Idol worship – the path to never ending happiness

Every human being or for that matter every being is bound by effects of karma. This binding is called bhavabandha. Every karma, i.e. action, results in effects which in turn become cause for either binding or freedom depending on motive of karma.

There are three types of karmas

dushkarma – a bad karma, karma that is performed with an intention of hurting of other being and hence results in paapa (sin). paapa becomes cause for suffering.

sukarma – a good karma, karma performed with good intention in return expecting to earn punya (merit). punya becomes cause for material happiness.

akarma – a karma that is performed without any expectation. Because such karma is performed without any expectation this results neither in paapa nor in punya. Since the only intention of this karma is to please God, fruits of this karma are determined by God himself. People who perform such actions are indeed saints and they experience happiness that is not dependent on any matter.

One of the names of Lord Krishna is swabhakta-chittaranjana – i.e. one who takes responsibility of entertaining the mind of his devotees who perform all their actions only as a service to Lord Krishna without any expectation thereof.

To be able to reach a stage to perform akarma, i.e. karma without expectations, the mind should be filled with nothing but the form of God. When mind is filled with the thoughts of God, and God alone, then every karma performed becomes an offering to God and hence becomes a cause for freedom from all bad or good effects of karma and ultimately results in vishranti i.e. peaceful rest.

And this is where idol worship helps. It is a way to get into practice of performing dutiful actions with only intention of pleasing God which in turn results in mind occupying only thoughts of God.

Idol worship starts with inviting God and then performing sixteen or five rituals of hospitality as listed below.

aavahan (inviting God), aasan (offering seat to God), padyam (washing God’s feet), arghyam (offering water to God and washing hands of God) , achaman (offering God water for drinking), snaan (offering bath to God), vastra (offering clothes to God), upavita (offering sacred thread to God), gandha (applying sandalwood paste to God’s forehead), pushpa (offering flower to God), dhup (waving an incense stick in front of God), deep (waving light in front of God), anna or naivedya (offering food to God), pradakshina (circumventing God), namaskar (offering salute) and visarjan (offering bon voyage to God)