If God has no form, Is it right to worship Idol?
Once, two Muslim visitors came to see Sri Ramana Maharshi at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai.
During their conversation, they asked him,
“Bhagavan… has God a form?”
Ramana replied with a gentle smile,
“Who says so?”
They continued,
“If God has no form… then is it right to worship idols?”
Ramana gave a soft chuckle — not mocking, but inviting reflection.
He said,
“Leave God aside for a moment… What about you? Do you have a form?”
The visitor answered confidently,
“Yes. I am this person, with a certain height, specific physical features, and so on.”
Ramana responded,
“So you are a man with limbs… about three and a half cubits tall, with a beard and all that — is that right?”
The visitor agreed.
Ramana then asked quietly,
“And in deep sleep… are you still that form?”
The man thought for a moment and reasoned,
“When the body was asleep, I wasn’t aware if I was awake or asleep.
Now that I’m awake, I can infer that I was asleep then.
So yes, I must be the same as this body — even in deep sleep.”
Ramana asked gently,
“Then if you are the body… why do they bury it after death?
Shouldn’t the body resist and say, ‘Don’t bury me’?”
The visitor paused. Something stirred in him.
He realized the flaw in his reasoning.
And after a moment of reflection, he said,
“I suppose… I am the subtle jiva within the body… not the body itself.”
Ramana nodded with compassion and concluded:
“So you see — you are really formless.
But right now, you are identifying with the body, with form.
So long as you live as if you are formful…
why should you object to worshipping the formless God in form?” [1]
In a conversation with Mr. Vankata Rao, speaking of God and form, Ramana had said, "Even if you consider God as formless Immanence,
Is not God even then endowed with attributes? Form is only one
kind of attribute. One cannot worship God without some notions.
Any bhavana premises a God with attributes (saguna). Moreover,
where is the use of discussing the form or formlessness of God?
Find out if you yourself actually have a form. You can then understand God." [2]
Sources
- Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 121
- Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 385