion to God. For this purpose, God comes down in the same medium in which we exist. Hence, God comes in human form. If God comes in the form of an inert object, our service becomes impossible. For the sake of inert objects, He has to come in the inert form. But, the inert objects do not interact at all. If He comes down as a bird or animal, the birds and animals may interact and the human beings cannot interact. In such case, you cannot talk with God since you cannot talk with a bird or animal. We cannot clarify our doubts with God in such case. If God comes down in the energetic form, we cannot touch God and cannot live with Him for a long time. Therefore, the human form is the best suited to the human beings. The energetic form of God is relevant to the departed souls existing in the energetic bodies in the upper worlds. But, the human form of God is not easily available. Even if it is easily available, most of the human beings suffer with ego and jealousy towards a co-human form. Any human being does not agree the greatness of a co-human being.
Therefore, the human incarnation interacts with those few selected devotees only, who have conquered the ego and jealousy. For other human beings, the human incarnation behaves like a co-human being only following the usual social norms. Krishna behaved like a human being only with all the people and behaved like God for His close devotees. Therefore, God comes down for the needy only.
In general, the major lot of humanity does not require the human incarnation. Even if they require, they cannot recognize due to their inherent ego and jealousy based on the repulsion between common media. Therefore, there is no use of human incarnation for the major humanity. But, they also require God. For their purpose, God is represented by statues and photos of energetic forms. Since the energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc, are not available, a photo or statue representing them can be only worshipped. Even the past human incarnations like Rama, Krishna etc, can be worshipped through the photos and statues. Since a direct photo is not possible, only imaginary photos and statues are worshipped. Even the alive trees, animals, birds etc, are worshipped because they are not alive human forms. But, all these statues and photos represent human form only indicating that the final goal is the alive human incarnation only. The Shivalingam is just a round stone, which indicates that the human beings in this world can interact only with matter and not with the unimaginable God directly. The Shivalingam is in the form of the energetic wave representing energy and there by indicates that energetic form is necessary for the worship of unimaginable God by the departed souls existing in energetic bodies in the upper world.
Therefore, the Shivalingam denotes both matter and energy, which are the media required for the expression of unimaginable God in this world and upper world respectively. Even the body of human incarnation is matter only. Therefore, the Shivalingam represents the first step of interaction, which is matter. The second step is the carved human form in the matter (stone). The third step is the alive human incarnation. Hence, the idol worship is meant for the major lot of humanity suffering with ego and jealousy in the initial stage. Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba told that just like the finger indicates the flower, the idol indicates the goal. Once the flower is seen, the finger is not necessary, Baba said. It means, once you catch the alive human incarnation, these photos and statues of energetic forms and past incarnations in human form only are not necessary. The goal of all these statues and photos is alive human incarnation only with which you can interact and serve in all angles including the clarification of your doubts.
Negative Angle in Idol Worship
Idol worship is not wrong, but is limited to the initial stage. It serves good purpose in the initial stage by developing devotion. Even service and sacrifice is done in the idol worship. People sacrifice lot of their earnings to serve the temple containing idols. Devotees are ready for practical sacrifice to God even in the initial stage. But, the ego and jealousy to a co-human form prevents them to do sacrifice and service to human incarnation. This weak point is exploited by some bad priests to earn. This is the negative angle of idol worship. To remove this negative angle, idol worship is condemned by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who was also a human incarnation. He opposed the concept of human incarnation like Mohammad since there are some negative aspects of this concept. The genuine human incarnation may not be properly received by the public suffering with ego and jealousy and their violent reaction was seen in the case of Jesus. The other negative angle is that the fraud human incarnations may exploit the society.
The policy of the program of any human incarnation depends on the psychology of the public with which it has to interact. Swami Dayananda rejected idol worship since a rat stole the food offered to the Shivalingam in a temple. Swami told that there is no Lord in the Shivalingam since it is only a stone. This concept arrests the exploitations of idol worship. This does not mean that Swami is unaware of the merits of idol worship. Sometimes, the concept should be de-rooted completely in order to condemn the strong exploitation of the concept. Once the exploitation disappears, the concept can be again re-installed. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa also existed in the time of Swami Dayananda. Shri Paramahamsa was a priest in the temple worshipping the idol. He supported idol worship. He said that you should view the idol as the alive form. This means that you must catch the alive form of God through the idol. Shri Paramahamsa Himself was another human incarnation and declared that He was Rama and Krishna. This means, He never asked you to sit in the stage of idol worship. The sense of His statement is that you should feel as if you are worshipping the alive form during the service of the idol. Then only, the real devotion grows. The total story is that on one side, Swami Dayananda condemned the negative sides of idol worship and on the other side, Shri Paramahamsa supported the positive sides of the idol worship. The same God spoke simultaneously through both these human forms.
The conclusion is that you should utilize any concept, accepting the positive views and avoid the negative exploitations of the same concept. Ignorant people misunderstand that Shri Paramahamsa and Swami Dayananda opposed each other. All the preachers existing in theism should always be correlated in other concepts since the fundamental point of existence of God is not violated. The difference in Them is only due to the existing circumstances in their times, which have to be reformed.
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