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I respect your point of view and your Bhakti. In fact I am from
Madurai, India and during my school days, I used to visit Meenakshi
Temple almost every day. I was fortunate to witness the divine
marriage ceremony of Goddess Meenakshi & Sundareswarar almost every year
during my school and college days.
I am fully aware that you are writing with full conviction to what you
believe in and I have no problem in accepting your view point without
reservation. What I or you believe comes mostly from our personal
experience. Sri Adi Sankara who propagated "Advaita" has also
written Bajagovindam and the most beautiful slokas in praise of Devi,
"Soundarya Lahiri." Bhakti and Jnanam and Karma yogas all merge at the
time of mukti and there is no disagreement. There is no dispute that
the "grace of god" is the most fundamental ingredient to attain
mukti. Total surrender to the almighty is essential for realization
of the divine nature.
Idol worship prepares the egoistic human mind for the total surrender.
No rational human being is going to worship a stone image unless he or
she sincerely believes that the image is the very manifestation of
Deity. Belief comes with total conviction for which personal
experiences and family background and traditions. But we all need to
understand that "belief is belief and is never a proof." For every
religion including Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, such beliefs start
with scriptures. We Hindus believe that Vedas are revelations from
God. This belief is fundamental and necessary to develop strong
conviction.
Each of us has our own conviction to what we believe in. When we try to
communicate to others about our beliefs and practices, it is important
that we have a common communication channel. There can be no effective
conversation if two people speak different languages. The teacher has
to go to the level of the children to educate new ideas. Each of us has
the right to our individual belief and has the right and privilege to
explain our position to others. It is likely that some may agree all
the time. It is possible that all of them may agree one or more times.
But it is impossible to persuade everyone to agree with our position
all the time!
Ram Chandran
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