Today we will discuss about a very controversial topic which is idol worship. I am saying controversial since many religions of the world prohibit idol worship while others stress on idol worship.

NB: please note that this post is not for or against any religion or does not support or defy idol worship but tries to give you a logical rational view of the concept and then you can decide for yourself

The Common Factor

If we think logically we say that all religions are equal and point towards the same goal. Even we have put forth posts like Quran vs Puran, Bible and Vedas and so forth. Even otherwise it would be bit over the top statement that this religion is entirely false or that religion is entirely true so where do we strike a common factor.

What is an Idol?

First of all let us understand what an idol is. In the gross sense, it simply means the shape or symbol which is made by people or some Saint, sage or a prophet. So from a scientific viewpoint, an idol is just another addition to the endless forms and varieties which are already present in the universe.

So why do we worship some particular idol only, means like say Lord Ganesha has the form of an Elephant but why is He so revered over say another form which say a Bear. The reason for this can be understand if we first understand a bit about mythology.

Mythology: Tales or Wisdom?

Most people dismiss mythology with the very mention of the term as being just a collection of imaginary stories stated for time pass, but the fact of the matter is that those tales were not just stated for sake of narrating a story.

Let us understand an analogy to make it clearer. Suppose you are studying in class X (High School) and want to discuss or understand something from your Uncle who is a university professor which a PhD in Physics. Let us suppose he wants to explain something to you so that you can understand for your exams but if he narrates the doctorate level stuff, it would confuse you more and possibly you wont understand it at all and wont even try to understand and dismiss saying that you don’t know what he’s talking, I have never heard of such a thing.

There can be numerous examples of this like say an experience astronaut from NASA talking to a street vendor or say a doctor talking to a layman, but now you must be wandering where these examples fit into the picture?

Rishees: The Greatest Scientists

The ancient texts, scriptures and manuscripts were not written at random but by some of the greatest scientists of those times whom we call Rishees, Seers, Sages or Saints. These were the people who experimented with their minds as well as material and came up with facts which even the modern scientists of today are starting to believe in many ways.

Such was their level of intelligence, mind power, analytic power that they reached and achieved things which the normal citizens of those times could not apprehend.

But they were not selfish enough to hoard the knowledge or sell it like the modern times when everything is commercialized and education is done in a proper professional manner for exchange of value.

So they had to dispense this knowledge to the common folks so they came up with short stories which related to their everyday life, objects, and activities. This was done so that rather than shirking away from heavy knowledge, the simpler folks did something which could help them indirectly or make them understand complex and complicated matters.

Negative Points

As with everything else, this approach also had negative aspects. One of this was that since the stories were symbolic, many so called priest and spiritual men who were not genuine used them to promote their own profession without any concern for common man or his/her good.

They were only interested to spread superstitions or have a way to gain permanent customers and so forth. This led to so much confusion and widespread misunderstanding of this literature.

Does Idol worship work?

With so many Gods and Goddesses it is possible that it works. Means if one Prays to say a particular Lord who is the deity for a specific purpose, will the task be done? Well actually if you see the working of the internal mechanism it is the universal energy which is present in each and everything which just materializes when the right conditions are there. Say water is present in the atmosphere but it does not rain unless the conditions are right.

Similarly the faith or strong belief acts to precipitate the desire into the material world depending on the intensity of the will, which in turn can be sharpened by many means like strong faith/belief, meditation and so forth. This has been demonstrated N number of times each day through different events in our own lives and lives of others.

Infact even superstitions work only with those who believe strongly as this can be read in detail in our post titled the science behind superstitions.

People against Idol worship

People who proudly say that they are rational and do not believe in idol worship actually don’t think twice before the say. I wont name any specific religion but people who don’t worship idols do worship some concept, some book or some person who existed in previous times. Basically that is also idol worship in the exact sense of the word so they are just being narrow minded.

Actually the realm of faith is so huge and so vast that either idol worship or not, it is the energy behind the act which actually works and the idol just acts as the symbol which is helpful in focusing or realizing the materialization of that energy.

So…

So what we conclude from this long discussion is that everyone is an idol worshipper whether they believe it or not and admit it or not. Spirituality is pretty simple and only so called intellectuals made it complicated for sake of proving their own superiority, while some of the greatest scientific minds say “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction” (Albert Einstein: one of the greatest scientists world has known)

So guys if you do idol worship or even if you don’t do idol worship, you are both right and just follow  your faith and belief and at the end you will be surprised that your destination was the same despite the separate paths you took.