188. I have no desire to leave Grihastha life at this moment and yet I am very, very keen to awaken the Kundalini Sakti. Is this possible? Will Your Holiness help me?

Yes, you can stick to Grihastha Ashrama. But live as an ideal householder. Support the other three Ashramas. If the duties of a householder are strictly followed, there is no necessity for Sannyas.

Become a true Brahmachari and give up sexual intercourse completely. You have enough children. The practice of Yoga strictly demands this from you if you desire to make real, substantial, rapid spiritual progress. Train your wife also in the spiritual path. Let her also repeat the same Mantra you are repeating and study religious books and observe occasional fasts or live on milk and fruits.

You can continue Sirshasan as usual. Observe strictly the rules of right conduct. Be established in the practice of Yama and Niyama. Purify your heart first before you awaken the Kundalini. Remove completely jealousy, selfishness, anger, lust, Moha, pride, Raga and Dvesha. Then Kundalini can be easily awakened. Yes. It is quite possible for you to awaken the Kundalini. I shall help you in its awakening. Don't worry. Increase your Japa and meditation. You can achieve spiritual success by remaining as a Grihastha, but you must be a true Brahmachari in thought, word and deed.

189. Your Holiness advises a man to treat his wife as "World Mother" as soon as a son is born to him. In case the son dies after a few months, there will be no heir left to look after his estate. Under such circumstances, what should he do? Kindly let me have your advice.

Why should you bother about heir for the estate? Did you bring the estate with you? Would you take it also when you die? What is estate? Is it not a lump of earth only? Can this estate and heir give you happiness and peace? Are they not sources of misery and worry? The desires for property and children will bind a man to the wheel of Samsara. These are all hindrances for a Jijnasu.

What did Lord Buddha and Bhartrihari do with their estates? Did each one crave for a son to look after his estate? How can a man who thinks of property and son think of God? It is impossible to think of God and Mammon. In the presence of light, darkness cannot exist. When you enjoy sensual pleasure, you cannot have the bliss of Atma.

If you beget another child, you will multiply your miseries. You have already many ties around your neck. He who has rightly understood the magnitude of human sufferings will never bring forth a child into the world. If your mind is full of Vasanas and if you find it difficult to curb the passions, you can have a second son. Then become a true Brahmachari.

190. God is all-pervading formless Being. How can He be confined to an idol? What is the use of idol worship?

The divinity of the all-pervading God is vibrant in every atom of creation. There is not a speck of space where He is not. Why do you then say that He is not the idols?

The idol is a support for the neophyte. It is a prop of his spiritual childhood. A form or image is necessary for worship in the beginning. It is not possible for all to fix the mind on the Absolute or the Infinite. A concrete form is necessary for the vast majority for practicing concentration.

Idols are not the idle fancies of sculptors, but shining channels through which the heart of the devotee flows towards God. Though the image is worshipped, the devotee feels the presence of the Lord in it and pours out his devotion unto it. The idol remains an idol, but the worship goes to the Lord.

To a devotee, the image is a mass of Chaitanya or consciousness. He draws inspiration from the image. The image guides him. It talks to him. It assumes human form to help him in a variety of ways. The image of Lord Siva in the temple at Madurai in South India helped the fuel-cutter and the old woman. The image in the temple at Tirupati assumed human form and gave witness in the court to help His devotees. There are marvels and mysteries. Only the devotees understand these.

Idol worship is not peculiar to Hinduism. The Christians worship the Cross. They have the image of the Cross in their mind. The Mohammedans keep the image of the Kaaba stone when they kneel and do prayers. The mental image also is a form of idol. The difference is not one in kind, but only one of degree.

All worshippers, however intellectual they may be, generate a form in the mind and make the mind dwell on that image. Everyone is an idol worshipper. Pictures and drawings are only a form of Pratima. A gross mind needs a concrete symbol as a prop or Alambana; a subtle mind requires an abstract symbol. Even a Vedantin has the symbol OM for fixing the wandering mind. It is not only pictures or images in stone and wood that are idols. Dialectics and leaders also become idols. So, why condemn idolatry?