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BHAKTI-YOGA
of Ishvara. This explains how, in many cases, both in the Srutis and the Smritis, a god, or a sage, or some other extraordinary being is taken up and lifted, as it were, out of its own nature and idealised into Brahman, and is then worshipped. Says the Advaitin, 'Is not everything Brahman when the name and the form have been removed from it?' 'Is not He, the Lord, the innermost self of every one?' says the Visishtadvaitin. THIF antarag
ha grefa wafz417–"The fruition of even the worship of the Adityas, etc., Brahman Himself bestows, because He is the Ruler of all.” Says Sankara, in his Brahma-Sutra Bhashya- मसारउपाखत्वं यतः प्रतीकेषु तद्दद्याध्यागेपर्ण प्रतिमादिषु दूब विम्यादीना“Here in this way does Brahman become the object of worship, because He, as Brahman, is superimposed on the Pratikas, just as Vishnu, etc., are superimposed upon images."
The same ideas apply to the worship of the Pratimas as to that of the Pratikas; that is to say, if the image stands for a god or a saint, the worship is not the result of Bhakti, and does not lead to liberation; but if it stands for the one God, the worship thereof will bring both Bhakti and Mukti. Of the principal religions of the world we see Vedantism, Buddhism, and certain forms of Christianity freely using images; only two religions, Mohammedanism and Protestantism, refuse such help. Yet the Mohammedans use the graves of their saints and martyrs almost in the place of images; and the Prot
