Idol Worship and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Idol Worship and Mahatma Gandhi 

One of their elders once told me that the Sikhs do not believe in varnashrama; there is no high or low among them; there is no untouchability; they look upon idol worship as a sin. Though they show reverence for Rama, Krishna and others, these do not have among them the same place as in Hinduism. They do not believe in cow protection, though they do not eat beef. They believe in rebirth and mukti. They do not hold the Vedas or other Hindu scriptures in special regard. Their sacred book is the word of their gurus and, apart from that book; they accept no other scriptures as holy books. Tobacco and liquor are forbidden among them. 1 I have said I do not disbelieve in idol-worship. An idol does not excite any feeling of veneration in me. But I think that idol-worship is part of human nature. We hanker after symbolism. Why should one be more composed in a church than elsewhere? Images are an aid to worship. No Hindu considers an image to the God. I do not consider idol-worship a sin. 2

I value the spirit behind idol worship. It plays a most important part in the uplift of the human race. And I would like to possess the ability to defend with my life the thousands of holy temples which sanctify this land of ours. My alliance with the Mussalmans presupposes their perfect tolerance for my idols and my temples. I am an iconoclast in the sense that I break down the subtle form of idolatry in the shape of fanaticism that refuses to see any virtue in any other form of worshipping the Deity save one’s own. This form of idolatry is more deadly for being more fine and evasive than the tangible and gross form of worship that identifies the Deity with a little bit of a stone or a golden image. 3 A mosque or a church also involved a form of image-worship. Imagining that one can become more holy only by going to these places is a form of idol worship, and there is no harm in such belief. Even the faith that God is revealed only in the Koran or the Bible is idol-worship and an innocent one. The Hindu goes further and says that everyone should worship God in the form he likes. Even a person, who makes an idol of stone or gold or silver and after attributing divinity to it, purifies himself by meditating on it, will be fully qualified to attain moksha. While circumambulating the temple, all this became clearer to me. 4 

Tulsidas who worshipped an idol in the presence of which he felt a thrill running through his limbs and became absorbed in the vision of God, of Rama, was pure in his idol-worship and, therefore, deserves to be revered and his example is worthy of being followed. Superstition in every form is idolatry, that is, idol-worship which deserves to be condemned. Those who believe in any tradition as sacred are idol-worshippers of this kind, and in respect of them I am an idol-breaker. No one can convince me, with the help of quotations from Shastras, that untruth is truth, cruelty is kindness and hatred is love. In that sense I am an idol-breaker. I am an idol-breaker because no one can, by quoting ambiguous or interpolated stanzas or by holding out threats, persuade me to shun or slight the Antyajas or to regard them as untouchables. I can see the wrong even of my parents as wrong and, therefore, despite my great love for my country, I can see and publicly expose its evils, and hence, I am an idol-breaker. But generally I feel a very high and quite spontaneous veneration for the Vedas and other holy books; I can see God even in a piece of stone and, therefore, I instinctively bow my head before statues of saints; for this reason I regard myself as an idol-worshipper. 5

It is true I do not believe in idol-worship in the sense generally understood. But I do not disbelieve in others worshipping God through idols. In one sense we are all idol-worshippers. We worship God of our image. That image need not have a physical form. Each one has his own imagination of and attributes for God. And yet God in reality is without attributes and beyond our imagination. Hence when we form our own picture of God, we are idol-worshippers. Therefore my mind does not condemn those who conceive God as residing in a stone or metal image. They are not wrong for God is everywhere and in everything. Now whenever we want to worship God in everything we consecrate it. But if a man excludes his fellows from participation in common worship we are entitled to say that God flees from such worship. And He is installed when there is repentance and the bar against one’s fellows is removed. I hope this explanation is capable of being understood even though it may not be appreciated. In my opinion it covers a profound truth. If the truth is not seen, the fault lies in my inability to express clearly what I want to say. You must tax me again if I have not stated my position clearly. 6 

I know that that particular form of idolatry is helpful for millions, not because they are less developed than I am, but because they are differently constituted. What must not be forgotten about me is that not only do I not consider idol-worship to be a sin, but I know that in some form or other it is a condition of our being. The difference between one form of worship and another is a difference in degree and not in kind. Mosque-going or churchgoing is a form of idol-worship. Veneration of the Bible, the Koran, the Gita and the like is idol-worship and even if you don’t use a book or a building but draw a picture of divinity in your imagination and attribute certain qualities, it is again idol-worship and I refuse to call the worship of the one who has a stone image a grosser form of worship. Learned judges have been known to have such images in their own homes. A philosopher like Pandit Malaviya will not eat his meal without offering worship to the household deity. It would be both arrogant and ignorant to look down upon such worship as superstition. Again in the imagination of the worshipper, God is in a consecrated stone and not in the other stones lying about him. Even so, the sanctuary in a Church is more sacred than any other place in it. You can multiply for you instances of this character. All this is a plea not for laxity in thought or worship, but it is a plea for a definite recognition of the fact that all forms of honest worship are equally good and equally efficient for the respective worshippers. Time is gone for the exclusive possession of right by an individual or a group. God is no respecter of forms or words, for He is able to penetrate our actions and our speech and read and understand our thoughts, even when we do not understand them ourselves and it is first our thoughts that matter to him. 7 

My conception of idol-worship is wholly different from that of the learned men. I know from the experience of many people that idol-worship has given them spiritualism of the highest type and that a philosophic conception of God has made such philosophers grossly material. As I have told you, whilst the form may be different, mankind are idol-worshippers by their very nature. It is true that not all are uplifted by such worship, but that can be said of every form of worship. Those who look down upon idol-worship with philosophic contempt are not idol-worshippers but probably the worst form of idolaters, for they are worshippers of self. 8 About idol-worship I would like you not to worry. Let it unconsciously simmer in the brain, and when you have leisure and I have leisure and we can meet, you will discuss it to your heart’s content. But if there is a difficulty that gnaws you, you must have it out and I shall try patiently to solve it if I can. 9

As for idol-worship, you cannot do without it in some form or other. Why does a Mussalman give his life for defending a mosque which he calls a house of God? And why does a Christian go to a church and when he is required to take an oath swear by the Bible? Not that I see any objection to it. And what is it if not idolatry to give untold riches for building mosques and tombs? And what do the Roman Catholics do when they kneel before Virgin Mary and before saints quite imaginary figures in stone or painted on canvas or glass? 10

My sympathies are both with you and your Muslim friend. I suggest you’re reading my writings on the question in Young India and, if you feel at all satisfied, let your Muslim friend read them, too. If your friend has real love for you, he will conquer his prejudice against idol worship. A friendship which exacts oneness of opinion and conduct is not worth much. Friends have to tolerate one another’s ways of life and thought even though they may be different, except where the difference is fundamental. Maybe your friend has come to think that it is sinful to associate with you as you are an idolater. Idolatry is bad, not so idol worship. An idolater makes a fetish of his idol. An idol worshipper sees God even in a stone and therefore takes the help of an idol to establish his union with God. Every Hindu child knows that the stone in the famous temple in Benares is not Kashi Vishwanath. But he believes that the Lord of the Universe does reside specially in that stone. This play of the imagination is permissible and healthy. Every edition of the Gita on a book-stall has not that sanctity which I ascribe to my own copy. Logic tells me there is no more sanctity in my copy than in any other. The sanctity is in my imagination. But that imagination brings about marvellous concrete results. It changes men’s lives. I am of opinion that, whether we admit it or not, we are all idol worshippers or idolaters, if the distinction I have drawn is not allowed. A book, a building, a picture, a carving are surely all images in which God does reside, but they are not God. He who says they are errs. 11

How shall we remember the dear departed? It is my firm belief that they do not die; it is only their bodies that perish. Their memory has to be kept alive by imbibing their virtues as far as we can, by taking up their good work and promoting it to the best of our ability. Flowers are placed on their samadhi to strengthen such remembrance. But to remain content with mere flower-offering would be idol-worship. 12 Idol worship is only one form of worshipping. But if God resides in one’s heart, it hardly matters where one’s feet may be. Man can worship with his feet, and he can also kick with them. If there is a fire raging like a volcano it cannot be extinguished with water. If I control it with stones and standing on it save the lives of millions of people I will certainly have worshipped God with the stones and my feet. One can worship with one’s feet and hands and also with one’s tongue. Worship should be sincere, no matter what method one adopts. 13

He who worships stone sees in it not stone but God. If you do not see God in stone, how can you say that the Koran is a divine scripture? Is this not idol worship? If you learn this we will also learn that there is no difference between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. All are brothers and must live together. Then the barbarities that are perpetrated today, like men and women being thrown out of trains, will cease. All will be able to live safely anywhere without fear. I shall never have peace so long as the refugees who have come here from Pakistan do not return to their homes and so long as the Muslims whom we have driven out and who want to return cannot come back and live here in peace. 14

 

References:

1. Navajivan, 13-3-1921
2. Young India, 6-10-1921
3. Young India, 28-8-1924
4. Navajivan, 29-3-1925
5. Navajivan, 3-5-1925
6. Letter to F. Mary Barr, October 21, 1932
7. Letter to F. Mary Barr, November 30, 1932
8. Letter to F. Mary Barr, January 17, 1933
9. Letter to F. Mary Barr, January 26, 1933
10. Harijan, 13-3-1937
11. Harijan, 9-3-1940
12. February 11, 1945
13. Prarthana-Pravachan—Part I, pp. 19
14. Harijan, 25-1-1948