The Human Need for an Object to Venerate and to Be Guided By in the Spiritual Path

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For the vast majority of
individuals, the idea of

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confronting the vast
Consciousness without any

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discernible or identifiable,
form is overwhelming, anything

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that is undefined or unlimited
breeds discomfort and fear in

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our being.
In the bhagavad-gita Arjuna is

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confronted with a vision of the
Divine in a vast all-powerful

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form, far beyond what he was
prepared to handle.

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He begged SRI Krishnan to return
to his normal four-armed form

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and to shower Grace upon him.
Fewer, those who can confront

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the larger forms of the
universal creation, much less

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the vast formless reality. when
our hearts and Minds, turn

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towards spiritual growth, we
therefore seek out and Associate

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ourselves with some specific
form of deity or specific

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manifestation of the Divine in
form or at the very least with

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intermediaries, teachers gurus
who provide us a close and

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defined relationship with the
divine This allows us to grow

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and mature in our spiritual
understanding over time within

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defined limits that we have set
at each stage of our growth.

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Not every individual follows,
the same form of God or the same

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Incarnation or the same teacher
yet as a general rule, each

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individual aligns with someone
or something that can Aid us in

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our growth.
Even the atheist who denies the

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existence It's of God find some
object or person with whom, he

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aligned himself in his own path
of growth.

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Meanwhile we cast our teachers
as avatars or incarnations of

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God and in many cases believe
and act upon that belief.

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That the Divinity we worship the
teacher we follow is the highest

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Divinity and ultimate World
teacher.

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What we then fail to recognize
is that the form the Divine

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guidance takes for each of us is
unique to our own personal.

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Background and religious or
spiritual tradition.

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Thus, a Christian will have
visions of Jesus or Mary while a

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Hindu may experience the
presence of Lord Krishna or

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Lord, Shiva.
This does not set one deity

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above another, but simply
represents the form that the

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specific individual based on his
background and experiential

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mindset can see and understand.
SRI aurobindo notes, quote, the

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spiritual progress of most human
beings demands and extraneous

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support an object of Faith
outside us.

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It needs an external image of
God or it needs a human

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representative.
Incarnation profit were Guru or

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a demands both and receives them
for according to the need of the

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human soul, the Divine manifests
himself, Has deity as human

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Divine or in simple Humanity
using that thick disguise.

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Which so successfully conceals
the godhead for a means of

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transmission of his guidance.
The Hindu discipline of

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spirituality provides for this
need of the sold, by the

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conceptions of the ishta,
devatha the Avatar, and the guru

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by the ishta, devatha, The
Chosen deity is meant, not some

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inferior power, but a name and
form of the Transcendent and

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Universal godhead.
Almost all religions either have

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as their base or make use of
some such name and form of the

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Divine, its necessity for the
human soul, is evident, God is

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the all and more than the all,
but that which is more than the

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all.
How shall men conceive?

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And even the all is it first too
hard for him?

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For he himself in his act of
Consciousness, is a limited and

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selective formation and can open
himself only to that, which is

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in harmony with his limited
nature.

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There are things in the all
which are too hard for his

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comprehension or seem too
terrible to his sensitive

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emotions and cowering
Sensations.

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We're simply he cannot conceive
as the Divine cannot approach or

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cannot recognize something that
is too much out of the circle of

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his ignorant or partial
conceptions.

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It is necessary for him to
conceive God in his own image,

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or in some form that is beyond
himself.

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But consonant, With His Highest
Tendencies and feasible by his

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feelings or his intelligence
Otherwise it would be difficult

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for him to come into contact and
communion with the Divine and

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quote, reference SRI aurobindo
in the mother growing within the

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psychology of inner development.
Chapter 3 growth of

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Consciousness, basic requisites
Pages, 52 to 53,