Idol worship has been in vogue since time immemorial in all races and communities. Hindus are no exceptions. But Abrahamic religions forbid idol worship at least as a principle. There is an interesting story regarding this.
The great prophet Abraham was unhappy with his parents worshipping idols. He felt that it was wrong to see God in any specific form. But as a small boy he could not rebel against his parents. So, what he did was to stealthily smash all idols in his house barring one. When his parents asked him about who has broken those idols, apparently Abraham suggested to them to ask the remaining idol which his parents believed to be God. Obviously, the idol cannot answer. That was Abraham’s way of telling his parents that idols are lifeless and they cannot be God.
Even in India, the great Hindu saint Maharshi Dayananda Saraswathi opposed Idol worship. When Dayananda was a small boy, once he saw a rat in the temple quietly eating away the offerings placed on the altar! If the idol in the temple were really God, innocent Dayananda reasoned, why is he not chasing away the rat? So, the idol cannot be God!
Upanishads talk about God in most abstract terms. They say that the God is formless, indescribable, unthinkable and so on. At the same time, they recommend worshipping God in various forms! Why is this contradiction?
Though idol worship per se may not have been in vogue during the Upanishadic times, definitely worshipping God with some form was not looked down. For example, one of the Upanishads namely the Chandogya Upanishad suggests that one should meditate on the God in the radiant, golden hued Sun. Then it goes on to suggest that one should meditate on God in one’s own eyes where God resides. In some Upanishads it is said that one should meditate on God in the ‘cave of one’s own heart’! Are they all self-contradictory?
The opponents of the Vedas have the following objections.
Objection 1: You say that God is formless and in the same breath you recommend worshiping forms. How can someone who has no form be with a form? It is oxymoronic.Objection 2: You say that God is omnipresent. If that is the case, how can you worship God as Sun, your own eye, cave inside your heart, some idol etc.? How can an omnipresent God be restricted to finite space? Either the God is not omnipresent, or a form is not God. It can’t be both.
Badarayana tries to clarify both these seeming contradictions. Later Brahma supporters like Sankara and others elaborate on what Badarayana said in a logical way, and rule out any scope for contradictions.
Firstly, it is true that God is formless. But that does not mean that God is not capable of taking some form for the benefit of his devotees. All the scriptures – including those belonging to Abrahamic religions – declare that God is Omnipotent. That means he can do whatever he wants to do, if he so wishes. Can he not take on a form? If the answer is NO, then he is not omnipotent. So, God can take any form if he wishes to. Only thing is that those forms will not be some material forms but they will be divine in nature. Why not material forms? Because material things are perishable and God is eternal.
In that case, why meditate on Sun and so on, which are material objects? The Brahma supporters justify by saying that these are recommended to make a migration easy from gross things to subtle things. First take the Sun as a glaring object of meditation. Then move on to parts of your own body such as eye. Then move further to some cave in your own heart. In doing this, you are gradually moving not only from gross to subtle things but also from external things to internal things. As one progresses, one ultimately reaches the most abstract concept of God which may be difficult for normal people to start with.
So, it is a step by step instruction in meditation to uplift a person from a grosser level to subtler level. Interestingly, even the Bhagavad Gita justifies form worships and explains why one does it and why they are inevitable. Just by smashing idols, one does not uplift oneself from gross state to subtle state. You will only be replacing one symbol with another symbol.
I have elaborated on these ideas based on the Bhagavad Geetha in my book “Krishna’s 4 paths to ultimate happiness: Complete Yogic science of Bhagavad Geetha”.
Even if someone is hell bent on condemning idol worship, denying that God does not exist in the idol, does it not contradict the claim that God is omnipresent? If God is everywhere, he is also in the idol. So, as long as you don’t say that God is limited to some idol, limited to some form, and understand the reasons behind why you do what you do, it should be perfectly OK.
In this context, the mantra a priest utters when he consecrates an idol in a Hindu temple makes lot of sense. A simple paraphrase of this mantra says
“O God, we know that you are all pervading. But we have our limitations which forbid us from seeing you as such. For our convenience we install this idol. So, please reside in this idol for our sake and make your presence felt through it.”
Can the all benevolent God not oblige ? 😉
A series on ancient Indian composition Brahma Sutra. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2020-21
Whether idol worship is right or wrong,if it helps one visualize God and connect better with him,then why not? I completely agree with your view Dr.King.Dont we put up the photos of our loved ones who are no more with us,to stay connected with them?
ReplyDeleteYou are 200% right Usha. But majority of the people in the world, that includes the Hindus, don't understand the difference between worshiping an idol and worshiping using an idol.
DeleteThere are well known (in terms of no. of followers) speakers who try to prove that idol worship is wrong and they (mis)quote even Hindu scriptures which also forbid idol worship!
I will be more than happy if someone provides me a proof of such a ban in any Hindu scripture - of course, any widely accepted one such as the Vedas or Bhagavad Gita. No, you cant find one. The closest you can find are Upanishadic statements such as "what you worship as God, is not God". But they never say that such a worship is wrong. Even Bhagavad Gita does not do that.