Forms of Worship
Idol worship is not the worst form of worship, some other are worse
Forms of Worship
(Gujarati version at પૂજાના સ્વરૂપો)
( Tatoodi)
Almost all of us worship idols in one form or another regardless of the religion we belong to. Some people do it knowingly; some others do it unknowingly. Some people admit it; some do not. Some do it with a clear understanding of such worship; many others do it while still objecting to or even hating idol worship.
Wearing a religious symbol like the cross in a necklace, displaying the moon-star combination, going to places of worship, undertaking pilgrimage, celebrating birthday of a religious hero like Ram. Krishna, Mahavir, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohamed etc. are all implicit forms of idol worship. Erecting monuments like Abraham did as well as placing 'Ten Commandments' plaques even in private places are also nothing but subtle forms of idol worship. Even the knocking down of the Bamian Buddha in Afghanistan by the Taliban was an act of idol worship in its negative form. The hatred for idols is also a form of idol worship.
Consider currency notes (bills). Aren't they just pieces of paper? In USA all of them have the same size and color. Only the picture of a past president and the marked value differentiate among the bills of various denominations. A $1 bill has the picture of George Washington, a $100 bill has Benjamin Franklin's face on it. Would the reader give this writer one Franklin ($100 note) for one Washington ($1 note)? Of course not because it is not the paper that matters but what it signifies that does. Only a child or uninformed person might prefer one picture to another or give one Franklin picture for a few more, say ten, Washington pictures. The same two bills would be worthless in the countries where US money is not accepted. Isn't this picture worship a subtle form of idol worship? Similarly, an idol may carry spiritual significance to its faithful even if it is of no use to everyone else. It does not therefore make sense to hate idol worshipers just for that reason.
When people object to desecration of their ‘holy’ books, they are worshiping idols. In reality a book is nothing but a perishable collection of papers regardless of whether the text printed on it is sacred or not. The book would anyhow become useless due to wear and tear, termites, water damage, natural decay, fire etc. Again, there are many copies of the same book. So why bother if a few of them are willfully destroyed by some non-believers? Because what is objectionable is the feeling of contempt that prompts such desecration. Should not hatred for idols be objectionable too? Actually, the feeling of love and respect that makes one perform idol worship is admirable. Whereas the acts of desecration of books cannot be justified so also blind objection to idol worship cannot be justified.
Idol worship becomes necessary because the human mind is so weak that it needs some or the other symbol to support one’s faith. Whether that faith is in God or a self-appointed agent of God or some book falsely claimed to be the word of God is another matter. (The reader may want to see this writer’s article on ‘Logic, Faith and God for this writer's views on ‘faith’). Idol worship has at least one advantage, it lets the worshiper use hisr own brain and heart without an intermediary. In book worship, the author(s) of that book comes in the way between god and the devotee.
People flocked in thousands to oozing abutments near Chicago because they saw Mother Mary’s face in it. Millions of people go every year to Mecca, Jerusalem, etc. without realizing that such visits are nothing but a different hidden form of idol worship. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Goa to pay homage to St. Xaviers whose body is preserved there for centuries or to Hazrat Bal Masjid in Kashmir, India, where a flock of Prophet Mohamed’s hair is preserved. These are corpse-worships. There is nothing wrong in undertaking such pilgrimages provided these pilgrims do not hate others for worshiping idols.
The rigid objection to idol worship probably has its roots in the ‘ten commandments’, which are believed to be the words of God. But a careful open-minded reading of the Bible and the commandments shows that neither of them can be the word of God. The first commandment itself proves that they were not uttered by God. Why at all would God need to say, “I am God thy Lord” unless it was someone else saying that? Also there are many instances in the Bible when either God killed somebody or asked some one to kill others in stark violation of the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” How could God be so self-contradictory? It only means that all these stories are untrue and have nothing to do with God. You may want to see Why I did not convert for more on this.
The people who object to idol worship do not realize the spirit behind it. Suppose an onlooker notices another person making obscene gestures with a photograph of hisr female relative, would not hse be angry with the miscreant? Should not hse oppose such behavior? After all it is only a replaceable piece of paper similar to many others. But what the onlooker abhors is not the action but the intent and the feelings behind such actions. In the same way, when a person worships an idol, similar or even identical to many others, what matters is the mental state of the devotee.
This brings us to the Sanskrit verse according to which the best form of worship is the mental (maanasi pooja) one whereas idol-worship is the lowest form (moortipooja adhama adhama). Although a low form, idol worship cannot be unacceptable. But even lower than idol worship is book-worship. The idol does not prohibit the individual worshiping it from using hisr own intelligence, the books do. Therefore, book worship is even lower than idol worship. It is wrong to consider a particular book, say Vedas, Bible, Koran or any other book, to be 'God's word'. Often we meet people who keep quoting their chosen book in support of their stand without even trying to understand the original real reason why a certain recommendation was made in that book and that it was no longer valid. These books were spoken or written not by God but by persons who thought they had the authority to make rules for all people for all time thereby doing immense harm to their followers and the mankind.
Idol worship does have its shortcomings. Those in its favor argue that the idol helps a devotee concentrate. This is very unlikely. The very procedure of worship itself is such that it would prevent the worshiper from achieving unison with God. Quite often people pray different deities like first Ganesh, then Shiva and so on. Now, if one keeps changing the object of hisr devotion, then hse certainly cannot concentrate.
Even if one needs something to concentrate on, it does not have to be in the form of Ram, Krishna etc. Shiva worship has already made it possible to have a non-human form of the idol as in the ‘shivalinga’. The devotee may as well use a ball or a marble to concentrate on.
Once a person decides to go for idol worship, then hse needs to select the deity whose idol hse is going to worship. Mostly, people select the deity of their family tradition called ‘kul devata’ (family deity). Whichever the deity one worships, there is some or the other story associated with that deity and that creates the problem. Once we decide to worship a particular deity, we tend not only to overlook but also to justify all the shortcomings and mistakes of that deity. For example, we justify the inhuman agnipreeksha of Sita by Ram, the grave injustices done to Karna as well as violations of his own preaching by Krishna, beheading of his own son for a trivial cause by Shiva etc. As a result we fail to recognize, let alone oppose, injustices in our daily lives too.
Even worse than book-worship is guru-worship. The sayings that the ‘guru is sakshat parabrahma’ (God visible in person) or that ‘Balihari Guru aapki Govind diyo bataay’ are the most misleading ones. These were written by the gurus to praise themselves and to create inferiority complex among their disciples to keep exploiting them. A truly spiritual person is supposed to be an humble one without ego. But accepting disciples requires a sense of superiority complex on the part of the 'guru' meaning that hse is not so spiritual after all. There cannot be a good guru (satguru). How can hse be a 'visible God'?
The worst form of worship is cow-worship. All those arguments, many cloaked in pseudo scientific and quasi scientific language, in favor of cow worship do not hold any real substance. Granted that animals should not be killed to feed hungry humans (but may be killed to feed starving humans where vegetarian food is not available as in snow-covered regions). But this should apply to all animals and not just to cows. Considering cows more sacred than say buffaloes, chickens or goats does not make any sense whatsoever.
On the other hand, the best worship is emulation of the entity one adores and trying to achieve the qualities that the devotee likes in it, in short, living according to God's principles.
Logic, Faith and God, Why I did not convert