Idolatry And Worship

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rejects idolatry as well, but considers Srimurti worship to be the only unexceptionable means of spiritual culture. It has been shown that God is personal and all-beautiful. Sages like Vyas and others have seen that beauty in their souls' eyes. They have left us descriptions. Of course, word carries grossness of matter. But truth still is perceivable in those descriptions. According to those descriptions one delineates a Srimurti and sees the great God of our heart there with intense pleasure. Brethren! is that wrong or sinful? Those who say that God has no form either material or spiritual, and again imagine a false form for worship are certainly idolatrous. But those who see the spiritual form of the Deity in their souls' eyes, carry that impression as far as possible to the mind and then frame an emblem for the satisfaction of the material eye for continual study of the higher feeling are by no means idolatrous.

While seeing a Srimurti, do not even see the image and you are a pure theist. Idolatry and Srimurti worship are two different things; but, my brethren! you simply confound one with the other out of hastiness. To tell you the truth, Srimurti worship is the only true worship of the Deity, without which you cannot sufficiently cultivate your religious feelings. The world attracts you through your senses and as long as you do not see God in the objects of your senses, you live in an awkward position which scarcely helps you in procuring your spiritual elevation. Place a Srimurti in your house. Think that God Almighty is the guardian of the house. The food that you take is His "Prasad" [mercy]. The flowers and scents are also His Prasad. The eye, the ear, the nose, the touch and the tongue all have a spiritual culture, you do it with a holy heart, and God will know it and judge you by your sincerity.

Satan and Beelzebub will have nothing to do with you in that matter! All sorts of worship are based on the principle of Srimurti. Look into the history of religion and you will come to this noble truth. The Semitic idea of a patriarchal God both in the pre-Christian period of Judaism and in the period of Christianity and Mohammedanism is nothing but a limited idea of Srimurti. The monarchic idea of a Jove amongst the Greeks and of an Indra amongst the Aryan Karmakandis of India is also a distant view of the same principle. The idea of a force and Jyotirmaya Brahma of the meditators and a formless energy of the Shaktas is also a very faint view of the Srimurti.

In fact, the principle of Srimurti is the truth itself, differently exhibited in different people according to their different phases of thought. Even Jaimini and Comte, who are not prepared to accept a creating god, have prescribed certain phases of the Srimurti, simply because they have been impelled by some inward action from the soul! Then again we meet with people who have adopted the Cross, the Shalgram shila, the lingam and such-like emblems as indicators of the inward idea of Srimurti. Furthermore, if the Divine compassion, love and justice could be portrayed by the pencil and expressed by the chisel, why should not the personal beauty of the Deity embracing all other attributes be portrayed in poetry or in picture or expressed by the chisel for the benefit of man? If words could indicate time and sign could tell us a history, why should not the picture or figure bring associations of higher thoughts and feelings with regard to the transcendental beauty of the Divine Personage?

Srimurti worship is divided into two classes, the ideal and the physical. Those of the physical school are entitled from their circumstances of life and state of mind to establish temple institutions. Those who are by circumstances and position entitled to worship the Srimurti in mind have, with due deference to the temple institutions, a tendency to worship, usually by Sraban and Kirtan, and their church is universal and independent of caste and color. Mahaprabhu prefers this latter class and shows their worship in His Shikshastak [His eight prayers]. Worship, then, without intermission, with a feeling of resignation and in a very short time you will be blessed with Prem.

9. Prem in God is the final object of spiritual existence. The Karma-margis, fruitive workers, declare that enjoyment in this world and in the heavens hereafter is all that a man requires. Karma, or action, is of two sorts, i.e. Karma done with a view to obtain a material result and Karma done with a view to please God. With the Karma-margis both sorts of Karma have the object of procuring enjoyment. Here is the line of demarcation between Bhakti and Karma. Bhakti aims at procuring the principle of Prem-Bhakti as the final principle of all actions, while Karma aims at self-enjoyment as the ultimate goal of action.

The Jnana-margis, on the other hand, cultivate spiritual knowledge to obtain Mukti, salvation, as the final aim of such cultivation. Mukti is found to be of two sorts. In one sort of Mukti total absorption of the soul in God is effected-i.e., the annihilation of the separate existence of the soul from God. In the other sort of Mukti the soul stands eternally separate from God, and when salvation ensues, the soul goes to Chit-jagat, obtaining residence in the Chit region of the Deity, residence closely by the Deity, attainment of a spiritual form like that of God Himself, and attainment of powers similar to the powers of God.

The latter class of Mukti is inevitable when it pleases the almighty to "rant us that state." But then, after obtaining that Mukti, we serve God with pure love.

The first sort of Mukti is rejected by the Bhaktas, the devotees, as not worth taking, in consequence of its tendency to annihilate the highest principle of love. The second class of Mukti cannot be the ultimate object as it acts like an intermediate result of our spiritual disenthrallment. Besides that, a hankering after Mukti spoils the action of spiritual cultivation, being a strong desire for something other than the improvement of Bhakti. It has a tint of selfishness which is not in keeping with the unselfish principle of pure Bhakti.

We must therefore cultivate Bhakti being always free from the two contending principles, i.e., a desire for fruitive results, and a desire for Mukti or salvation. We must depend on Krishna to give us Mukti or not as it pleases Him. We must pray for continual development of our religious sentiment of Bhakti alone. Pure love is the final object of our own existence.