If I tell you ‘idol worship’ is not possible, you will be surprised; but actually it is the truth. It is true because for someone who knows how to worship, the idol does not remain just an idol. A person who only sees the idol does not know what worship is or how to worship. We are using two words: one is idol, and the other is worship. These two concepts cannot be experienced by the same person simultaneously. The word ‘idol’ is for those who have never worshipped, and the word ‘worship’ belongs to those who have never seen an idol.
Put differently, we can say that worship is the art of making the idol disappear. It is the art of slowly dropping the manifest and entering into the unmanifest. The manifest form gradually dissolves into the unmanifest, and as the worship deepens only the unmanifest remains. So ‘idol worship’ is self-contradictory. Hence someone who is worshipping will be puzzled as to where the idol is; and someone who has never worshipped will wonder what a stone idol can do. These two types of people have two different types of experiences – and between them there is no common ground.
Meera can be found totally absorbed in her worship. For her there is no idol. As soon as real worship deepens, the idol dissolves...
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