The truth is no Hindu ever worships idols. Do you doubt this? Need not. Even the most illiterate villager does not pray like this: "O! Idol, may there be happiness, health, wealth and well-being in my family." But he will, sitting before the idol, will pray to God, saying, "O God, grant me such and such blessings."

There is nothing illogical in this. If you admit that God is omnipresent, that is, God is present everywhere, He will be present in the idol, too. In other words, the idol is not God but God is in the idol.

The truth is we cannot do without the use of symbols or idols or icons. For example, if you have read the matter thus far, you have done it by means of recognising the idols of sounds! What are alphabets but the symbols or idols of sounds and ideas? I D O L. To one who does not know how to read English alphabets, these four letters would not mean a thing.

Suppose somebody calls out your name, Prakriti. How do you respond? By recognising the sound symbols. If somebody calls you Menaka, you will not respond.

In other words, even for such elementary things as speaking and writing and reading, we cannot do without symbols or idols. Agreed?

Let us take the case of saluting the national flag. It is not a piece of cloth but it represents the nation. But as we cannot visualise the entire nation, the national flag serves as a symbol of the nation.

Let us go a little further. How does your teacher teach you Geography? He uses many teaching aids such as a globe, to show you that the earth is round and points his finger to Nigeria and then to Lagos, and you get an idea of the location of your country and city in relation to other parts of the world.

Then he may show you a map, which is nothing, but a globe spread out flatly so that you may have a better grasp of things. (Here the parent or teacher can actually show an atlas or spread out the skin of an orange.) He will first teach you how to read a map. Top is north, bottom is south, right-hand side is east and left-hand side is West. Now looking at a map of Africa, you can understand that Lagos is on the West Coast of Africa, near the sea. Actually you have learnt all these things by means of symbols or idols or icons.

Now suppose your father tells you to bring 2 books and 4 chocolates. You are able to do so only because you are familiar with the symbols of numbers. Agreed?

As human beings we are finite (with definite measurements) and God is Infinite – beyond all measurements.

It is simple to understand that a bigger thing can contain a smaller thing but a smaller thing cannot contain a bigger thing.

The idea is that a small or finite human being cannot have a real idea of Infinite God. Hence he has to seek the aid of idols. If somebody says he does not use idols, let us remember that even sounds and letters (alphabets) are also idols.

So don’t think you are bowing before idols. You are really bowing before God in the form of an idol.