Understanding God – Part 2
Life is a natural process. Since evolution, life has seen many changes from the primitive type to a civilised one. The immediate needs of human beings were food and shelter. Only when they were able to achieve these and stand-up on their own feet, they must have started thinking about spiritualism. Enlightenment may possibly be the ultimate state a mind can achieve and this may possibly happen by itself as mind undergoes a progressive transition in perceiving subtler things. Therefore, every human being, knowingly or unknowingly, may be treading towards this ultimate destination. But anyone who wishes to speed up the process may follow the spiritual path. However, it should not be construed that not choosing this path or not practising any established religion amounts to committing ‘sin’. It is for the individual to choose.
No society whose fabric is made of love, humanity and compassion can do without worship. Most of us worship ‘Gods’ in idol form. Personnel form of worship, directly or indirectly, also prevails in many places. A doctor is seen as a ‘God’ or ‘Godsend’ when a patient is waiting to be cured of any serious illness. Weaker sections of a society revere the rich and powerful as they revere ‘God’. In India, elders are respected and revered, and their blessings are sought for well-being. This idea of worship, respect and reverence are taught from one’s childhood days so that it gets into the mental system at the subconscious level. It would be interesting to note that our highest spiritual treatise ‘Vedanta’ seeks one to see ‘God’ everything. This is very much evident in the fact that we in India see ‘God’ in money, education, art, etc.
Most religions prescribe idol worship and other rituals with a view to bring our mind to a higher level of consciousness and to help realise the force within i.e. attain enlightenment. It is believed that idol worship brings us closer to ‘God’ or spirituality. But it should be remembered that it is the faith with which we look at the idol is more important than the idol itself. Idols also serve to remind us of the values and principles of life, as preached by religions. These idols are attached to legends that teach us moral laws. For example, Rama reminds us of Ramayan and Krishna reminds of Mahabarath and ‘Geetha’, and so on. Idol worships and rituals are expected to discipline our minds and this is especially useful for children whose minds can be easily forged. It has also been found easy for us to relate ourselves with idols that are projected as ‘Gods’. These idols serve as an object of concentration which is found to be essential in the process of knowing the force within or for self-realisation. These idols act as mediators between human beings and the Ultimate Force which is within ourselves.
We believe that we invoke ‘Gods’ by worshipping images and expect our wants to get fulfilled. Performing rituals and worshipping ‘Gods’ give us satisfaction and happiness because we believe that ‘God’ will bless us if we do these, and we get solace out of it. It may also be possible that our wishes might get fulfilled as a result of our intense desire, sheer determination and faith in ‘Self’. It is our belief and conviction that matters most. However, it is observed that religious dogmas are still prevalent in our society, which needs to be eliminated. We still follow certain superstitious customs which are totally non-essential to our living. Most of these are followed blindly and the followers never question its rationality.
Coming back to image worship and accompanying rituals, these may sometimes become obstacles in our path to higher spiritual development. When we learn a language it is important to know the basics or alphabets during the early stage of learning. But as we progress, we do not make any extra effort to remember these basics as these get imbibed in our mind. Similarly, one should go beyond the elementary form of worship in order to accomplish spiritual development. In essence, spiritualism is the process of knowing self within.
Most of us worship and perform rituals regularly and, to many, this is a daily routine. We do these out of practice that has been inculcated in us from our early childhood. Some do this out of fear that they would be punished if they ignore ‘God’. We also do this to reaffirm and rekindle our faith in ‘God’. What essentially seems to be missing is the conviction about the presence of ‘God’, if one may say, power within us. It should be our attempt to search for this supreme power within whenever we worship ‘God’ or images. Happiness in life is what everyone seeks. If worshipping ‘God’ helps one to achieve this then one should continue to do this. But in reality, does one really achieve happiness forever? Is one really happy at all times? It can be seen that most of us think that we do not have peace in life even after performing ‘poojas’ and worshipping ‘Gods’ regularly. The cause may be so many viz. poverty, social abuse and other incapabilities. We also repent as to what sin we have committed that prompted ‘God’ to punish us. The happiness one achieves by worshipping ‘God’, as mentioned above, seems to be of temporary nature. Often we become very sad because of certain problems or some incident in our life. This is basically a spontaneous emotional reaction of mind that has not been tuned to handle the particular situation. As soon as sadness envelops us, the happiness vanishes from our mind. It is the sorrow that leaves strong impressions than the joy. Sorrow lives longer in our mind than the joy. We mourn a death or sad incident longer than we celebrate a good occasion in our family. The reason is that we are not mentally prepared to accept any sad things in life. We need to develop a system to absorb these emotions and digest them and make us more receptive. This happens only when our mind is able to grasp and accept the reality of the problem and achieve a neutral state. In a neutral state of mind one get affected neither by joy nor by sorrow. However, it is easier said than done.
