What are the various stages in the worship of the Lord?

The first stage is worship of the formless Lord. Actually the formless Lord is only the formless power of the Lord, which pervades all over the creation. The light of the sun is formless but not the sun. Thus formless worship is an approach to the Lord by worshipping His power, which is actually not the possessor of the power. The Veda says that Brahman is the possessor of the power and not the formless power (Brahma Puchcham Pratistha).

In the second stage the possessor of the power is worshipped indirectly through idols and pictures. It is very difficult to worship the formless power of the Lord as said in the Gita “Avyaktahi Gatir Duhkham”. For the concentration of the mind, a form is required. Thus idol worship is a higher and better step. But the idol is only a representative symbol of the Lord and is inert.

In the third stage the human being, who is a mixture of inert body and living soul is worshipped as a symbol of the Lord. Every human being is treated as the Lord although they are not the actual Lord. This symbol is better than the previous symbol. Actually in this stage the jealousy towards another man due to individual egoism is removed. Every human being is considered as the Lord and is worshipped so that when the Lord in human form is achieved, He will not be rejected. The human form of the Lord is also loved and treated as the Lord like all the other human beings. At least there is no negative approach towards the human form of the Lord, even though the positive approach is diluted [The positive approach is diluted in the sense that all human beings other than the human incarnation of God are also considered to be God even though they are not really God]. In this stage egosim and jealousy are removed and this is a stage of psychological training to cure the inherent diseases, which are egoism and jealousy.

In the fourth stage the actual human form of the Lord is realised. In this stage the devotee considers that human incarnation of God alone is the Lord and loves that human form only. This is the concentration of the positive approach. Hanuman and Gopikas, who are the highest devotees, are the best examples for the fourth stage. They never worshipped the formless Lord or the statues or all the human beings. Hanuman worshipped only one human being i.e., Rama. Similarly the Gopikas worshipped only one human being i.e., Krishna. They never worshipped the statues of the previous incarnations. Hanuman did not worship the statue of Vamana or Parashurama. The Gopikas did not worship the statue of Rama. Had they worshipped statues or images of past incarnation, they would have fallen to the second stage from the fourth stage. All these four stages are the steps in the right path and need not be criticized. Only atheism should be criticized.