Worship of Gods and Goddesses

    God has no gender, quality or form. It is man who attributes certain qualities, Gunas, functions to Gods ad Goddesses; imagination goes wild in devotional ecstasy anda thousand qualities are attributed to Gods of one’s choice and lo, innumerable forms, functions and ornaments of decoration appear!

   In fact, man creates God! No, God creates man and man, in turn creates god in many forms attributing qualities and functions to give an appropriate expression to his thoughts and ideas about them. So we have a Ganapati, Lakshmi, Gouri, and Saraswati or a Hanuman, Rama, and Krishna. But, these, too, are wrong. The names have the subtle forces behind them as the meaning and the names should be taken with the principle of tat tvam asi. There is nothing besides the 'tattvam], I am That. 'ahanta'. Everything comes under the principle of 'the perceiver and the perceived are one'!

    God is just an idea, image (of imagination) created by Mind. Neither there is god nor man in absolute terms. Only Brahman, a formless (nirakara), attribute-less (nirguna) that does not come within the limitations of time, space, and causation only exists! This is the whole ‘Truth’ (parama satya). Hence, the question also arises as to whom and whom not to worship? Lord Shiva only gives answer to this question in Shivo’ham (Shaivagama Shastra). Kashmir Shaivism has the answer. If at all one wants to offer prayer or worship, it should be done as 'antaryajnya', 'antaryaga' and mantropasane, or Meditation only. All external worships are to be done until the knowledge dawns.

  Now that we know what is God, it is easy to worship God. In other words, who to worship especially when there is no god whatsoever other than our Self? Where is the need to worship the Self since ‘Self is Brahman’ and ‘Brahman is one only’, and no other? There is no question of worship of anybody since there is no duality such as the worshiper and the worshipped.

  When Devi asks Parameshvara, whom to worship? Whom to offer deepa, dhoopa, arti and naivedyam, the supreme Lord answers thus:

  “O Learned Devi, you know everything as my better-half, as Ardhanarishvara, you and I are one and the same. You are one merged with me in deep meditation, in ‘paraa’ (Brahman) and ‘pashyanti’ (Rishi) mode. Since you are asking this question for the sake of the mortals I shall answer your question. Who is there to offer and who is there to accept the offerings when the devotee is in deep Transcendental state (turiyaa) of Meditation?”

  Meditation is the highest form of worship since it involves total merger. There are innumerable ways of worship, meditation and customary practices vary from clan to clan (Kula). In SrIvidyA upAsana, there are many traditions such as Samayis, Kaulas, and Shakta. There are different methods of worship of SrIcakra puja, SrIcakra-dhyana, Chakra upasana in antaryaga, SrIyantra pUja in bahiryaga, etc. Swami Lalitanandanatha quotes from Vamakeshvara Tantra and states:

     “She, the Devi, is ultimate Sakti, the paramESvarI, tripurA, the very self of brahma, vishNu, and mahESvara, the divine being who is jnyAna-Sakti, kriyA-Sakti and icCA Sakti.”

    Tantra tradition has Meditation (antaryaga) and rituals (bahiryaga) as modes of worship. Bahiryaga is external worship of icons advocated for the beginners. It gradually leads to antaryaga when the upasaka is well established in dhyana and mantropasana. Bahiryaga, worship of idols is thus the accepted mode for beginners, as a first step only, and it is not the end of sadhana, nor is it the only means. One must go beyond this bahiryaga and get into antaryaga mode as early as possible and should not get stagnated in daily rituals endlessly.

    Antaryaga (internal worship) also requires some support in the beginning. The sAdhAra way of antaryaga initially takes the help of certain external support such as images (murti), gestures (mudra) and sounds (mantra). Here, the purpose is to develop and evolve into deeper ‘niradhara antaryaga’ where concentration is firm and external support is not needed. In deep meditation, intense contemplation, dhyana, dharana and samadhi the upasaka is nearer to visualization and finally merges his mind and transcends into deeper experience of super consciousness. It is called ‘bhavana’, a mental process that transforms an idea (worship Devi to appease her get her grace) into reality (actually getting divine grace). The upasaka will take to Chakradhyan and gradually drops awareness of his body-mind complex and moves inward. What all are sacrificed in this antar-yajnya to supreme goal of nothingness is given under Antar-yajnya [See Notes]. 

    The upasaka will lose sight of all divisions, differences, and disintegration that emanate from the Self disappear when one is withdrawn and established firmly in his self due to antar yajnya. The ideas- you and I, or me, she, it and they- all pronouns, disappear when one merges in the capital ‘I’- the Subject, Self of all; the devotee is now in one with his deity and his devotion (Bhakti) helps him to dissolve his separateness (ego/ aham/ ‘i’- the body-mind complex)  like salt in water. The heat or tapas (tapah) of meditation of the upasaka welds him to his god. No dualities exist and nothings need be done at this unitary state. Even the devotee-hood ends here.