Rationale behind confusion

People who do not believe in idol worship conceive of an abstract formless God and  they worship Him as such They pray before nothing in a vacuum. They recite His name. They fear Him, love Him and seek from Him all that they need or desire. They have different ways of worshipping and praying as prescribed in the holy book of the religion to which they owe elegance and as ordained by the originator of that religion. often known as prophet. Some of them keep pictures and statues of their prophet with reverence in their homes and places of worship. Some are forbidden to do even that. They all believe God to be the creator and controller of the entire universe who is there to dispense justice, reward the virtuous and punish the sinner. He is believed to be separate from the visible universe, residing in the heavens above. His command, as brought to them by their prophets and as recorded in their holy books, is the gospel they believe in and are ordained to follow in letter and spirit.

 

In India, most of us, especially followers of the Sanatana Dharma cistern, however, believe in idol worship. Our religious canons and practices are not prescribed in one holy book nor by any one messenger of the God as such. Our religion is believed to be beginning-less and has evolved over so many millennia, from the hoary past when man appeared on this planet earth. Therefore, we have multiple doctrines, multiple philosophies, multiple viewpoints and multiple ways of prayer and worship. Contribution to this fund of knowledge has been made by seers and sages, thinkers and philosophers who perceived various canons of this faith and are, therefore, called Mantra drashta or seers of these canons. Our Vedas proclaim 'Ekam sat, viprah bahudha vadant-Truth is one and the knowledgeable describe it in multiple different ways The aim of all the different theories and philosophies is to know the truth. The truth is described either as self-realisation or as God realisation. To start with, there are two broad schools of thought. One is that which believes that God is formless and without any attributes, described by two Sanskrit words, Niraakara, Nirguna. The second group is those who worship God with a form of their choice and assign Him all the attributes. The first group worships God by meditation and contemplation through the paths of knowledge called Unana marga and Dhyana marga Naturally, they do not need any idol to worship. Their journey is an inward journey and they are asked to go from without to within to seek the truth. The second group, which gives God a form of their choice out of intense love for Him, are divided into three categories. The first category is of those who worship Him in the form of Shiva The second category is of those who worship Him as Vishnu. This category of worshippers believes in the incarnation of Vishnu in ten different forms, a fish, a tortoise, a boar, a creature hall man and half animal a dwarf, axe- wielding Parshurama Rama with bow and arrow Krishna with a flute, Buddha and Garg, the annihilator The third category believes that God has energy aspect called Shako. This is the same as the force attached to matter in scientific terms. They have visualised this energy as a female deity in various forms. These include Saraswat, the goddess of knowledge, Laxm the goddess of wealth. Kali the goddess of eternal time and Durga, the goddess of valour and vigour Worshippers of all these categories give a shape and form to their chosen deity. They keep a portrait or a statue or a picture or an idol in front of them and worship the same with devotion and reverence.

 

In ancient Indian scriptures four different paths of spiritual pursuit have been discussed and explained in detail. Two of these have been hinted at above. These are the paths of knowledge. Jnana marga and the path of contemplation/ meditation known as Dhyana marga. The third one is that of action and deeds called Kama marga A devotee treading on this path engages in his deeds and duties with dedication, determination and commitment. He believes that whatever he does is for and on behalf of the Lord and is an offering unto Him. He does not seek any fruit or reward for this. However, in case he does function with an eye on reward or fruit thereof he is bound to get prize and punishment both, depending upon whether he has done good or bad deeds. This group of people also has a picture of the Lord in their mind. They begin all their activities by taking the name of their chosen form at the start of the job in hand. This has given rise to group practices or regional traditions.

We find an enormous number of people worshipping Ganesha. Ganesha is conceived to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, born out of a desire of his mother. He is given the highest position and is propitiated in the beginning of every sacred act. Many devotees worship Hanuman, an important character in the story of Ramayana, He is held to be not only a true symbol of dedication but also in the forefront among the knowledgeable, haninsam agra gamyam: His worship is therefore held to be very useful. People worship Vishnu in various forms, prominently as Rama, Krishna and Narasimha There are other smaller sects who worship some sectarian debies, or Bhairavas, Kartikeya, the son of Shiva or a deity in any other form.

The fourth path is that of pure devotion called Bhakti marga. This is more common and popular too. Here a devotee treats his deity as a master husband or a friend and addresses him as such. In this path also, the devotee conceives his deity in a form of his choice, attributes some qualities to him and converses with him freely, intimately and at free will. He is sometimes annoyed with him. Sometimes he gets angry and sometimes he surrenders before him. He takes all sorts of berries with him and thereby shows how close he is to him. He sings in His praise, remembers and recounts his frolics and other activities. Singers and musicians often take this path. There is group recitation of the prayers and songs of praise. In addition, expert story tellers and narrators enthral thousands of listeners by reading and explaining to them Ramayana and Srimad Bhagavatam, containing. respectively, the stories of Shri Rama and Shri Krishna. These discourses are listened to with utmost attention and dedicated devotion.

 

Many people who are not well conversant with the Indian tradition and get baffled by all this are confused. Either they conclude that we, in India, believe in many Gods or feel that we are primitive in our beliefs. But when we ponder over this problem, we see the rationale behind all this so-called confusion. Basically, it is true that God has no form. People, who are reported to have seen Him, either are not able to describe Him or each one of them has a different picture of Him to present. So, should we conclude that those who do not believe in idol worship are right? Of course, they are right. But, those who believe in it are not wrong either. Their path of seeking the truth is different. In order to worship Him, remember Him or propitiate Him, they feel the need for something visible to concentrate upon. So, they conceive Him in a form of their choice and liking and then make an idol, a picture or a portrait of His in front of which they sit for hours on end to pray. Tulsidas worshipped Him as Shri Rama while Surdas worshipped Him as Shri Krishna; that, too, a small kid. There is a story that both of them were sitting at a place when two bulls started fighting. Surdas being blind was pulled towards a side by Tulsi but when he knew the reason he surged forward towards the bulls saying to Tulsi, "Your Rama is carrying a bow and arrow. He can save himself, but my Krishna is a boy. I must protect him lest he gets trampled. He saw God in the form of a small Krishna all the time. The Mogul governor of Kashmir Ali Marsan Khan saw Him in the form of Shiva and wrote a Persian poem describing Him in that form, 'Huma asle Maheshwar boot shab shahe ki man daedal- He was in reality Shiva only whom I saw during the night. So, the rationale behind this apparent confusion is that a devotee sees his sought-after deity in a form of his liking and then worships Him in that form.

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Courtesy:- T.N. Dhar 'Kundan'    and  Koshur Samachar  2018, November