Words From The Master: 16 Feb 2008

From the form to the formless!

Idol worship is an important belief of Hinduism. Many people are surprised to see people pray to stone idols; many of them in fact. They term this pagan worship.

We must understand that there is no such thing as idol worship in Hinduism; it is worship through idols.

The Eastern mystics have always maintained that God is one, all pervading energy, beyond form and formless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Let me ask you honestly, the moment I say formless what comes to your mind? The sky, an ocean, an open space comes to our mind. Again it’s a form, but it’s not described by length, breadth and depth.

Please be very clear, unless we experience it, we cannot relate with something formless. So as an initial way to relate some forms are created. It’s a technique. For example after learning to ride a bike, we can remove our hands from the handlebar and ride the bike, but initially we need to hold it and learn. Just the same way, when we enter the spiritual journey, in the end everyone experiences the formless, but at the initial level we need a form to relate to.

As long as we think we are a form, we can’t relate with the formless. Most of us think we have a form, a body with a set boundary. This is not so. It is a difficult idea to grasp initially. As a result of this even if we think of something as formless, we will again be giving it a form, may be a sky or ocean, something vast, but again it is going to be one more form.

If you say the formless just IS, it’s an experience. If you experience it then it’s alright. You don’t need anything. But many cannot start with that experience. We can only start from where we are. I have seen many people who want to start straight away with the formless but they don’t feel totally connected.

That is why in Eastern religions we have the initial step as worship through idols as a way of relating and connecting. Once we master that, we can feel it everywhere. At least I can say from my experience, a person in the initial level cannot relate to the formless directly. It is because it takes some maturity to relate to the formless.

May we all begin with the form and become the formless!

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This article was earlier published in the Economic Times, an Indian newspaper.