IDOL WORSHIP IS NOT EVIL

Submitted by Binoy (United States), Oct 6, 2006 at 17:53

There is great beauty in the idea of worshipping an image. Who can break this image? The image in the beginning was merely a piece of stone. I filled it with my bhavana, my feeling. I put life into it. How can anyone destroy my feelings? Stones can be smashed and broken into pieces, but not feeling. When I withdraw my feelings from the image, then what remains will be mere stone, a thing which anyone can break to pieces.

What after all, is the weight of a hundred Dollar bill (paper currency note)? (Much less than a bulky sunday newspaper). If we burn the hundred Dollar currency note, we might perhaps, be able to warm a drop of water. What gives this small piece of paper the value (which is far greater value than the the value of bulky newspaper)? The stamp it bears gives its value. It is after all, an inanimate piece of paper. We placed our value in that piece of paper.

My mother scribbled three or four lines on a piece of paper and sent it off to me. Another gentleman sent me a long discursive fifty page letter. Now, which is more weighty? But the feeling in my mother's few lines is beyond measure; it is sacred. The other stuff cannot stand comparison with it.

Suppose two men go for a bath in the Ganga river. One of them says: "What is this Ganga river that people talk so much about? Take two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen; combine the two gases- it becomes Ganga. What else is there in the Ganga?"

The other says: "The Ganga flows from the lovely lotus feet of Lord Vishnu. Thousands of Rishis, seers, both ascetic and kingly, have done penance by her banks. Countless holy acts have been performed by her side. Such is the sacred Ganga, my mother." Filled with this bhavana (feeling), he bathes in the river. The other man, regarding as combination of hydrogen and oxygen also bathes. Both derive the benefit of physical cleansing. But the devotee gets the benefit of inner purification as well. Even a buffalo, if it bathes in the Ganga river, will achieve physical cleanliness. The dirt of the body will go.

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