Let us remove misconceptions and understand it right!
Shakun

Note from Divyaa Kummar

Some one asked me whether the highest worship is worshipping the Divine without form? Should they stop adoring and communicating with their beloved deities? Should they throw out all the symbols of personalized gods from within …and the outside …be it mantra's or their altars or visiting of temples?


My answer:


Connecting to the Divine- be it through prayer, or thoughts about, or falling in love with - can be through the personal or impersonal approach.

Neither is higher or lower if you truly know that the seemingly opposite approaches are actually one and the same!



If you truly know Consciousness as ‘One without another’…then your prayer, worship, devotion, homage and adoration can be towards its impersonal aspect or personalized forms …indeed in whatever way your current beingness beckons you! Some day’s an impersonal homage to the One Consciousness’ ‘works’ best… sometimes a more personal veneration of a deity (symbolizing an aspect of the same One Consciousness) is what draws you!



The contradiction between impersonal and personal prayer arises only when you distinguish the different deities and gods

as if the are really different from one another and/or from the Whole!

When you truly know they are all different views of the same One Consciousness

then prayer even to its different aspects-deities- is always to the Absolute that permeates them!

You then move away from this question

about which worship is higher or more correct!

You respect and appreciate both the Absolute/ One Consciousness

and

Its many expressions, aspects, facets, qualities!



You adore the One

and

fall in love with its many roles!



You communicate and share self with your deities

and

yet know this is communing with the Whole!



You are drawn to the beauteous forms and images in temples and altars within and around!

Yet you know you revel in the One Beauty!



So when you ask which is a higher worship?

It arises from distinguishing between the formless unmanifest and its manifest forms!

What is a deity after all? Who are your personalized Gods but

the One Consciousness expressed in myriad ways!

In this deep gnosis the question becomes moot.



Yes at some point one moves from solely worshipping personalized gods; one can’t help but make this inner shift!

One sees the Whole behind every aspect being revered;

One is in touch with That which permeates the various forms rather than only the forms themselves;

And in Knowing this

One doesn’t need to stop visiting temples!

One need not shun the variety of an altar!

Or the adornment of your deities!

For what one visits or decorates or adorns is truly....That!



Indeed one enjoys the Whole through its facets

And enjoys each facets as inimitable aspects of the whole

And so yes indeed, one can worship the whole through its beauteous personalized forms…why not?

After all, the Whole chose to view, adore, revel, express through these wondrous facets!

You can admire the diamond yet enjoy its twinkling facets!

You can admire a painting yet appreciate its different colors and strokes!



In the early stages personalized worship helps… because the unmanifest formless is not easy to visualize; and indeed impossible to speak about!

And the human mind cannot ‘think about’ or ‘feel for’ or 'worship' what cant be visualized or spoken about …

And only as one 'Knows'...experiences... the indescribable Absolute ....deep within,

Can one be in homage to That inexpressible …

For 'That' becomes This! Now real within you and you need not words and symbols

And worship of the Absolute ‘happens’! Indeed it moves from the seemingly impersonal to a complete self-identification.



And yet; even then the personalized gods deities & Masters cease not to exist

How can they…for they make up the indefinable whole! How can the whole be without what makes it whole?How can you not enjoy your multifaceted selves!

Indeed one enjoys them even more for That which they represent...is now so real deep within that the outer reflections are indeed basked in!



Love from my heart to yours
Divyaa Kummar
Website:www.Divyaakummar.com
Email; Divyaakummar@Divyaakummar.com