§ HINDUS NEITHER
WORSHIP ‘IDOLS’ NOR THE ‘ONE –GOD’BUT BECOME ONE IN GOD (CONSCIOUSNESS).
§ WORSHIP
OF IDOLS AND OF ‘ONE GOD’ IS ONLY THE STEPPING STONES TO SELF REALIZATION.
§ IDOL
IS ONLY A PATH, NOT A DESTINATION.
§ THE
HINDUS TRANSCEND ‘THE IDOLS’ AND THE ‘ONE GOD’
§ HINDUS
ARE IDOL WORSHIPPERS AS WELL AS ‘ONE GOD’ WORSHIPPERS!
§ VEDICALLY
HINDUS ARE NOT ‘WORSHIPPERS’ OF GOD; THEY ARE EXPERIENCERS OF
GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS.
§ HINDUS
DUMP THE IDOLS AND THE ‘ONE-GOD’ IN
SEARCH OF THE ETERNAL(SUPREME) REALITY
§
GOD IS NOT A
BELIEF SYSTEM FOR A HINDU,BUT AN
INWARD EXPERIENCE
Are the Hindus
idol worshippers?
To be frank,
yes, Hindus are, indeed, idol worshippers.
Are the
Hindus ‘ONE-GOD’ worshippers?
Undeniably,
yes; the same idol worshipping Hindus certainly do progress as the worshipper of
the ONE and ONLY GOD. But, wait! The Hindu hasn’t converted to Islam, Judaism
or Christianity for his worship of ONE God, he further needs to transcend to
Tatvamasi, an awakening of his inner self (divinity) to perfect his spiritual aspiration.
For
a Hindu, ONE GOD worship is just half the way of his spiritual pioneering, a
step ahead of idol worship. From there
he is supposed to evolve as a God realizer, transcending the idols, the ‘ONE GOD’
and all multiplicities in leaps. The ‘worshipper of God’ is transformed to a ‘God-realizer’;
this is the beginning of the Hindu’s spiritual journey.
Well, how
does a Hindu realize God? The Abrahamics might wonder because they are taught
to frame any thing other than worship (of One God) under the scanner of pure blasphemy.
On contrary a Hindu is taught that God is not
ONE Phenomenal existence, to be gaped at, but ONE undivided- consciousness to
be felt in his spirit, blood and vein;
I, you, he, she, it, the amoeba and the God are but ONE inter-connected entity
in temporary material appearance. Hence a Hindu does not believe that God is a
separate single entity, he rather experiences that God Consciousness is ONE in
the creator and creations. God is not a belief system for a Hindu, but an
absolute inward experience of the self. For a common man who is not familiar
with Vedic spiritual-technology might find these statements quite paradoxical
and theoretically disparate.
The
Spiritual Evolution of the Hindu; From Idol to Tatvamasi
The
following verse explicitly states the spiritual evolution of a Hindu.
Prathma
Prathima Pooja(Begins with worshipping
of idols)
Japam
sthotrhdhi Madyamam[Chanting and prayers are better than idols]
Uthmama
dhyana sadhana{Meditation is better than the three)
Soham Poojothamothamam{And the best is
realization of God that I am the God (consciousness)}
Judo-Christian
and Islamic Perception of Idolatry
Islam, Christianity and Judaism contempt ido-lworship
to the core and projects it as an unforgivable heathen sin. Let’s cast a
cursory glance at some of the verses against idolatry.
Wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry (Bible: 1 Corinthians 10:14).
Little children, keep
yourselves from idols (Bible: 1 John 5:21).
Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.
(Bible: Exodus Chapter 20)
They even worship female gods
besides Him; as a matter of fact, they only worship a rebellious devil. [Quran
4:117]Idols are the work of Satan. [Quran5:90]
Idolatry is worse than carnage.
[Quran 2;217]
Idolaters are unclean. [Quran 22:30]
The Abrahamic Idols and the Hindu
Idols
The Abrahamics hate
the idols because scripturally the idols are said to be the work of Satan, the
prime enemy of God. The mighty God also fears that the idols will take his creations
(humans!) away from Him and pave way to the Kingdom of Satan
on earth. The Satan, a creation of the very same God, had openly challenged the
Creator that he would mislead His children. I often wonder why God couldn’t finish off Satan, the horrible rebellion
and fill every human in the heaven and close down the hell for ever!
Since the idols are
considered as the work of Satan, the prime villain of God, the scriptures
strictly warn the Abrahamics against idolatory.For them, idolatry is synonymous
with Heavenly defiance. We read that Mohammed destroyed the idols in Kaba and
some years ago the Taliban regime destroyed the huge statue of Buddha in Afghanistan.
To be precise, an
idol is a link that separates the Abrahamics from their Creator.
A Hindu transcend the idol as he
transcends the womb and tomb
Hinduism has
not despised idolatry as a filth and an unpardonable sin as Islam and
Christianity depict; it rather considers idolatry as one of the
feeble attempts for self-realization which may or may not be necessary
in the long ‘neti, neti’ process of SELF discovery. For a beginner in
self realization, an idol is a mere path to the destination and not the destination
itself. It is like a ladder; it takes you up and you go further leaving the
ladder behind. If you cling to the ladder (idol) it will be a burden to you in
your spiritual journey.
As regards idolatry
an analogy from the field of cricket may be relevant to quote here. Any novice can
hit the cricket ball as he pleases standing in front of the wicket and there is
no ‘sin’ in resulting poor shots. The batsman will not be sent to gallows or
will fetch eternal suffering in the HELL on account of his poor stroke play. His
poor strokes are the result of his non-scientific approach in his batting. On
the other hand there is a scientific way of doing this business with a right stance,
right glance, right grip, and right stroke selection and above all, a right spirit
and involvement where the bats man hits the ball masterly with ease. In
Hindu-Vedic spirituality there is no particular way to “hit” the God, though
there is a scientific way of approaching the supreme reality-that
is Sanathanadharma. Idol worship is
non-scientific and Sanathatna dharma is more scientific and there is no
question of sin (error) between a scientific and non-scientific spiritual
attempt
Sanathana
dharma is the result of the spiritual experimentation of the seers over a long period
in the laboratory of India
and not the result of any spiritual fixation at a certain age.
