facebook discussion: Murti puja: sahi ya galat

मूर्ति पूजा में अच्छा या बुरा लगने वाली बात नहीं है. ये इस तरह है जैसे बचपन में हम चार लाइनों वाली कापी में लिखते थे और बड़े होकर बिना लाइनों वाली में. बचपन में हम हाथ पकड़ कर चलते थे आज बिना सहारे के.... हमारे विकास में लाइनों वाली कापी और हाथ पकड़ कर चलने की एक स्टेज के बाद जरूरत नहीं लगती मगर कभी ये बहुत जरूरी थे..... इनके महत्त्व को नकारा नहीं जा सकता...
इसी तरह मैं समझता हूँ कि हमारे अध्यात्मिक विकास में मूर्ती पूजा का भी एक महत्त्व है जिसे नज़रअंदाज़ नहीं किया जा सकता...
29 December 2011

Not only Hinduism, all major religions of the world have their symbols. The forms differ. The symbols are nothing but small tags which remind one of something. One sees photo
of a Crescent and star, a cross, a book, an idol etc etc and one is reminded of something based on one's beliefs and teachings.
Hinduism has a progressive approach to spiritualism. One progresses from one stage to another, from lower to higher. This idol worship is very important part of our religion but it is not the soul of Hinduism as many would have us believe. It is, like in those examples in my previous comment, aid at the very initial stage of one's spiritual life. One soon out grows it and needs these idols and symbols no more.
One saint once said, "on my first visit I saw temple and the idol, on second visit I saw idol and the lord and on my third visit I saw lord only." The temple was gone.... The idol was gone...
That's the system how it works. Those who say Hinduism is based on idol worship have seen the first visit only and made up their mind. They have not seen the second and third visits. They have not seen the evolution of spiritualism. It is like one visits the primary section of a school and then proclaims that the students of that school write with pencils on a four lined sheet of paper. He has not seen secondary class students using all types of pens and blank non-ruled sheets of paper. Though those senior students don't need pencils and ruled sheets, still they cant deny importance of these sheets in their evolution from primary class to middle and to higher classes. That's the role of idols in Hinduism.
29 December 2011