Idolatry is one of the most heinous acts in all religions. Some religions such as Judaism and Islam forbids idolatry and worship of a person who faces the greatest Idol displeasure of God and who is liable to be punished with death. The Third of the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament, clearly, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or below ground or water below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. "(Exodus 20 4-5).

According to the Quran, idolatry is the gravest sin. He is seen as the only categorically unforgivable sin. Like Islam, Orthodox Christians abhor idolatry. There was great resistance on the part of Christianity in the creation of the statue of Jesus for many centuries. However, churches do not have become the idols of the house of Jesus, where people go and worship the image of Jesus.

The most interesting form of idolatry can be found in Buddhism. Buddha never considered himself as God and began the philosophy is based on logic and reason. He was against the rituals and idol worship prevalent in Hinduism. However, after some centuries after death, is divided into Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism. While Hinayana followed the principles of the Buddha, the Mahayana made statues of Buddha as God and became popular worldwide. Today, statues of Buddha are found in as many around the world much more in number than any other God.

Idolatry is the most prominent of worship in Hinduism, but has no religious or philosophical basis. Hindus almost worship the idols of almost all types of representation in the universe, including men, animals, plants, rivers, rocks, earth, sun, moon and stars. All Hindu temples have the statues of the main deity and other deities.

It is a fact that, despite no sanction of religions, idol worship is very popular in many religions. Idol worship is not the realization of God means for many, but the very essence of religion. Why are heroes so important in religion?

What is an idol?

An idol is a man-made object that is venerated in some way. TheFreeDictionary.com defines "Idol as an image used as an object of worship or a false god." Idol is also defined as "an entity that is adored, often blindly or excessively, or as something visible but without substance."

In a way, like an idol is an image or photograph of a person who is used as a substitute for the person. Idol is the body of the entity that is visible to the senses especially the eyes. However, as a living man is far more than his image. The image is the representation of the person with only one particular point in time in a given situation. The real person is always different from its image, but by the time the photo was taken. The image is not the person that the person is made of flesh and bone and value of the person who is not from your body but your soul is the source of the body and the mind. Each person is unique in the history of the universe. Nobody like you were never born into the world and never have in the future. A person is more than body. Worship in the body, we are in danger of losing the essence of the person who is the soul.

It can be an idol of wood, wax, stone or image form. They are what they are not having ideas and power. In the Old Testament, the Lord explains the reason for not worshiping an idol in the following words

"You have to love man-made gods of wood and stone, which can not hear or see or eat or smell. But if you look from there to the LORD your God, you will find if you look at it with all your heart and all your soul. (Deuteronomy 5:28-29)

While a wise person use only idol to focus on God, most people confuse the idol with the true God and dams to exploit it as if to God. The popularity of the temples around the world is proof that most people have idols to God, or confuse the picture as a real person.

Worshiping the Scriptures

It is ironic that most men only to worship idols. If the Lord for specific directions to ensure that Muslims do not worship the Jews God's image as a man, however, could not avoid the worship of words that are spoken by the prophets.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam are often called the "religions of the book" God's words are believed to be revealed to the prophets. However, the words are not very different from the idols, and every word that is evolving over time as a person or the world. When we focus on the words, lose the soul of Scripture.

It is for this reason that every religion seems to be different from each other and his followers refuse to see the spirit of the Scriptures. The cult of the words of Scripture is a form of idolatry, which is practiced by all religions that believe the Scriptures as the Word of God and therefore the Gospel of Truth.

Body and Soul

All living beings in the universe can be divided into two basic components, namely body and soul. Body is something that is visible to the senses and mind, while the soul of the body has to understand our own soul, through intuition and intelligence.

Arts, literature or scripture that is also your body in the form of words or image that you can see and feel. However, the spirit of literature or art is hidden in the words that have to be interpreted by the person who uses his intuition.

We understand this dichotomy with the help of this beautiful poem by Joy Allison.

Better than being loved?

"I love you. Mother," said little John;

Then, forgetting his work, his cap was,

And he went to the garden swing,

And let water and wood to bring.

"I love you mother," said Rosy Nell --

"I love you more than tongue can tell";

Then she teased and pout complete half of the day

Until her mother was delighted when he was playing.

"I love you mom," said little Fan;

"Today we'll help you all I can;

How glad I am that school does not save! "

So I shook until the baby fell asleep.

Then, stepping softly, you get the broom,

And swept the floor and ordered the room;

Busy and happy all day was she,

Useful and happy as child could be.

"I love you mother," they said again,

Three children go to bed;

How do you think that mother guessed?

One of them really loved her best?

Here, when the poet to ask readers to think that one of the three sons of her mother loved best, he is asking to use their intuition so that when you make an assumption that there was little fan who loved his mother best, is not based on any logic, of course, you can try any of the three as most love. It is by intuition or guess that you realize the truth that the poet wanted to convey through this poem. The message seems to be "actions speak louder than words." This is the essence of the soul or the poem says, but it is never understood by us only by intuition.

However, most people do not appreciate the spirit of Scripture, but simply focuses on his words. They take the words as "truth" instead of understanding the spirit of the writing. Often people do not understand the context, time and situations in which these scriptures were written. We also see that not even the meaning of a written word continues to change with time.

For example, the meaning of commonly used words such as love of God or is different in every culture, religion, society and time. Therefore, to understand the true meaning of words, one must refer to the context and use their intuition to learn the true meaning of it and the soul of writing as the person's soul is never visible to the senses or mind.

Therefore the words are just like the image representation of reality and not reality itself. The true knowledge of scripture can only be known through the use of our mind (intuition) to decrypt the spirit of the Scriptures. The spirit can not be expressed in words, as it has to be done by the "self."

Why is the popular Idol worship?

It is also a fact that idol worship is very popular in all religions. All theists "either idol worship God in the form of an image or worship (words) of writing. Why is it so?

God represents the upper limit of human imagination. It is designed as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient author, creator and ruler of the universe. In other words, we can say that God is known only to a person who has reached the highest level of spiritual evolution. It's like a piece of research that are published by the PhD students, the population of the highest degree in the particular area. If you've seen a typical research paper in an international journal, you would realize that it is impossible to understand unless they have specialized in this field. It is impossible to understand the research work of scientists unless matching also have knowledge of the subject.

While there is no such difficulty in the field of arts and literature. Once you can easily understand and enjoy the drama, film or even a picture of the world's best. The reason is that all art deals with the senses, but all branches of knowledge are processed by the mind.

Therefore, the prophets and spiritual leaders have the challenge of reducing the complexity of spiritual knowledge as it moves from the domain of mind, mastery of the senses that can be seen and felt by everyone.

This is where the role of idol becomes very important. Once you can not see an omnipotent, omnipresent God as his power and knowledge is limited. An idol can be seen and felt by all people and help them to pray before an idol, rather than an abstract concept (the creation of the mind) as Brahma or absolute.

Idols: The Gateway to the Kingdom of God

Therefore, if a person prays to the idol of God is no different than trying to integrate the soul of the person with the universal soul. What is more important to believe in a force that is beyond the conception of the way he governs the world? In both senses, the sight of the spiritual person is open and the man is capable of seeing the world divided, but united by an entity called the universal soul, absolute or God.

Same with the Scriptures as well. The do's and don'ts of the Scriptures as the Ten Commandments are the summary of knowledge that evolved over many thousands of years of experience. One might have to write thousands of books to explain the reasons for each action that just one in a million people can read and understand. By simplifying the knowledge, religions help man the benefit of spirituality, without much effort. The difficulty arises when a person instead of believing the idol of the words or as a symbol of reality are confused with reality itself. This is a great danger because most people find it very difficult to distinguish the body with reality. Thus, the wisdom lies in discovering the true knowledge through the use of the symbols of religion by the aid of his own soul. This is the real knowledge that comes from within. A famous Sufi poet of India summed up this mystery in this verse

Reading people died in the Scriptures,

None could become "known";

One understands that the word called "Love"

It is the only one who really is "known."

Love, as God is now so simple that everyone can realize that with "Auto," but no one can know "love", even if you have read all the books in the world in love. Pythagoras also said: "Know thyself a man, then you know the universe and God." Scriptures as idols to God, but they are not only the gateway to the Kingdom of God, and the trip to the Kingdom has to be performed by the "I" alone.

Mr. Awdhesh K Singh is an officer of government of India. He is an engineer by education and philosopher by passion. He has published several articles in international journals and conferences on the topic of E-governance and the application of Artificial Intelligence tools like Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Expert Systems (ES) E-government. It also has great interest in studying and implementing the philosophies of India to solve real life problems of the modern world.

Many of his articles are published on the website of the Forum on Science and Science Aatmic http://www.aatmicscience.com Alma http://www.scienceofsoul.com