Rejoice in Worship

Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
May 09, 2014

 One of my friends lives in Amritsar just behind the Golden Temple. I have been visiting him for the last thirty years. The daily routine of his father is to get up at 3.30am and leave for the Golden Temple, for cleaning all the stairs surrounding the sanctum sanctorum. Since the tender age of 14 he has been doing this everyday. He is not performing any religious ritual; he is living out a relationship that he has developed between himself and the Supreme God through the medium of  this gurudwara. When I sit with him to seek his blessings he often says, “We must find God, the Spirit. We have to seek a personal relationship; it needs no external demonstration. We can find it within our own heart, in the secrecy of our most intimate feelings. It is not something to discuss with others; nobody can really help us. While cleaning the stairs I worship Him and see His presence in every stair. I sing some ‘shabads’ while doing my job; and He is also my reason to sing. In doing so my soul feels content and I am filled with joy. I find no better solace or comfort than Worship. I prefer to be a keeper of the stairs in the House of God. I am happy to remain in His service.”  Think for a moment about a place we would love to go – it could be a place in the city or country. It would be the kind of place that would make our heart beat a little faster, get our adrenaline flowing; the type of place where we would feel like shouting or singing or standing in breathtaking silence and awe. It might be somewhere we are blessed to go or a dream destination. Would a temple, church or gurudwara, an abode that gives us peace and contentment, be such a destination? In today’s world, at an early part of life the youth might be so positively inclined; but when they grow up they start feeling that all such organised religious institutions are ‘not the real thing’ – and not necessary for a good life. They even forget to remember God. All it takes is a certain positive attitude of thought and emotion towards the Almighty. He is worthy of our Worship.

To Worship means to be humble, and to feel like a little child in the presence of a Supreme Spirit that is the supporter of the Universe. Worship has the power to touch and transform our lives – and even whole communities. Worship should lead to a feeling of joy, and help  us face challenges and heartbreaks ‘joyfully’. Our hearts should learn to rejoice in the memory of our Lord. Worship also means living a life that is surrendered to God - of singing praises of, or bestowing glory on, God. We have to ask nothing from Him – being occupied and satisfied with Him alone. We worship God only when we can truly enter His holy place, His presence. While praise to God is often seen, Worship is secret - only God knows who the true worshippers are; praise can sometimes be distant, whereas Worship is always intimate. In Hinduism, Worship is the expression of devotion, reverence and love for the Lord, of a keen yearning to be united with Him and of a spiritual thirsting to hold a conscious communion with Him. The devotees pray to the Lord to grant them intense devotion and remove their veil of ignorance. They visualise the form of the Lord with closed eyes and enjoy supreme peace and bliss. Worship is an effort on the part of the devotee to reach, to be in the presence of, God or the Supreme Self. It consists of all those observances and practices, physical and mental, by which the aspirant makes steady progress in the realm of spirituality and eventually realises in him/herself - in his/her heart - the presence of God. Worship of the Lord purifies the heart, generates harmonious vibrations, steadies the mind, harmonises the five sheaths…and eventually leads to communion, fellowship or God-realisation. Worship gradually transmutes man into a divine being. Worship changes our mental substance and destroys egoism, lust, hatred and anger. It turns the mind inward and induces self introspection. As per the Vedas, Worship eventually brings the devotee face to face with the Lord, frees him/her from the cycle of births and deaths and confers on him/her immortality and freedom. The mind becomes that on which it meditates - in accordance with the analogy of the wasp and the caterpillar. Just as we think, so we become. There is a mysterious, inscrutable power in Worship that unites the worshipper and the worshipped. The Bhagvad-Gita states, ‘But by devotion to me alone, I may thus be perceived’. For a worshipper it is necessary that he has his/her own guiding deity to whom he/she should surrender. It is also said that one can enter into Samadhi through Worship or meditation. Worship leads to spiritual advancement and uplift, and the acquisition of higher virtues. Hindu scriptures lay deep emphasis on religious consciousness. In the Hindu system there can be two types of Worship: concrete meditation and abstract meditation. Worshippers are taken, step by step, to higher stages of devotion and Samadhi (or communion), through the Worship of idols. Though they ostensibly worship a physical  idol, they have to keep the image of the all-pervading Lord foremost in their mental eyes. They have to feel His presence in their hearts and in all objects – in His many manifestations. The person who burns incense, scented sticks and camphor before the idol says: “All shine after Him. His effulgence alone illumines the whole world.” Hindu scriptures and saints have helped take many aspirants, delicately but deliberately, from the lower to the higher forms of Worship. The Hindus believe that symbols are useful in helping to fix the mind, for the development of concentration; they serve as concrete pegs to hang their spiritual ideas and convictions on. They are not needed by an advanced Yogi or sage. A symbol is like a slate, which is useful for most in the first standard. However, those who did or do not need it should not pass judgements on those that did and do feel the need. 

The human soul makes many attempts to grasp and realise the infinite or the absolute, according to its strength or degree of evolution. It soars higher, gathers more strength and eventually merges itself within the Supreme and attains Oneness. There is a wonderful analogy with electricity. Electricity exists, but unless we can convert and concentrate it through a generator it will not flow through the cables and light up our lamps. Let us therefore get connected to that Source through Worship, by increasing our moments of Divine stillness.

Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities for more than 25 years. He can be contacted at rabhola@yahoo.com