WORSHIP OF IMAGES

While raising a building, the scaffolding is indispensable ; but when the work is completed, no one feels the necessity of it. So also image-worship is necessary in the beginning, but not afterwards.

As a man begins to learn writing by drawing big scrawls before he tries to write a smaller hand, so a person must acquire the power of concentrating his thoughts by fixing the mind first upon forms, and then, after succeeding therein, by fixing it upon the formless.

A marksman learns to shoot by first having big objects to shoot at; and as he acquires more and more facility in shooting, he aims more and more easily at the smaller marks on the target. So when the mind has been trained to focus on images having form, it is easy for it to-do so on things having no form.

As a toy fruit or a toy elephant reminds one of the real fruit and the living animal, so do the images that are worshipped remind one of God Who is formless and eternal.

The Master once said to a disciple of his : " You were talking of images made of clay. There arises a necessity for them too. These various forms used for worship have been provided to suit the needs of different men at different stages of spiritual evolution. '

The mother so arranges food for her children that each one gets what agrees with him. If she has five children and she gets a big fish to cook, she makes different dishes \>ut of it, and gives each one what suits him exactly. One is given rich Polao with fish; another, of weak digestion, only a little soup; and so on, according to the digestive power of each. (The same in the case with the various symbols and disciplines prescribed for spiritual aspirants.)

A disciple: One may believe that God is with form'. But surely He is not the earthen image that is worshipped.

The Master: Why call it an earthen image ? The Divine image is made of the Spirit.

The Master once said to Keshab Chandra Sen, who was a great iconoclast in his days: " Why do these images rouse the idea of mud and cla£, stone and straw, in your mind ? Why can you not realise the presence of the eternal, blissful, all-conscious Mother, even in these forms ? "

If a worshipper is convinced that the images of the Deity in the shape of various Gods and Goddesses are verily divine, he reaches God by their worship. But if he holds them to be nothing better than mud and straw and clay, to him the worship of snch images does no good.

If there is anything wrong in image-worship, does He not know that all worship is meant for Him? He will surely be pleased to accept the worship, knowing that it is meant for Him alone. Love God; that is the duty nearest to you.

When one sees God, one realises that everything, images and all, is a manifestation of the Spirit. To him the image is not made of clay but of Spirit.