Evolution means recognizing the subtle aspects of life

Often I have heard people ridiculing the worship of idols by Hindus saying it is a childish act! But I see it as completely opposite! It is so childish as to not recognize the subtle aspects in life which are represented by these idols! I ask a simple question, why do you hang photos of your loved ones in your home? Why do you keep a photo of your lover in your wallet? Just looking at a photo kindles all the great memories and you cherish them, don't you? You automatically get transported to a beautiful world of love and longing! That is the whole point of idols in Hindu worship! The moment you see an idol, you magically get transported to the world of recognition of the subtle aspects of life that it represents and you sing and dance in ecstasy with tears of gratitude rolling down your cheeks!

I agree that if this phenomenon does not happen, there may be little or no point in just paying some customary visit to a temple. That is where spirituality plays a vital role in experientially knowing things under the guidance of a Guru rather than intellectually trying to understand them. For example when you see an idol of a Devi (a female deity), if you have a superficial understanding of what a Devi represents, it may not kindle the bliss in you. But even once if you have had the experience of the scintillating energy that Devi represents, moving  through you from down all the way up to your head and above, then every time you see the idol of Devi, or even when you hear somebody uttering the name of Devi, you immediately start recognizing the aspect that it represents through your experience and you start cherishing the memory of your experience and you simply start dancing in ecstasy! You don't have to believe in what scriptures say, because you have to believe only in that which you don't know. But your experience has made you already know what is, what the Devi represents, and all the subtleties of the life itself!

Same is true with every idol that Hindus worship. The moment you hear the word Shiva, you immediately recognize the transcendental meditative state of your existence if you have even once experienced it through meditation. The moment somebody says Krishna, your presence automatically starts tuning to the playful, skillful, naughty, mischievous nature of Krishna and you start dancing swirling around with joy and ecstasy!

Recognizing the subtle aspects of life is what I call as Evolution! And that can only happen if you have a Guru in your life who guides you in each and every step of your life. And if you have a Guru, then indeed there is no real need to worship the idols because through the Guru you have started recognizing that all the aspects which the idols represent are already present within the self. You really don't need an idol to remind you of the experience, but the experience percolates and reflects in every action you perform in your life. Till that time, at least start recognizing and appreciating the intelligence of our ancestors in establishing the worship of idols and let us not ridicule the system of idol workshop just because we didn't get it! If you have not got a chance to experience what it means to be with a Guru like His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, I only can sincerely pray that your intellect opens up to that possibility sooner than later!