What is the role of idol worship? -2.

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To,


All Members,


We have received this particular legacy in heritage and therefore the idol invokes in us the devotee and that is a great heritage.

Nobody worships the idol; everybody worships the Lord.

There are sculptors in Rajasthan.

 They make marble idols.

An idol of Lord Siva was supplied by a Rajasthani sculptor to a temple in Bombay.

Certain parts of the idol, the eyelashes, the lips, the naga (snake) etc.. were color-painted by the sculptor.

In course of some five or six years, that painting got erased.

The manager of the temple wrote to the sculptor asking him to come to Bombay and repaint the idol.

Do you know what was the reply of the sculptor ?

Who am I to paint the Lord ?

If you want a new idol, I will make one and send to you, but I won't paint my bhagavan.

Why ? Because the sculptor creates a statue, an idol and not the Lord.

Do you know what he does at the installation of the idol ?

He also attends the function.

Until the installation ceremony, the idol is a stone only, it is not the Lord.

During installation, they do Prana-Pratistha, imparting life to the idol, by mantra, by samskara - like even a person by samskara is made a dvijya, twice-born; by the diksa of gayathri-mantra, you make him a different person.

Similarly here, even though it is a stone idol, it is given life by samskara and the last act of the sculptor is to open the eyes.

He brings a fine chistle and a hammer with him and when the samskaras are done, he opens the eyes of the idol.

Till then the eyes are covered.

The sculptor removes bits of stone covering the eyes, and then he is the first person to fall at the feet of the
idol which is no more an idol for him.

Till then it was only a stone but now it is the Lord and the Lord he worships.

Dialogues with Swami Dayananda Ji (Arsha Vidya Gurukulam)

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

To be continued  ....



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