Why do we worship Idols?

Now let me take a question which I listed in my previous post.

1. Why do we worship Idols?

Hindu Priest Worshiping Idol

This is very often asked question to a Hindu, the two major religions in the world Islam & Christianity does not believe in idol worship, So Idol worshipping really puzzles & appears like a blind belief to them.

Let’s analyse why we worship idols, In Hinduism we believe that God is omnipotent omnipresent, omniscient, we also believe that god is nirguna (Attributeless) & niraakaara (formless), so a question arises if a god is formless & omnipresent, then why should we worship idols.

The Answer is actually pretty simple; I would try to explain this with the help of an example.

Let’s say I have two students, one a very brilliant & bright student and the other an average student, I will call them & give them a complex mathematical problem & ask them to solve it for me. I also put a precondition that, they should solve this problem without using a pen or paper, which means they should do it in their mind.

Both the Students accepts the challenge & starts to think over the solution to the problem, the Bright & brilliant student will be in deep concentration in solving the problem, while the average student will be struggling to work out the solution to the problem in his mind.

After some time the brilliant student solves the problem, while the average student was still struggling, So I decide to give a piece of paper & a pen to the average student & ask him to concentrate & solve the problem, in no time he too solves the problem, both of them come up with right answer.

Now let’s analyse this story, Had i not given the paper & pen to the average student he wouldn’t have solved the problem, because he was finding it difficult to solve the problem in his mind, So it is clear that a piece of paper & a pen made wonders to average student, Although in both bright Student & Average student it was mind which was working, but the average student required a medium in which he could properly channel his thoughts to find the solution.

So just how a piece of paper & pen acted as a medium to channel thoughts & concentration for average student, an Idol will act as a medium through which a devotee would try to reach to the god.

For a devotee Spirituality is evoked in the mind, the same thing is concentrated & focused towards an idol which is envisioned with the help of eyes.

A muslim once told me that all muslims are one step ahead of hindus in spirituality because in Islam idol worship if forbidden. So it implies that according to my analogy all of them are brilliant students. So be it. This sounds highly impracticable, in a classroom there will be many students some bright, some average & some poor, I cannot force all the students to mentally find a solution to a problem, if I go on pressurizing them, they would neither find an answer nor would it help me or them, It has to be understood no one is  born brilliant, they all start at the same line, the student’s upbringing, values passed on by parents, their interest will make them either brilliant, Average or Poor students. But it has to be noted that all students start learning with the help of paper & pen, once they master their subject, they might no longer require a paper or pen. So in Hinduism Idol is worshipped by everyone who is seeking the divine blessings, once they master the subject of Spirituality they might no longer need an Idol to worship. Very few people reach that level at an young age, Enlightened persons such as Adi Shankaracharya, Madhvacharya or Ramanujacharya are perfect examples, So Sanatana Dharma permits all freedom & liberty to its followers, to attain the grace of ‘Paramatma’ (Supreme Being).

In Islam for instance even photos are forbidden from worshipping, let me tell you an interesting story which I 

remember regarding worshipping a photo, once I was watching a video on Youtube, in that video a Muslim Ruler was mocking a Hindu Saint, saying Idol worship and worshipping the photos are all stupidity, the Hindu Saint simply smiled & looked at a large canvas painting of the king which was hanged on the wall. The Hindu Saint asked “Whose Picture is it?” 

The King replied “It is my father’s Picture when he was on throne, Why?”

“Can you kindly bring that Picture here for me” said the Hindu saint.

The king called the servants & asked them to bring the picture. The Servants removed the picture & brought it near the Hindu Saint. The King looked curiously at the Hindu Saint & was wondering why he asked to bring the Picture.

Hindu Saint looking at the servants said “Can you guys spit on this picture for me”, The Servants were baffled, the King suddenly yelled at the Hindu saint “What are you saying, That is my father’s Picture”, for which Hindu saint calmly replied “Sir There is neither presence of your father’s physical body or soul in this picture, it is simply a painting on a piece of paper, So why don’t you Spit on the Picture”, The king was taken aback, the saint continued “If you give so much respect to a picture, depicting your father, then why can’t you give the same respect to people who worship idols & pictures of god “, the King realized his mistake & asks apologies from the Hindu saint.

You can watch this video on youtube, here is the link

So the moral of the story is, you can instil your love, faith on any object, be it a stone or a picture, until unless your objective is to focus your mind on god. If one is capable of focussing on god without any medium or tools, that’s fine, but one shouldn’t criticize the people who use these medium to reach the god.

Infact in Sanatana dharma we will not worship all idols, we worship idols only after invoking  god into the idol, we call it ‘praana prathishta’, once this is done, we worship it believing that god resides in it.

Finally I would like to tell, If a Muslim can take care of his holybook Quran, to an extent that he will not 

keep the book on floor, just because it contains holy teachings of prophet Mohammad, then why shouldn’t a Hindu worship an idol which he believe that god resides in it. You decide.

Whether the idol contains the god or not is secondary, but it’s a known & proven fact that, it certainly helps us to focus our mind on that Supreme Being ‘Paramatma’, hence idol worship is an integral part of Sanatana dharma. I guess that answers the Question.