The Whys of Idol Worship

Let us say a child sleeps with the mother. It knows the comfort of the mother’s body. As it grows up, you want to put the child separately which is very essential for the growth of the child. Suddenly, if you put him in a different bed, he feels uncomfortable. So what do we do? Usually we give him a toy – a doll or teddy bear to hold onto.

Now, he holds onto this doll and he feels comfortable. As he grows up you don’t have to tell him ‘Get rid of the doll.’ As he grows up, this doll which was so precious to him falls away by itself. The teddy bear disappears, but if you snatch the doll away when he needs it, you will damage the child’s psyche in a very deep sense.

Similarly, right now some people need an image. An idol is an image that you have created, which you think is the image of God. But if you think this is God, then you are in trouble. You create an image of God because you want to relate to it. As long as you need it you use it; but the aim is to grow out of it. There is a whole science of idol making where a certain form with certain material is created and energized in a certain way. Different idols are made in different ways to make them into completely different possibilities. Idol making is that science through which you manifest the energy in a particular way so that your quality of life can be enhanced.

Ancient temples in India were not created for worship. Temple building is a very deep science. In Indian tradition, nobody told you that if you go to a temple that you must worship and ask for something. They told you if you go to the temple, you must sit for a while and come. But today you just touch your bottom to the floor and run away.

This is not the way. You are required to sit there because there is a field of energy that has been created. In the morning before you go out into the world and transact your business, the first thing you do is you go sit in the temple for a while. This is a way of recharging yourself with very positive vibrations of life so that you go into the world with a different perspective.