DOUBTS and CLARIFICATIONS - 3

DOUBT:  Shri Ganesha idols are installed in public places, worshipped and immersed and destroyed in waters.  Is it proper?

CLARIFICATION:  Why?  Don’t you dissolve in water the ‘Ganesha formed with turmeric powder’ and worshipped on special occasions?  Don’t we invite the God into the water in Holy pot (Kalasha) and then sprinkle the water all over our our house?  When a temple is renovated, the Power in the idol is transferred to a Kumbha (Pot of water) and the idols removed.  The Kumbha is worshipped as God while the temple is being renovated.  On Kumbhabhishekam day, new Idols are installed and Prana Pratishtaa (Enlivening the Idols) performed.  The water in Kumbha is sprinkled on devotees.  The idols in Puri Jagannath temple are made of wood.  These idols are renewed during annual Rathyatra.  The old idol forms are destroyed.  God is not destroyed in these cases.

Any form has to end.  Even if that was form of God, it has to get destroyed.  Anything that was formed has to end.  End is not for the God.  Destruction is only of the form.  When we worship, we do not worship the Form, but the God through the Form.  This idea has saved Hindu Dharma from extinction even after eight hundred years of cruel Islamic aggression.  Innumerable temples were demolished.  Innumerable Idols were desecrated.  Gajini Mohammad pulled down the majestic Somanatha temple and shattered the Shiva Linga to pieces.  He stamped his feet on the broken piece and ordered his soldiers to urinate on it.  He roared and declared that he had destroyed Shiva.  What a fool he was?  He died.  The stone memorial at his place of burial in Afghanistan is in ruins.  Hindu Dharma continues to live and flourish in Bharat and is extending its field of influence to all corners of the world.

Music resonates peace and joy in individual mind.  During liberation movement, music was put to effective social application for instilling patriotism and social values.  Cinema and drama, usually considered as entertainment media, were also directed towards patriotic cause.  Shri Lokamanya Tilak realized that religion and faith in God can also be effective instruments in the National movement.  He brought the Ganesha Idol out from the Pooja rooms to the streets.  Shri Ganesha idols were installed in public places, worshipped for ten days and immersed in waters.  Topics like prevailing situation in the country, necessity of social unity above castes and communities, swadeshi spirit, movements currently on, the role a common man could play in these movements, etc. were discussed before the crowds of devotees assembled.  The Indian National Congress, which was a mere time-pass activity of a handful English educated men, became an organization of the masses during Shri Lokamanya Tilak’s leadership.  The role of Shri Ganesha was significant in this.

In recent times, an effort on these lines were initiated in Tamil Nadu by Hindu Munnani, under the inspiring leadership of Shri Rama Gopalan.  In Tamil Nadu forms and symbols connected with the Divine, were degraded and trampled upon in the garb of atheism.  This propaganda of Atheism, funded by alien religions, was directed only against gullible Hindus.  As a result, religious conversion gangs flourished.  In 1980, around 2,000 Hindus were converted overnight to Islam in Meenakshipuram, a small village in Tamil Nadu.  Few crores of rupees changed hands in the process.  That was when, Vinayaka Chaturhi celebration was initiated and popularized in Tamil Nadu.  The Hindu society should know its great ancestors, tradition and history;  it should be aware of defects that have cropped up in thousands of years of its existence and should strive to eliminate those;  it should realize the duty of having to preserve the Hindu society along with the values, tradition and culture;  the unity in Hindu society should send a strong message to those trying to fish in troubled waters;  conversion efforts should stop and reconversion of those already converted should start;  These were the thought basis for Vinayaka Chaturthi celebrations in Tamil Nadu.  Neither temples, nor festivals are needed for spiritual progress of an individual.  But, these are effective instruments for social transformation.

This question is result of attachment with a Form that is sure to be destroyed or due to a fear that the God will punish us.  We forget that we are worshipping the Paramaatman and get attached with a Form.  We do not get a mind to immerse and destroy the form.  Every year, we bring calenders with pictures of God forms.  We do not relish the idea of throwing away the calenders at the year end.  We fear God’s anger and stack the calenders in shelves.  In due course, termites eat away the calender.  The termite has neither attachment nor fear.  It does not see God form, but only paper in the calenders.  A Form represents the Divine only so long as it is trusted to be a Form of God and worshipped.  It is wrong to keep the Idol as a mere decorative piece in shelf or on the TV, without performing Pooja, without offering Naivedya or without lighting a lamp or without at least offering a flower.  It is not at all wrong to perform Pooja of the Form with devotion, and dissolve the Form in water or fire after performing Yathasthana punar-pooja (asking the God to return to Its usual Abode).  There is no sin committed against the God.

DOUBT:  Is anything desired gained through Pooja and such other practices?  Will the God give to the wicked ones too?

CLARIFICATION:  Pooja, Tapas, Yagya etc. are scientific.  If the principles of science are followed and rules observed, results are definite.  Tapas will definitely fetch boon.  If stipulated guidelines are followed and wiring is done, the house will be lit up, no matter whether it is a good man’s house or bad man’s house.  God is also a power.  God will bless with favours if worship, tapas and Yagya are performed in the proper way.  If the rules are not followed, result will be affected.  Elevation of the good and fall of the wicked are effected by their respective Karmas, not by God.  Karmas or actions are caused by Bhavana.  Sadbhavana of noble persons elevates him.  The wicked bhavana in an asura destroys him.  Any number of boons and favours he obtained from the Gods do not save the Asura.  Asuras have always been vanquished, despite powerful boons acquired by them.  That is the message of all our Puranas.

A question is often asked by many.  “Oh!  How many poojas did he perform!  Why did the God give him such a cruel disease?  Why should he suffer so many turmoils?”  If he was an ordinary person, full of Vasanas of desires, he would take the disease as a harsh, painful experience, as a severe punishment.  He would grieve.  He may even stop worshipping, throw away God forms and worship materials.  If he was a devotee, a seeker involved in practice, he would take the disease as an opportunity to cleanse his Vasanas, as a means to purify self of sins.  If he was a Ramakrishna Paramahamsa or Shri Ramana, he would remain unconcerned, regarding the ailment as afflicting only body.

Involving in worship without any demand, just for purification of inner self is best.  Only the diseased has to consume medicine.  Medicine has no use once the disease is over.  We are all wicked.  We are all impure in thought.  Worship is the medicine for us all.  Pooja without demand, pooja without fear, pooja with devotion, pooja with love.

DOUBT:  Good thoughts crop up in my mind when I read or listen to the Gita.  I think of eliminating wickedness and grooming qualities dear to the God.  But, I fail in my effort.  Why?  Am I not eligible?

CLARIFICATION:   Anyone writing commentary on the Gita writes only on the basis of his own experience.  The speaker on the Gita also speaks his own experience.  These are insufficient to teach you.  Only your own experiences teach you.  I share with you my experience.  I joined a steel production unit after my MTech.  There was a man working near the furnace.  He had joined the company as a helper in his teens and had an experience of around twenty years.  He had only two years of schooling.  In the process of steel making, Manganese and Carbon content in steel used to be adjusted after taking out a sample from molten, boiling steel and testing the same for content.  This experienced worker would predict Manganese and Carbon content from colour of the flame.  The test report would almost match his prediction.

Student passing out of university as Automobile Engineer after four years of study, knows only paper.  He will not be able to assemble a vehicle dismantled into parts.  The farmer who steps into the soil knows types and quality of seeds and soil.  An MSc (Agriculture)?  Bookish knowledge is mere license to work in a field.  Only self experience teaches.  Vishwamitra sought to take Shri Rama for protection of Yagya from the Asuras.  Dasharatha hesitated to send a sixteen years old boy, without any experience in warfare, for the task.  He offered his own service along with his huge army.  Vishwamitra had a different intention.  He wanted the future King of Ayodhya to know the ground reality from a direct, personal experience.  Hence, he insisted on taking Shri Rama with him.  This may not be applicable wholly to worldly activities.  In spiritual matters, self experience is inevitable.  In fact, nothing else, but self experience is needed.  Studying and listening may be helpful.  But, effort should not stop at that.  It should be followed with Chintan and Swadhyaya (introspection and analysis).  Gyaana ia attainable solely with self experience, without listening and studying.  But Gyaana is impossible to attain solely on the basis of bookish knowledge in the absence of self experience.  This is certain.

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