Chapter 4 - Necessity of Symbols

The world needs today a universal religion, which will embrace within its unbounded arms all the established religions of the world, and which will give them their proper places which they deserve in this scale of religious revolution. The civilized world hears the cry of heresy and anathema, when a broadminded theologian stands in the pulpit and dares to point out the error in the current beliefs, dogmas, and creeds of a sectarian religion. However, the time has come, when we should show the courage of our convictions, stand up before the public and preach the gospel of truth, without fearing any of the criticisms that may be levelled against us. The time has come, when we should preach in a prompt and triumphant voice before the world that truth is eternal and that it cannot be monopolized by any sect or creed or religion.

Before we accept anything in the way of creeds, dogmas, and doctrines, we must exercise our own common sense, our own reason which God has given us to use; and to make a proper use of it we must go down to the bottom of all dogmas, religions, and creeds, and try to understand what the original meaning was, and we should also try to show clearly the significance that lies behind all the forms of worship and behind all methods which the human mind has adopted, in order to reach God-consciousness.

Now, we shall try to understand the meaning of symbolworship and whether there is any necessity of symbols or not. In discussing this matter, we find that all dualistic religions, which advocate the worship of a personal God, ask their followers to use some kind of symbol at the time of their devotional exercises. These symbols are either material objects of nature, figures, or pictures of some great personage, or concrete representations of some abstract ideas. The most prolific use of various kinds of symbols is to be found amongst the Hindus, the Buddhists, and the Roman Catholic Christians. Upon the altar is kept the image of Jesus the Christ on the Cross, or the statue of Madonna with the baby Jesus in her arms, with angels holding a crown over her head; the lighted candles, incense, flowers, prayers, incantations, different postures of the priests, their vestments, in short, everything that is used in cathedrals or churches, are symbols either of some being or of some thought, or of some abstract idea.

The Protestant Christians use largely the symbol of the Cross;^[1] some denominations have introduced the candles and incense, others have altars, some have pictures, either of Jesus the Christ or of his ascension, or of his resurrection, or of a crucifix on the wall. All Christians practise the sacrament and partake of the Holy Communion by eating the bread and drinking the wine, which are symbolic of the body and blood of their Lord. The ancient Greeks used to worship bread as Demeter (Ceres) and wine as Dionysus (Bacchus). This custom was prevalent amongst the ancient Egyptians, Persians, as well as amongst the Hindus of the Vedic period. It is still practised by the Buddhist Lamas in Tibet.

The Cross has been a religious symbol from prehistoric times among all nations. Whatever importance the followers of Christ may attach to the worship of the Cross, by connecting it with the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, it existed as a religious symbol for centuries before the birth of Christ,^[2] and was largely used as a sacred emblem by the Egyptians, the Buddhists, the Chinese, the Persians, the Hindus, and other ancient nations of the world. There have been various forms of this Cross. The ancient Egyptians used a Tau Cross, the shape being like the English letter ‘T’. The commonest of all the Egyptian Crosses, the Crux Ansata, was afterwards adopted by the Christians. [see notes on the cross] A Cross with four equal arms was symbolized to represent the four elements of nature; when the form of the Cross consisted of two or four sceptres with a circle at the point of interception, it was said to indicate ‘divine potentiality’; it stood sometimes for ‘protective power’, sometimes for ‘life to come’. A long Cross surmounting a heart which we so often see in pictures in Christendom, meaning originally good or goodness, was used to be fixed upon the fronts of houses in Thebes and Memphis, intimating: ‘This is the abode of the good.’

The Egyptian symbols of five planets had a Cross connected with each. Among the Hindus of ancient India the Cross was used very largely as a religious symbol long before the time of Christ, or of Buddha who lived about 600 b.c. It was supposed to be the sign of good luck, longevity, prosperity, and happiness, a protector from evil, and its use was connected with various religious rites and ceremonies. It was called in Sanskrit svastika, which had the same meaning. This svastika Cross has been found among the Buddhists of the pre-Christian era in their tombs, temples, inscriptions, and coins.^[3]

In the New Testament, there is no positive evidence as to the shape of Christ’s Cross; no one knows exactly what its real shape was. Scholars and Christian authors from the second century a.d. down to the present day, have formed their opinions according to their guesses and imaginations. Neither do we know the exact fact of Christ, nor most of the pictures that we see of him and of the Madonna are idealized by the artists.

Like the Cross, the Triangle has been a symbol from very ancient times. The Triangle has been accepted by the Christians as the emblem of the ‘Ever-blessed Trinity’. In India, it has been the symbol of the Hindu Trinity, Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva. It was also a religious symbol in Egypt and Greece.

Again, the Fish has been a religious symbol among the Christians as well as among the followers of other religions. The productive power of the universe was represented by it. Sometimes Christ was emblemed in the form of a fish. There are many old pictures and statues with a Cross in the middle and a fish on each side. Rev. J. P. Lundy says in his Monumental Christianity: ‘In the Talmud the Messiah is called Dag or Fish. Where did the Jews learn to apply Dag to their Messiah and why did the primitive Christians adopt it as a sign of Christ? I cannot disguise facts.’ Even today a fish is considered as a sign of good luck in India. Buddha was called Dag-Po or Fish Buddha.

The Serpent was also a religious symbol. It represented Christ among the early Christians. From prehistoric times, it has been the symbol of wisdom and eternity. Commonly, it is believed that the serpent is an emblem of evil; but, at the same time, in studying the religious history of the world, we find that the serpent was also used in representing the great saviours of the world. There was a time, when a serpent on the Cross was to be worshipped as an emblem of Jesus the Christ.^[4]

In Greek mythology Apollo was worshipped in the form of a serpent, and was invoked as the solar serpent-god. Aesculapius, the healing god, was also represented with a serpent. The serpent is an emblem of evil, when it is represented with its deadly fangs; and ‘an emblem of eternity,’ or ‘the wisdom of the sun’, when it is with its tail in its mouth, thus forming a circle. In ancient times the serpent was considered to be the most spirit-like and fire-like of all reptiles, moving as it were, propelled by breath and taking a spiral direction as rapidly as it chose. For this reason, the ancient inhabitants of this earth meant by this symbol nothing but the spirit or soul, the life or intelligence of the universe, and it was accepted largely amongst the different nations, such as the Egyptians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Tibetans, and the Jews; in fact, it was the serpent which brought wisdom to the Garden of Eden, according to the story of the Genesis. It may be represented as an emblem of evil, but it did a great deal to humanity by opening the eyes of the people. In Hindu mythology, Shiva, the third figure of the Hindu Trinity, is adorned with serpents as ornaments on his body. Again, Vishnu is represented as lying on the bed of a thousand-headed serpent, and Krishna, the Hindu Christ, as standing on the hood of a huge serpent.

The Rose was used as a symbol of the sun; it was placed on the Cross in the jewel of the Rosicrucians. Probably, it came from the fable of Adonis, the sun-god, who was changed into a red rose by Venus. Jesus the Christ was called the Rose—the Rose of Sharon—of Isuren.

Again the Dove, representing innocence or gentleness, stands as the symbol of the Holy Spirit among the Christians. Rev. J. P. Lundy says: ‘It is a remarkable fact that this Spirit (i.e. the Holy Spirit) has been symbolized among all religions and civilized nations by the Dove’.^[5] Ernest De Bunsen says: ‘The Symbol of the Spirit of God was the Dove in Greek Peristera, and the Samaritans had a brazen fiery dove, instead of the brazen fiery serpent. Both referred to fire, the Symbol of the Holy Ghost.’^[6] Buddha, who lived about 600 b.c., was represented with a dove hovering over his head. Juno had a dove on her head. It was also sacred to Venus. The crucified Dove which was worshipped by the ancient Greeks, was none other than the crucified Sun. At the time of the ceremonies in honour of his resurrection, the worshippers used to exclaim: 'Hail to the Dove, the Restorer of Light.’ The crucified Dove was beautifully described by Pindar, the great lyric poet of Greece, who lived about 522 b.c. The dove in India has been the symbol of gentleness and a friend in desolation and emblematic of conjugal attachment and fidelity to each other. A white dove is also a symbol of purity.

Like the Dove, the Lamb has been a religious symbol. The oldest representation of Jesus the Christ was the figure of a lamb, couched at the foot of a Cross. This custom was held up till A.D. 680, that is, until the time of the pontificate of Agathon, during the reign of Constantine Pogonat, when by the Sixth Synod of Constantinople, this ancient symbol of the Lamb was substituted by the figure of a man fastened to a Cross.^[7] This was confirmed by Pope Adrian I. This is further supported by the fact that, ‘in the Christian iconography of the catacombs no figure of a man appears upon the Cross during the first six or seven centuries. There are all forms of the Cross except that * *. That was not the initial but the final form of the Crucifix.’^[8] The Paschal Lamb was for centuries before Christ roasted on a Cross by the Israelites. The lamb in India was the symbol of innocence. Like Jesus, Krishna is called ‘the good Shepherd.’

The Eagle also has been used as a religious symbol in Hindu and Greek mythology. It stood on the national flag of the Romans as well. In Hindu mythology, Garuda or Eagle has always been the favourite bird of Vishnu, the second figure of the Hindu Trinity.

The Egg as a symbol of Easter is also a very wonderful symbol. On Easter Sunday, the whole of Christendom rejoices at the thought of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; in fact, it is the date of universal rejoicing among all the heathen, Christian, and pagan nations all over the world. It is one of the universal festivals that has been handed down to us from prehistoric times. This is a spring festival which was to be celebrated in ancient times, long before the birth of Christ, by those people who understood the resurrection of nature after its death in the winter time, and they celebrated this festival on the 25th of March, or about that time. During the winter time, one-half of the world goes to sleep, or into apparent death; so, when the sun comes up to the equator and moves towards the Tropic of Cancer, that is supposed to be the resurrection of the sun. You will find that, among the Greeks and Romans, they have a celebration; among the Persians the same festivities are practised, and among the Jews, there is the celebration of the Passover. So, it will be noticed that it is a universal festival. [see notes on symbology of easter] The Easter festival refers to the universal resurrection of nature, and it is also symbolized as the resurrection of spirit from matter; in other words, it refers to the resurrection of the whole world, and the resurrection of the world was symbolized in the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is the crucifixion of the animal self and the resurrection of the spiritual Self. When the resurrection comes, the animal self which has been crucified no longer exists, but the spiritual Self reigns in its own glory; in other words, the human being then attains to perfection. So Christ’s resurrection signifies the resurrection of spirit from matter and not the resurrection of matter, though uneducated masses believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus. Thus, it is not confined to one or a few, but is universal for all human beings. The origin of this conception is to be found in the Zend Avesta among the Zoroastrians. The Jews received it during the Babylonian Captivity (586-536 b.c.). Spiritual resurrection means regeneration. Every sincere seeker of God will has to regenerate from matter or material life, his ego must be crucified and his spirit will resurrect and ascend to Heaven. Death of the flesh, that is, death of one’s attachment to flesh and to matter is the beginning of spiritual birth or regeneration. The way that leads to this is not the way of the world. This is to live in the world, but not be of it. Regeneration begins with self-mastery over one’s animal nature.

The Easter Egg has an old history. In the Vedas we find that the whole world (brahmanda) was conceived at first as an egg, and in this universal egg, there was a self-effulgent Being, the first-born Lord of the universe, radiant with spiritual light and of a golden colour.^[9] The mundane egg of the world, brahmanda in Sanskrit, is described in the Manusamhita as containing the Creator or the first-born Lord Brahma, and at the time of creation, this egg was broken open and the Lord of the universe came out; out of those two parts He created the heaven and the earth.^[10]

It is a scientific fact, however, that human beings are born of human ovums, which, although invisible to our naked eyes, are in the form of an egg. There was a belief amongst the Chinese that their first man was born from an egg, which was dropped down from heaven to earth by their God Tien. The Egyptian priests never ate eggs, because the egg was sacred to Isis. It is said that Osiris was born of an egg. The Hindus and Buddhists in India do not eat eggs for similar reason.

The Madonna is another symbol, the Virgin Queen of Heaven, the Mother of the God with a baby in her arms. Although the Council of Ephesus in 431 a.d. declared Mary to be the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven, but she was recognised as such in 813 a.d. and her immaculate conception was accepted by the Pope and council in 1851 a.d. still this emblem was universally accepted as a religious symbol amongst many nations like the Egyptians and the Hindus for ages before the birth of Christ. In India, Maya, the virgin mother of Buddha, and Devaki, the mother of Krishna, with infant saviours in their arms, were worshipped for centuries before the Christian era. Even today the Hindu Madonna is worshipped in many parts of India.

In Egypt, Isis, the mother of the saviour Horus, was worshipped as a virgin; she was styled ‘Our Lady’, ‘The Queen of Heaven’, ‘The Star of the Sea’, ‘The Mother of God’, ‘Immaculate Virgin’. Isis was also represented as standing on the crescent moon with her head surrounded by twelve stars; so we have found in Roman Catholic cathedrals in Europe the statues and pictures of Mary, the Queen of Heaven, standing on the crescent moon, and her head surrounded by twelve stars. The crescent moon was the symbol of Isis and emblematic of the Hindu Yoni, the productive power of the mother nature.

This Crescent has now become the symbol of the Mohammedans; it is placed on the top of mosques and tombs as well as on the banner of the Mohammedans. The five-pointed stars which they place on the top of the Crescent is the Pentacle. This is symbolical of Purusha, the male principle.

In ancient times in Egypt, the priests of Isis yearly dedicated to her a new ship laden with the first fruits of the spring. The Hindu priests even now gather the first crops of the harvest for the Queen of Heaven, Lakshmi (Ceres), and the ceremony of floating on the bosom of the river small boats made up of the bark of the banana tree with lights in them is still observed in some parts of India.

The ancient Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians worshipped a virgin goddess with her son. She was called Mylitta and the name of her son was Tammuz, the saviour, who rose from the dead. Indeed, the worship of the Madonna played a most important part in the religious history of the world, before the Christian era. Some scholars explain that the Madonna represents the Dawn-goddess (Usha in the Vedas), the Queen of Heaven, who held her child, the new-born Sungod, the saviour of the world. The 25th of March was celebrated throughout the ancient Grecian and Roman world in honour of the Mother of God, and even now it is called the Lady Day in Catholic countries. The 25th of December is held to be the birthday of Jesus the Christ, but this day was originally the Sun’s birthday. At the commencement of the sun’s apparent revolution round the earth, he was said to be born on the first moment after midnight on the 24th of December and it was celebrated among all pagan nations. It was afterwards accepted by the Christian Churches to decide the disputed date of the birth of Jesus the Christ, just as Sunday, the Sun’s day, was introduced in place of the Jewish Sabbath, by Constantine the Great in 821 a.d.

There is a theory that the origin of the idea and worship of the saviour of the world, with all the mythological descriptions of the miraculous birth, deeds, death, and resurrection can be traced back to the worship of the Sun. We know that the worship of the Sun has played a very important part amongst the ancient nations in their religious worship. Among the ancient people the glory of the rising sun was considered to be the glory of the saviour of the world. Indeed, the glorious rising of the sun early in the morning inspires the soul and makes the soul think of it as the saviour of mankind, the giver of life. Nothing could have struck the minds of the primitive dwellers of this earth more strongly, nothing could have made deeper impressions on their hearts, than the rising sun at the dawn of time. Think of the wonderful powers of this self-luminous, celestial body that dispels the darkness of night, that awakens the eyes of man from sleep and his mind from slumber, that brings activity in life and cheerfulness in the hearts of mankind. Is not the sunrise, to a child, the first wonder, the first beginning of all reflection? Does it not inspire us with the feelings of reverence and devotion? Does it not make our knees bend before the power, majesty, and glory of the self-effulgent illuminator of the world?

In fact, the morning prayers and sacrifices of the ancient people were nothing but spontaneous expressions of the admiration, devotion, and gratitude of the primitive minds at the sight of the rising sun above the horizon. Can any of us wonder, why a simple unsophisticated man, standing alone on the sea-shore at the break of day, welcomes the rising sun, calls him the friend of humanity, the giver of light and warmth, the restorer of life, and the bestower of wealth and prosperity; or, when he salutes him and offers him everything that he possess, with the same spirit which we have when we offer anything to our best friend and benefactor? No, we do not; because it is perfectly natural; human nature must express itself in some form or other, when no other object of worship was discovered; when there was no higher conception of the absolute Ruler of the universe, the sun stood before mankind like the image, face or eye of the unknown or unknowable Creator.

In the Zend Avesta, the scriptures of the Parsees, the sun is described as the mediator between God and man, and the saviour of the world from darkness and death. So, in Persia, the Sun was worshipped under the name of Mithra, and that worship played a great part amongst the early Christians. We find the remnants of Mithra worship in ancient Rome and many of the ceremonies amongst the Christians of today are but the modifications of those of Mithra worship. So, Osiris and Horus in Egypt, and Apollo and Hercules in Greece, were none other than the personifications of the glorious sun of the heavens. In the Vedas the sun is addresesd [addressed?] as the eye of the almighty Being; through that eye the infinite Being sees everything. It is the symbol of the eternal Being. It is for this reason that the emblem of the sun is to be found as a religious symbol among almost all nations.

Like the Sun, Fire has been a religious symbol from ancient times. In the Old Testament we read that Jehovah descended in fire. It is said: ‘In the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.’^[11]

This Fire-worship next to the Sun-worship was most widely diffused among different nations. In Persia and India, Egypt and Greece, it was the most common object of worship. The ancient form of worship consisted in pouring oblations on the sacrificial fire. Fire was considered to be the messenger of God, the carrier of oblations, the meditator between man and the supreme Being dwelling in heaven. It was believed that the bond of friendship between the worshipper and the invisible God could only be established by the smoke ascending from the fire-sacrifice. As the smoke ascended and gradually disappeared in the infinite space, the worshipper imagined that his offerings reached the invisible Being.

In fact, all the various forms of worship either in the form of lighted candles or of burning incense, or in any other form which we find today in Christian churches, and in the Buddhist or Hindu temples, are nothing but the remnants or modifications of the earlier form of the sacrificial worship in the Vedic period.

There were two kinds of sacrifice; the first was the sacrifice by shedding the blood and the second, the sacrifice performed by offering oblation to the fire. Before man learnt how to make and keep fire, he used to worship his deity by means of bloody sacrifices in which the blood of the victim, smeared to an image, a symbol or an altar, or exposed to the sun, represented the bond of kinship between the worshipper and his God; this was the origin of symbol or image-worship, or idolatry among the ancient Semitic tribes. We read in the Old Testament that the

Jewish tribes after sacrificing an animal used to sprinkle that blood on the altar, and thus purified every object of offering and established the friendship of Yaveh.

In India, however, the other form of fire-sacrifice by the offering of oblations has been in existence from ancient times. During the Vedic period the Hindus invoked their devas or bright ones in the fire, and considered it to be the mouth of all devas as well as of supreme Being; so, whenever they poured oblations of clarified butter or of anything else, they believed that it was eaten by the divine Being.

The people of India are condemned as idolaters and their religion is called idolatry, because they use symbols and images at the time of devotional exercises. Are not the worshippers in other religions idolaters in the same sense? Here we must remember what Carlyle said regarding idol-worship in his Heroes and Hero-worship. The word ‘idol’ comes from the Greek word ‘eidolon’, which means ‘a thing seen’, a symbol. Thus Carlyle says: ‘Idol is eidolon, a thing seen, a symbol. It is not God, but a symbol of God; and perhaps one may question, whether any the most benighted mortal ever took it for more than a Symbol. I fancy, he did not think that the poor image his own hands had made was God; but that God was emblemed by it, that God was in it some way or other. And now in this sense, one may ask, is not all worship, whatsoever a worship by symbols, or eidola or things seen? Whether seen, or rendered visible as an image or picture to the bodily eye, or visible only to the inward eye, to the imagination, or to the intellect; this makes a superficial, but no substantial difference. It is still a Thing Seen, significant of Godhead, an Idol.’ The object of worship must be a thing, seen either by the physical, or by the mental eye. In this sense the picture or statue of Jesus the Christ or of the Cross is just as much an idol as the image of a Chinese god with twenty-four hands or ten heads, because it is a thing seen; it is an image; and it is not by itself a god, but God as symbolized by it.

Then, again, when a great prophet has seen God in a vision, he tries to make it known to others in what form he saw Him; then he makes a picture or statue, or tries to trace some likeness, and that statue or picture is afterwards taken as a symbol of the supreme human Being as He appeared to the prophet. The picture or statue is not worshipped, but the people worship that form, in which the prophet saw the divine human Being. Now the question arises: Is there any necessity of any of these symbols at the time of worship? Can we not worship, the divine Being without using any kind of symbol or image, whether abstract or concrete? Before we answer this, allow me to ask a few questions: Do we not use symbols at the time, when we read or write or think? Can we write without symbols? Can we speak without symbols? Can we think without symbols?

All we know is that the art of writing began with pictorial representations of abstract ideas that exist in our minds; that every letter of the alphabet, every character is nothing but every word that we utter is the symbol of an idea or thought.. Language itself is a framework of symbols and metaphors. Poetry, art, music, painting, sculpture are nothing but the concrete images or symbols of the abstract ideas and thoughts of our minds. If this be,the fact, and if it be true that we can neither read, nor write, nor speak, nor think without symbols, then we ask, would it be possible for us to worship or pray to the unknown Being except through symbols? No, it would be impossible. All religions and all philosophies are but the symbols of the divine principle, or the embodiment of abstract thoughts clothed with the garment of poetic language. After feeling the majesty, grandeur, and beauty of nature can a man suppress the welling forth of poetry from the profoundest depths of his soul? Is not the essence of prayer and worship the spontaneous outburst of the feelings of our hearts, and also the imaging forth of the felt beauty and sublimity of the unknown supreme Being as manifested in nature?

Such poetic expressions of the human soul, animated by the perception of the power and glory of the infinite and almighty Being, are to be discovered at the bottom of all religious symbols and mythology. Can the limited human mind approach the infinite Being or think of His infinite powers, inexhaustible goodness, without forming a mental picture, which must be limited by its capacity, and by its power of comprehension? The supreme Being who is the object of worship and devotion in all religions is infinitely greater than our highest conception of Him. From the lowest conception of God which we find in a primitive man, who thinks of Him as dwelling in the fire or in the water or in the sun, to the highest conception which the most cultured and advanced mind of a philosopher can make of the omnipotent and omniscient Divinity, at every step, we find nothing but imperfect images of the perfect qualities and attributes of that eternal source of all perfection. And if anyone of us, however enlightened or advanced he may be, wishes to concentrate or meditate upon any of these divine attributes, he will have to start from one of these imperfect pictures, images, or symbols, either mental or concrete.

The more childish the mind of a man is, the greater is the necessity of concrete symbols for concentration and meditation at the time of devotional exercises. From concrete the mind rises to the abstract, and from abstract to the Absolute. It is for this reason that Vedanta does not condemn image-worship, or symbol-worship, or the worship of abstract pictures; on the contrary, it encourages the devotee to take any such symbol or image as inspires his mind with the divine ideal and uplifts him from this world of selfishness and corruption.

In Sanskrit these symbols and images are called pratikas and pratimas, which lead toward divinity, and which show the limitation of the human mind in trying to conceive of the divine attributes. In the Upanishads we read that the infinite Brahman, the eternal Being of the universe, should be worshipped, but the beginner may take fire, sun, spirit, mind, or word or logos as substitutes of the eternal and all-pervading Brahman, for concentration and meditation. The principal object for all such injunctions in the Vedanta is to direct the struggling man slowly towards the realization of the infinite Being, the Brahman or the eternal Reality of the universe, who alone should be worshipped by all nations. For the same reason, Vedanta encourages the image-worship of the Christians, the Buddhists, and all other dualistic believers of different religions, provided that such an image or symbol stands for the supreme Being or refers to any of His divine attributes.

According to Vedanta, there are five different ways by which the divine Being can be approached: the first is through the help of intellectual discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the eternal and the non-eternal, and through this discrimination, one may go beyond all phenomenal appearances and reach Brahman, the absolute, eternal Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss, from where all animate and inanimate objects have come into existence, in which they live, and into which they return in the end. In this path there is no need of worship nor is there the necessity of a symbol, or an image whether concrete or mental.

Secondly, the divine Being may be apprehended as the one stupendous whole of which we are but parts. In this sense the gross physical universe is the body of the all-pervading Being.

His mind is the cosmic mind; the cosmic intellect is His intellect; He sees through all eyes; He hears through all ears and thinks through all brains that exist in the universe; whether it is the brain of an insect or the brain of a god, both should be included in the cosmic mind.

Thirdly, the divine Being may be brought home to our hearts by the greatness, excellence, wisdom, and power of a particular incarnation like Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Rama, Ramakrishna, and others. Very few can really see God except through these divine manifestations in human forms. Because we are all human beingsit is exceedingly difficult for us to think of God without giving Him a human form and human attributes. If we try to think of God, we make Him human; we cannot go beyond the human from, for our conception of God is human and our explanation of the universe is human; and, therefore, a personal God of all dualistic religions is considered as with the attributes of a human being magnified to an infinite degree; but God understand the human failings and incarnates in a human form to manifest His divinity, greatness, power, and wisdom, and to do good to humanity.

In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord said: ‘Whenever and wherever religion declines and irreligion prevails, I manifest Myself in a human form to establish righteousness, to destroy evil, and to protect mankind.’^[12]

Fourthly, God can be worshipped as the Soul of our souls, as the Life of our lives; we can reach Him through our life, through our souls. He is the eternal Ruler of the universe, and from Him proceed life, intelligence, and all the best qualities that are to be found in the greatest of human beings.

Lastly, He may be apprehended and worshipped through symbols and images. Thus, God has many aspects and various are the paths by which the individual souls can reach Him. It is said in Vedanta:’The lowest form of worship is the worship of concrete symbols and external images, but, at the same time, it has its value to a childlike mind which cannot grasp abstract ideas and attributes of the divine Being; it is the lowest form of worship. Better than this is the worship of mental images accompanied by the repetition of the name of the Lord; in order to think of the divine attributes of the divine Being, we should repeat His holy name. Concentration and meditation upon the attributes of the Supreme is higher still; but the highest form of worship is that in which the individual is united with the Absolute, rising above thoughts, above all mental powers and mental functions.

When the individual communes with the infinite Being and feels that spiritual oneness, it is the highest form of worship; it is the state of superconsciousness, after attaining which the soul declares: ‘I and my Father are one’.^[13]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

‘Except the Latin crux there was no word definitively and invariably applied to this instrument of punishment. The Greeks used the word to translate both palus and crux; * * In Livy even crux means a mere stake. * * Other words occasionally applied to the cross are patibulum and furca, pieces of wood in the shape of II (or Y) and A respectively. More generally the cross is called arbor infelix, or lignum infelix. * * The Hebrews had no word for a cross more definite than “wood”, and so they called the transverse beams “warp and woof”. Crux is connected with crucio, and is often used proverbially for what is most painful * *.’—Vide Smith & Fuller: The Bible Dictionary, Vol. I, p. 670.

[2]:

Dr. Farrar well surmises: ‘It was not till the sixth century that the emblem of the Cross became the image of the Crucifix. As a symbol the use of the Cross was frequent in early Church. It was not till the second century that any particular efficacy was attached to it.’

[3]:

Arthur Lillie says: ‘The only Christian Cross in the catacombs is this Buddhist Swastika [Svastika].’

[4]:

Moses set up a brazen serpent in the wilderness. Tertullian says that from this serpent arose the early sect of Christians called the Ophites.

[5]:

Vide J. P. Lundy: Monumental Christianity, p. 298.

[6]:

Cf. E. D. Bunsen: Angel Messiah, p. 44.

[7]:

‘In the course of time the Lamb was represented on the cross, but it was not until the sixth synod of Constantinople, held about the year 680, that it was ordained that instead of the ancient symbol, the figure of a man fastened to a cross should be represented. This canon was confirmed by Pope Adrian I.’—Williamson: The Great Law, p. 116.

[8]:

General Massey: The Natural Genesis, Vol. I, p. 433.

[9]:

hiraṇyagarbhaḥ samavartatāgne
bhūtasya jātaḥ patireka āsīt | 
    —Rigveda, X. 121.

[10]:

tadaṇḍamabhavaddhaimaṃ sahasrāṃśusamaprabham |
tasmin jajñe svayaṃ brahmā sarvalokapitāmahaḥ ||
     —Manu, I. 9.

tasminnaṇḍe sa bhagavānuṣitvā parivatsaram |
svayamevātmano dhyānāttadaṇḍamakarodvidhā ||
tābhyāṃ sa śakalābhyāñca divaṃ bhūmiñca nirmame |
madhye vyoma diśaścāṣṭāvapāṃ sthānañca śāśvatam ||
     —Manu, I. 12-13.

[11]:

Exodus, XIX, 16-18.

[12]:

Bhagavad Gita, IV, 7.

[13]:

uttamo brahmasadbhāvo dhyanabhāvastu madhyamaḥ |
stutirjapo'dhamobhāvo bahyapūjā'dhamādhamāḥ ||
     —Atmajnana-nirnaya, 14.