HINDU FASTS & FESTIVALS : 30.2.

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30. Philosophy of Idol Worship--2

 2. Everyone an Idol Worshipper


    Idol worship is not peculiar to Hinduism.

Christians worship the Cross.

They have the image of the Cross in their mind.

The Muslims keep the image of the Kaaba stone when they kneel and do prayers.

The people of the whole world, save a few Yogis and Vedantins, are all worshippers of idols.

They keep some image or the other in their mind.


    The mental image also is a form of idol.

The difference is not one of kind, but only of degree.

All worshippers, however intellectual they may be, generate a form in the mind and make the mind dwell on that image.


    Everyone is thus an idol worshipper.

Pictures, drawings, etc., are only forms of idols.

A gross mind needs a concrete symbol as a prop and a subtle mind requires an abstract symbol.

Even a Vedantin has the symbol Om to fix his wandering mind.

It is not only the pictures or images in stone and in wood that are idols, but dialectics and great leaders also become idols.

So, why condemn idolatry?

Next : 3. A Medium for Establishing Communion With God

Swami Sivananda
 To be continued  .....


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