IDOLATRY AND DOGMATISM: THE VEILS OF MAYA

The Idolatry of a Person

There are many great teachers and Truth cannot be limited to a single person, however great he or she may be. To insist that God has only one Son or that he has a final prophet is itself a form of idolatry - an attempt to limit ultimate Reality to what is only an appearance in time and space. We are all sons of God and we are all potentially God-realized sages.

Whatever good or evil that has existed in any human being exists in each one of us. Whatever potential of greatness that has existed in any human being belongs to us. To set up limitations around our inner potential is not only to limit humanity but to deny the immanent Godhead.

Hinduism holds that the individual, you or I, is the most important thing. The teacher is only an aid and a guide to our own Self-realization. Hinduism does not sacrifice the sacred nature of the individual for any prophet or savior, however great, but directs each one of us to our own Self-realization as the highest goal.

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