Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha has explained the logic behind idol worship so well. According to him, the man believes that the idol/image placed in the centre of shrine is God so he bows before it in reverence and worships it. Does that mean all things other than idol/image/symbol is non-God. Is God so limited? Most of us have made God separate and so very distant from us. Obviously we have not properly introspected about the concept of God and what God stands for. ‘Darshan’(vision of idol/image) brings peace and joy to us. However, we should understand that it is not that image which gave peace and joy but it was our own mind which could generate and produce these qualities from within by looking at the idol. Thus the image/idol of God is a reminder, reflection of our own divinity. This can be explained in this manner. A man cannot see himself. So man made a mirror. When we look into the mirror we see our own reflection. When we comb our hair in front of a mirror, nothing is happening to the image inside the mirror. It is merely showing us our own action.
Thus whatever we do to our own self is reflected in the mirror. On its own, mirror is not doing anything. Same is the case with image/idols/symbols used to represent God. These are objects, which the Subject uses to connect to itself. This is initial stage of devotion. After sometime, even these images are not required to connect to the God. One can think of God and invoke the ‘bhav’(intention/ feeling/attitude) of deep fondness, love and reverence towards the all knowing Self. The mind which was confined to only I and my family learns to expand and look beyond.
Thus Mind expands and sees God in all. Everyone is extension of self. When we feel limited we do not feel God. When we connect to the God within, everything turns God. Its all the play of our own mind. Lord Krishna asked us to use our intellect and train our mind to expand beyond our limited physical body. Lord Buddha said I am not in the body, the body is in me.
It is said that we are spiritual beings having human experience. Human birth is given so much importance in our scriptures because only human can use and sharpen his intellect to understand this reality and experience it finally. Walking down the Sai path(method), I have started to understand things in bits and pieces.
In Sai Satcharita, Shirdi Saibaba has explained this in such a simple manner.
Saibaba told his devotees to destroy this wall of ‘teli’ (difference/EGO) and come face to face with God, i.e., SELF, the ‘aatma’/ antaratma(soul). The difference is our wrongful perception of SELF as mere body and its name due to different shapes and sizes of all human bodies. This perception needs to be corrected to know God and realize our own inner spiritual splendour. Anything spiritual cannot be felt and experienced by our five senses. Spirit is transcendental and hence within us because we experience everything within. Like each grain has a seed, similarly each of us has divinity embedded in us. In right kind of conditions, the seed sprouts and reproduces a duplicate of itself. Each one of us has spark of Supreme Divinity in us. Places of worship have been made to provide conditions to ‘water and sprout the seed’ of devotion within us which brings us face to face with our source, the knowledge of God.
Saibaba said that barring our name and body, something is left. That is the feeling of being alive…..consciousness. This is Self. This is God. We should meditate on this Self that is all knowing. This explains that God is within us.
Saibaba told his devotees to destroy this wall of ‘teli’ (difference/EGO) and come face to face with God, i.e., SELF, the ‘aatma’/ antaratma(soul). The difference is our wrongful perception of SELF as mere body and its name due to different shapes and sizes of all human bodies. This perception needs to be corrected to know God and realize our own inner spiritual splendour. Anything spiritual cannot be felt and experienced by our five senses. Spirit is transcendental and hence within us because we experience everything within. Like each grain has a seed, similarly each of us has divinity embedded in us. In right kind of conditions, the seed sprouts and reproduces a duplicate of itself. Each one of us has spark of Supreme Divinity in us. Places of worship have been made to provide conditions to ‘water and sprout the seed’ of devotion within us which brings us face to face with our source, the knowledge of God.
Thus idol/image is a trigger point to increase immense love, devotion and fondness towards our own divinity. Even the devotee knows that the idol/image is made up of marble/paper and ink etc. But when a devotee sees an image, all the positive emotions surge within and he finds himself full of love. All the paraphernalia of worship is not meant to please some external object but the subject within. The SELF in us that we represent as ‘I’ is the Subject experiencing this world. This ‘I’ is God. e.g., it is not alarm that wakes us up in the morning, it is something within us that awakens at the sound of alarm. Introspect what is that ‘something that is awakened or was sleeping before the alarm’. God is present everywhere in as well as all around us – visible as well as invisible. In certain things we feel that natural life force energy while in some we do not. This doesnot mean that it is non-God. We should often introspect and try to feel, understand and experience this ‘I’.
We all have God within us but we search for God in outside world. When we focus on our own God-li-ness, we experience oneness with our source and then things start to happen just the way we want.
This is one reason that Shirdi Saibaba advised his devotees to meditate on SELF. Feel like God and experience the bliss. Deities are meant to invoke this connection within us. But man thinks God is far away and hence feels himself as separate from God without realizing that ‘Jiva’(living presence) within his body temple is presence of God. We need to tune into this presence.
Hinduism never promised showing God. Hinduism focuses on experience God within, right here, right now. If we study Vishnu Sahastranama(1000 names of Hindu God Vishnu), and understand its meaning, the focus is on attributes of God, ourselves, the Self, the ‘I’ within, the all knowing part of us. This could be the reason as to why Shirdi Saibaba gave importance to these names. We have given many names to God because of many ideas we have about God. These names are holy, they take away poverty of mind. It is our ego that makes us feel that we are separate from God. Otherwise everything is different faces of God. Clay makes all shapes and kinds of potteries. Basic material of all of us is same.
The outside world is reflection of the inside world. All is made up of five elements. When Scientists searched for the smallest particle, it turned out to be space in which electron, protons etc were vibrating. When scientists went far away in space, they again reached the same place – the empty space of vibration. Both the ends look same. Everything around us is vibrating and has consciousness. Thus God is all pervading and interpermeating this entire universe. When we discover the real God that permeates each cell of our being, a sense of deep companionship arises within and the deep lonliness dissolves. One starts to see Self in others and others in SELF. Everywhere is extension of our own self because all objects are reflection of our own personal experience. Everything is God’s representation. ‘Sabka Malik Ek’, ultimately all is one. If we start thinking of second factor it becomes cause of fear. Idea of many brings fear since it suggests separateness. Hence single pointed devotion makes us fearless.
We finally understand that God never ever punished us. It is our EGO that is cause of our suffering. If there is no EGO, we are GOD. So where is God? God is imperceptible to senses, therefore, He has to be within our body. Instead of searching outside, lets take easy route and reflect inside. Never say that worship of Lord is difficult. The Lord is seated within our heart, in us, surrounding us, interpermeating everything around. The Supreme Source that created us is present all around us and within us. God is attainable and we cannot exist without HIM. HE is near us, constantly present within us, seated in our own heart. God is none other than our own ‘Aatma’(soul – compare it to water), part of Paramatma (Spirit – compare it to ocean). When we understand water, we understand ocean too. Inquire who is this ‘I’. Introspect regularly, think about it often. Lets not be an animal, who takes body only to eat, sleep, enjoy and procreate.
The chief Aim of human birth is to know our own self, our own nature and experience our own reality. This ‘I’ is that part of us which is transcendent and beyond the access of our five senses and all the three ‘gunas’(states of nature). The Supreme Lord is seated in our own feelings, attitudes and emotions which emerge from our mind and mind is supra material. Lets not wait for any special occasion to worship God. Anything that we are doing, lets offer all that as most tender flower to the Supreme. God only wants Love. Let us Love ourself, our own being. Do not see God in limited form. Let heart host an infinite God and expansion take place in our own inner personality. FEEL LIKE GOD to KNOW GOD.
VANDANA RITIK
NOIDA
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