The direct worship of the human incarnation of God gives satisfaction both to the subject [you] and object [God]. When you offer food to the human form of the Lord, you have the satisfaction of offering it and the Lord has the satisfaction of enjoying that food. But when you offer the food to a statue of a past human incarnation, you may have the satisfaction of offering the food but the satisfaction of receiving the food is not there in the statue. The angle of the worship of a statue differs from one devotee to the other.

One angle is that you are so attracted towards the past incarnation so that you want to serve it directly. But, unfortunately you missed the opportunity because you are in the present human generation and the Lord is not there in the present human generation in the same human form [He is in a different human form]. You like the Lord only in that particular dress. But that dress is now destroyed and cannot be regenerated. Your liking for the Lord in that human form is a combined love for the Lord and that particular dress. Therefore, there is no alternative for you except to worship a statue or photograph of that same human form.

You do not recognize the present human incarnation of the same Lord. You may like the present external dress of the Lord but you do not recognize the internal Lord. Therefore, your love for Him is only the love for a co-human being, which is just the external dress.

Even if you recognize the present human incarnation, you may like the inner Lord but not the external dress. Even in that case, your love or devotion is not full. But if you carefully analyse, the statue or photograph is only a representative of the past external dress of the Lord and not even the actual dress. The Lord is not in the photograph or statue (Natasya pratima—Veda). It is not even the exact external dress but your liking to that external dress is so fantastic that you treat the photograph of that external dress as exactly the same external dress and also imagine that the Lord is present in this statue or photograph.

You further imagine that the food offered by you is taken by the Lord. Therefore, your worship is just a net of imaginations because neither is the statue the exact human form of the Lord, nor is the Lord present in the statue and nor has the Lord eaten your food. Thus, if you analyse your devotion, you are just mad for that particular external dress and not for the internal Lord. This cannot be real devotion to the Lord.

at lotus feet of swami

surya

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