How can a Deity of stone or wood be considered God?

4 min readNov 21, 2022

Radhya Arora, 13 years, The Shri Ram School

Millions of people visit temples everyday across the globe and make various offerings such as obeisances, prayers, gifts, and donations.

To whom are these offerings being made? Aren’t these offerings being made just to a statue made out of stone, wood, or some other material?

How can God be present in material substances? Is this not blind faith or some sort of sentimentalism?

Can’t God manifest Himself in stone or wood?

Everything animate and inanimate in this world belongs to God. God pervades the entire cosmos through His powers. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita

Aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate

Everything emanates from Me. I pervade the entire cosmos and yet, I maintain My individuality.

If God can pervade the entire universe with His powers, can’t He pervade a sculpture of stone or wood! Isn’t saying that God can’t be present in the Deity of stone limiting His powers!

How can He be God then?

Krishna is the Source of everything (Source- BtG International)

We can’t envision anything formless

Our eyes are accustomed to form.

We have heard so many incidents of people seeing images of their beloved in clouds, fire and other inanimate objects. We might as well have seen a dog

God is Omnipresent but are we able to see Him in His creation?

Some people might have a feeling of divinity at certain places like the Mountains, Waterfalls, Forests. Through that, they are able to remember the Lord and appreciate His creation.

But are they able to envision Him?

No. It is almost impossible to relate to God personally through His creation

A Deity of Stone or Wood is His special Mercy on us!

It is actually the mercy of the Lord that He appears in a material form. By which it becomes easy for us to see Him. Otherwise it will be next to impossible to personally relate to God.

God may appear to us but do we have the vision to observe Him!

Our seeing range is limited between 400nm to 740nm. We can’t even observe bacteria or stars with the naked eye

Since we have seen stones and woods all our lives and they are easily accessible, God appears in such a form so that He is easily available and identifiable to us.

Beautiful Marble Deities of Sri Sri Radha Krishna

Through the Deity form of the Lord, we can give ourselves this chance to develop a personal connection with God

Developing relation with God is the actual goal of this human life

Can any stone be worshipped as God?

It is not that we can pick up any stone or wood from the ground and start worshiping it.

A genuine form of the deity is designed, installed, and worshiped according to the procedures and rules given in the scriptures.

The Authorized Mail Box

For example, we may find some mailboxes on the street (which are authorized by the governemnt) and if we post our letters in those boxes, they will naturally go to their destination without difficulty.

But posting our any old box, or an imitation which we may find somewhere but which is not authorized by the post office, will not do the work.

Similarly, only a form authorized and installed according to scriptures is considered bonafide for worship. The Vedic Process of authorization of the stone into a Deity is called Prana Pratistha. This will be the subject of our next article.

Deity Worship - *The authorized mailbox* (Source- Dylan McLeod from UnSplash)

By praying and serving the authorized form of the Lord, the Deity, we can get close to the Lord and feel His presence in our lives.

Can anyone experience the Divine by seeing the Deity?

As we increase our faith and surrender to God, He reciprocates accordingly. Krishna confirms this in Bhagavad-gītā (4.11) -

ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham

There are many instances where the Deity interacted personally with the faithful worshiper such as of the Deity of Sakshi Gopal (in Sakhigopal, Odissa) and Khirachora Gopinath (in Remuna, Odissa).

But the Lord, being the Master, reserves the right not to reveal Himself to anyone and everyone but to show Himself only to those souls who surrender unto Him.