The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Bhakti-Yoga/Worship of Substitutes and Images
CHAPTER VIII
WORSHIP OF SUBSTITUTES AND IMAGES
The next points to be considered are the worship of Pratikas or of things
more or less satisfactory as substitutes for God, and the worship of
Pratimâs or images. What is the worship of God through a Pratika?
— Joining the mind with devotion to that which is not Brahman, taking it to be Brahman" — says Bhagavân Râmânuja. "Worship the mind as Brahman this is internal; and the Âkâsha as Brahman, this is with regard to the Devas", says Shankara. The mind is an internal Pratika, the Akasha is an external one, and both have to be worshipped as substitutes of God. He continues, "Similarly — 'the Sun is Brahman, this is the command', 'He who worships Name as Brahman' — in all such passages the doubt arises as to the worship of Pratikas." The word Pratika means going towards; and worshipping a Pratika is worshipping something as a substitute which is, in some one or more respects, like Brahman more and more, but is not Brahman. Along with the Pratikas mentioned in the Shrutis there are various others to be found in the Purânas and the Tantras. In this kind of Pratika-worship may be included all the various forms of Pitri-worship and Deva-worship.
Now worshipping Ishvara and Him alone is Bhakti; the worship of anything
else — Deva, or Pitri, or any other being — cannot be Bhakti. The various
kinds of worship of the various Devas are all to be included in ritualistic
Karma, which gives to the worshipper only a particular result in the form of
some celestial enjoyment, but can neither give rise to Bhakti nor lead to
Mukti. One thing, therefore, has to be carefully borne in mind. If, as it
may happen in some cases, the highly philosophic ideal, the supreme Brahman,
is dragged down by Pratika-worship to the level of the Pratika, and the
Pratika itself is taken to be the Atman of the worshipper or his Antaryâmin
(Inner Ruler), the worshipper gets entirely misled, as no Pratika can really
be the Atman of the worshipper.
But where Brahman Himself is the object of worship, and the Pratika stands
only as a substitute or a suggestion thereof, that is to say, where, through
the Pratika the omnipresent Brahman is worshipped — the Pratika itself being
idealised into the cause of all, Brahman — the worship is positively
beneficial; nay, it is absolutely necessary for all mankind until they have
all got beyond the primary or preparatory state of the mind in regard to
worship. When, therefore, any gods or other beings are worshipped in and for
themselves, such worship is only a ritualistic Karma; and as a Vidyâ
(science) it gives us only the fruit belonging to that particular Vidya; but
when the Devas or any other beings are looked upon as Brahman and
worshipped, the result obtained is the same as by the worshipping of
Ishvara. This explains how, in many cases, both in the Shrutis and the
Smritis, a god, or a sage, or some other extraordinary being is taken up and
lifted, as it were, out of his own nature and idealised into Brahman, and is
then worshipped. Says the Advaitin, "Is not everything Brahman when the name
and the form have been removed from it?" "Is not He, the Lord, the innermost
Self of every one?" says the Vishishtâdvaitin.
— "The fruition of even the worship of Adityas etc. Brahman Himself bestows, because He is the Ruler of all." Says Shankara in his Brahma-Sutra-Bhâsya—
"Here in this way does Brahman become the object of worship, because He, as Brahman, is superimposed on the Pratikas, just as Vishnu etc. are superimposed upon images etc."
The same ideas apply to the worship of the Pratimas as to that of the
Pratikas; that is to say, if the image stands for a god or a saint, the
worship is not the result of Bhakti, and does not lead lo liberation; but if
it stands for the one God, the worship thereof will bring both Bhakti and
Mukti. Of the principal religions of the world we see Vedantism, Buddhism,
and certain forms of Christianity freely using images; only two religions,
Mohammedanism and Protestantism, refuse such help. Yet the Mohammedans use
the grave of their saints and martyrs almost in the place of images; and the
Protestants, in rejecting all concrete helps to religion, are drifting away
every year farther and farther from spirituality till at present there is
scarcely any difference between the advanced Protestants and the followers
of August Comte, or agnostics who preach ethics alone. Again, in
Christianity and Mohammedanism whatever exists of image worship is made to
fall under that category in which the Pratika or the Pratima is worshipped
in itself, but not as a "help to the vision" (Drishtisaukaryam) of God;
therefore it is at best only of the nature of ritualistic Karmas and cannot
produce either Bhakti or Mukti. In this form of image-worship, the
allegiance of the soul is given to other things than Ishvara, and,
therefore, such use of images, or graves, or temples, or tombs, is real
idolatry; it is in itself neither sinful nor wicked — it is a rite — a
Karma, and worshippers must and will get the fruit thereof.