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Date Posted: 13:16:43 02/10/06 Fri
Author: kmd - 22 Dec 2005
Subject: Re: worship the guru at your peril
In reply to: Anon - 21 Dec 2005 's message, "worship the guru at your peril" on 13:08:42 02/10/06 Fri


Worshipping gurus is a dead end practice,futile idolatry.

If idols are worshiped as God, that would amount to idolatry. If God within the idol is worshipped, that is the correct practice of external worship in the Hindu religion. There is a process to do this too. Firstly, the divine spark or divinity or God within the heart is remembered. Next, that divinity is transferred into the image of one's liking ( Ishta Devata). This is a mental process, that is, a process done through the use of imagination, supported by chanting the corrosponding prayer. Then, that deity ( God) imagined to be present in the image is worshipped. At the end of the worship, the divine spark is transferred back into within. This is what the priest in the temple does of behalf of the devotee. This is external worship. This entire process, in traditional ritualist Hindu terms is also called "Kriya".

Meditation is internal worship. You worship the divinity imagining it to be seated in your heart center or at the ajna or at different chakras and the worship is supported by the right mantra. This is internal Kriya. What is popularly known as "Kriya Yoga" in the lineage of Babaji, Lahiri Mahashaya is a very specific and secret process of such an internal worship.

It is a very big step in itself for a person to move from external worship to internal worship. The reason for this is that the human mind is turned "outwards" or in other words, seeks God in the objective world and does not know how to seek God within.

By worshipping Guru, one is actually worshipping the divinity present within the Guru and it is the Guru who helps one to seek, find and realize the divinity within oneself or in other words, it is the Guru who shows the way and leads one to self realization.

By the repeated practice of external kriya, be it through worship of God in an image or worship of God in the Guru, on is reminding onself again and again that God is present within oneself. Repeated imagination is the only way to reaffirm this because, objectively it is impossible to find God within by some surgical procedure or such. Other aid to imagination is the study of the right type of stories or scriptures - a very popular story being that of Hanuman who tore open his chest to show that Sri Rama was ever present within him - such stories are aids to imagine that God is present within, needed because we cannot see it objectively through the senses.

Through repeated practice and reaffirmation,when the conviction that "God is within" becomes strong, it becomes relatively easier to practice internal kriya. When one learns the processes and techniques of internal kriya practice from an expert who has done it all before and realized the Self, one is all the more fortunate and indeed blessed.

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Replies:

  • Re: worship the guru at your peril -- mahavir - 22 Dec 2005, 13:17:53 02/10/06 Fri
  • Re: worship the guru at your peril -- dr - 22 Dec 2005, 13:18:56 02/10/06 Fri
  • Re: worship the guru at your peril -- H - 22 Dec 2005, 13:21:34 02/10/06 Fri
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