While there may be speculation whether the Ramayana was a true story or work of fiction, there is enough historical evidences to prove that the Mahabharata era and war actually happened. I was struck then, to read in a book "Yuganta" by Iravati Karve-which happens to be one of my favorites- that the people during the time of the Mahabharata never practised Idol worship. Hinduism at the time had been more about self-inquiry towards realizing one's purpose in life and life's purpose to one and all.
Strikingly, I read elsewhere that Shri Krishna actually advocated idol worship realizing that humans are able to identify more with objects of sense-things they can perceive-than abstract concepts, although the latter is the truer means to spirituality. No wonder idol worship is heard of more after the era of the Mahabharata. And perhaps Shri Krishna, the all-round genius, for he is historically known for his might, intelligence, philosophy and especially a deep understanding of the laws of nature. Idol worship apparently got entrenched only from 3rd to 7th Century AD.
What has however been increasingly forgotten, that Idol Worship is perhaps the first stage to spirituality. Over time the means became the end, as it was easily reachable. Today, its easier to meet God at the temple rather than within Self. Most would find it incredulous that we are none other than the Gods we pray too. For, focused on Idol Worship, spiritual education has gone awry. We know we are not perfect, and "want" God to be. But even in the lives of mythological Gods, or in the lives of Shri Krishna or the greatest of Gurus, we see this lack of perfection. Perhaps our forefathers realized, that "God" is one who has his/her weaknesses, but also mastery, control or moderation over them.
Adi Sankara would likewise recommend 'Inquiry' as the path to progress. Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Meditating on these questions is more pertinent that asking favors from paintings and sculptures.
It is the Laws of Nature are that are actually perfect. They are guided by the Law of Karma. We have built our lives, habits, civilisations and culture around these laws. At the risk of sounding paganistic, if anything, Nature and its wonders deserve veneration (and at least thus, preservation and protection). But can the laws of Nature be completely understood? You have a better chance with perception. Which is why a Leader is one whose decisions are based more upon this perception, this rhythm with Nature; not all are born with (or perhaps adapt) this quality.
The other difficulty in accepting Nature as one's master is because its incompassible as well as ruthless. How would you define the scope of Nature? Humans are left humbled when they keep searching for the end of the Universe and are unable to even fathom it. Neither the beginning or end of time. How small we are is understood by the fact that 90% of Earth's history was the Precambrian era. And we humans have lived lesser (1.8 millions years now) than even the dinosours (69 million years).
Yes, we are the most intelligent and self-aware species that Nature created. And I believe Nature created us for a purpose, which might even be the destruction of Earth. For through its history, the Earth has had 6 mass extinctions. And we humans happen to be the first species in the history of Earth causing another mass extinction.
Connecting this back to our topic, idol worship played a role in making humans further dependant upon sense pleasures. All the advances of science were focused upon making the senses more comfortable, instead of the earlier ideals of understanding nature and preserving life.
An Idol, instead of acting as a role model or reminder of our progress towards spirituality, instead became something for us to project our wants on. Apart from becoming our ideals, they became life-like. And projecting upon them thus, we gave them their powers too. Do we realize that we, born of Nature, as Buddhism or contemporarily "Star Wars" would put it, have the "force" strong within us. By considering Idols all-powerful, we made them all-powerful and began considering ourselves servile. I truly today believe the Idols listen to us, for we gave them those powers, instead of seeking to empower ourselves!
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