God is unimaginable and hence, cannot be even imagined by even sharp intelligence. Therefore, there is no possibility of any kind of interaction with God. God knows all of us, but, we can never know God. Hence, the interaction with unimaginable God is one sided only. But, we like to have an interaction, which is in both sides. We like to know, see, talk, touch and live with God. We like to serve God because service is the practical proof of love or devotion to God. For this purpose, God comes down in the same medium in which we exist. Hence, God comes in human form(Shri Dattaswami). If God comes in the form of an inert object, our service becomes impossible. For the sake of inert objects, He has to come in the inert form. But, the inert objects do not interact at all. If He comes down as a bird or animal, the birds and animals may interact and the human beings cannot interact. In such case, you cannot talk with God since you cannot talk with a bird or animal. We cannot clarify our doubts with God in such case. If God comes down in the energetic form, we cannot touch God and cannot live with Him for a long time. Therefore, the human form is the best suited to the human beings. The energetic form of God is relevant to the departed souls existing in the energetic bodies in the upper worlds. But, the human form of God is not easily available. Even if it is easily available, most of the human beings suffer with ego and jealousy towards a co-human form. Any human being does not agree the greatness of a co-human being. Therefore, the human incarnation interacts with those few selected devotees only, who conquered the ego and jealousy. For other human beings, the human incarnation behaves like a co-human being only following the usual social norms. Krishna behaved like a human being only with all the people and behaved like God for His close devotees. Therefore, God comes down for the needy only. In general, the major lot of humanity does not require the human incarnation. Even if they require, they cannot recognize due to their inherent ego and jealousy based on the repulsion between common media. Therefore, there is no use of human incarnation for the major humanity. But, they also require God. For their purpose, God is represented by statues and photos of energetic forms. Since the energetic forms like Vishnu, Shiva etc, are not available, a photo or statue representing them can be only worshipped. Even, the past human incarnations like Rama, Krishna etc, can be worshipped through the photos and statues. Since direct photo is not possible, only imaginary photos and statues are worshipped. Even the alive trees, animals, birds etc, are worshipped because they are not alive human forms. But, all these statues and photos represent human form only indicating that the final goal is the alive human incarnation only. The Shivalingam is just a round stone, which indicates that the human beings in this world can interact only with matter and not with the unimaginable God directly. The Shivalingam is in the form of the energetic wave representing energy and there by indicates that energetic form is necessary for the worship of unimaginable God by the departed souls existing in energetic bodies in the upper world. Therefore, the Shivalingam denotes both matter and energy, which are the media required for the expression of unimaginable God in this world and upper world respectively. Even the body of human incarnation is matter only. Therefore, the Shivalingam represents the first step of interaction, which is matter. The second step is the carved human form in the matter (stone). The third step is the alive human incarnation. Hence, the idol worship is meant for the major lot of humanity suffering with ego and jealousy in the initial stage. Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba told that just like the finger indicates the flower, the idol indicates the goal. Once the flower is seen, the finger is not necessary, Baba said. It means, once you catch the alive human incarnation, these photos and statues of energetic forms and past incarnations in human form only are not necessary. The goal of all these statues and photos is alive human incarnation only with which you can interact and serve in all angles including the clarification of your doubts.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 17:34:59 +0000