Idol Worship & Personality
Worship
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Idol
worship is familiar to everyone since most of us were practicing that. Fanatic
idol worshippers do not believe in Personality worship. But there are people who
do both. In real spirituality, worship of the Guru is only necessary and not
any idol worship.
There
are certain advantages and disadvantages in idol worship. Any worship demands
devotion (Bhakti), carefulness (Shraddha), and service (Seva). Devotion
contains love & faith, in that, carefulness is not warranted, but in case
of service, carefulness is highly required.
In
idol worship, devotion is possible because the disciples imagine the idol as
the personality and start loving with faith. Generally service is rendered,
when the receiver is recognizing it. Otherwise there is no value for service.
In idol worship there is no living receiver to recognize the service thereby
idol worshippers are free to do anything they like, towards the idol, because there
is nobody to recognize or demand any particular service. They imagine that the
personality of the idol receives everything whatever they offer.
So,
most of the idol worshippers can’t worship a living personality, who is able to
recognize their devotion and service. They may lose the freedom of their worship,
if they are corrected in their devotion and service. It is very safe for these
people to be away from the present ‘here and now’ condition of the personality
which may sometimes be against the scriptures written many years ago by earlier
devotees, without consulting the personality. That is why we find lot of
changes in the way of guidelines, processes of the devotion and services to the
same personality, varying from place to place. The reason is they have no
contact with the personality nor they are aware what the personality requires
at this time.
If
the personality of the idol is active, then the confusion stops and differences
in kinds of worship can be avoided.
In
spirituality Guru or the guide is most important than God. But in idol worship,
God is more important than the guide.
When
you accept someone as the Guru in spirituality, the devotion and service is
only for the Guru and not for any idol. In real spirituality, it is a trial of
connecting with the spirit within, not with any idol or personality of idol.
Since the spirit doesn’t recognize any devotion or service of the
practitioners, it is recognized by the Guru and corrective measures are taken from
time to time. Here, the practitioners consider the Guru as the representative
of God, because through this only it is possible to realize the God. Since Guru
is living, there is no question of idol worship and the God referred here, is
considered as an energy which doesn’t have any form or name. If the
practitioner is able to recognize this energy in the Guru, then there is no
need of a separate idol to imagine as God. In spirituality, the Guru is
everything and if the Guru is a Satguru, He will be in a position to make you
realize the truth without any idol.
Gurus
other than Satguru are not Jnanis who will not be in a position to guide the
disciple without any help of scriptures. Since ordinary Gurus are not realized
persons, they recommend idol worship and service to God. These Gurus are yet to
be realized and can’t help the disciple for realization of God.
Satguru is the person who has
been recognized by the God’s energy and also authorized to transmit this energy
to others. Since realization is over, He neither remembers, or worships any
idol or personality nor He recommends idol worship. If the disciple is able to
recognize Him through devotion and sincere service, that is the goal of
spiritual journey.
Living
Gurus are the persons who can guide and correct their disciples on true love,
faith and service. But if the living Gurus are not Satgurus, then they
recommend for devotion and faith towards God directly through idol worship and
unrecognized service.
Personality
worship is allowed only in spirituality for the living Guru and ordinary
persons may have the ego to serve a living Personality. For them, idol worship could
be a better way which will not reduce their ego, nor do they lose the freedom
from correction and guidelines.
Somebody
may still claim that idol worship has spirituality but in any case,
spirituality doesn’t have idol worship.
