How to Worship?

As we prepare to observe Shivaratri and celebrate the janma tithis of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we can ask ourselves how to really worship Lord Shiva.

When he returned from the West in 1897, Swami Vivekananda visited the Rameswaram Temple, one of the most sacred Shiva temples, and told the devotees assembled there that coming to a temple and worshipping Shiva is “useless” if one is not pure. This is a disturbing statement for those of us who go to temples to pray for that very purity! How then to purify our mind?

Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism gives a devotee the freedom to choose from infinite ways of worshipping the infinite forms of God. The foundation for this grand variety is the unity of existence — Brahman manifesting as the entire universe. The unconditioned, changeless, Brahman manifests through its power of intelligence, known variously as Shakti, Maya, Ishwara, and Divine Mother. The distinction between the two states is a distinction without a difference.

Speaking of how he perceived this world, Sri Ramakrishna says, “Trees, plants, men, animals, grass — these and all other things I see as different coverings like pillow cases … some round in shape and others square. But within all … the same substance cotton. In the same way all the objects of the world are stuffed with the unconditioned Satchidananda. I feel as if the Mother has wrapped Herself in different clothes, and is peeping out from them.”

How to worship this playful Mother who is in everything?

Ours is the age of technology or applied science. Hence, to suit our mindset and needs, Swami Vivekananda gave us Practical Vedanta or the application of Vedanta in everyday life. This is a new spiritual technology wherein we “worship the Living God, the Man-God — every being that wears a human form…”

In his Rameswaram address, Swamiji explains this method of worship through a parable. A rich man had two gardeners working in his garden. One of the gardeners was lazy and the other hard-working. To please the owner, the lazy gardener would stand with folded arms and say, “’How beautiful is the face of my master’ and dance before him.” But the hard working gardener would produce all sorts of fruits and vegetables and carry them to the owner who lived far away. Needless to say, the second gardener was more beloved to the master.

Similarly, Lord Shiva is our master and this world is His garden. If we wish to worship and please the Lord, we should be like the hardworking gardener and take care of His children — the poor, the weak, the diseased, the illiterate, the ignorant, and all other living beings. This worshipful service of man will purify our mind and heart and then Shiva who resides in every being becomes manifest. Instead of this if we spend our time only in singing and chanting the glory of Shiva, and in performing endless rituals we are no better than the lazy gardener.

How to train our mind to see the Lord in everyone? It is simple. When anyone comes to us, we should at once think of the Divine in him or her and mentally tell ourselves, ‘The Lord is present in this person’ (see p.40 of this issue).

This Shivaratri let us begin to see Lord Shiva in our relatives, friends, and neighbours, and cultivate the will to render worshipful service.