A friend and devotee once asked me why we should worship. I told him that it brings us to a heightened state of joy. A dawning came when I was on the phone with a devotee last night. She had a father who was aged and nearing his last days. She was preparing him and his soul to leave peacefully, following what her guru had taught them when her mother passed away. Rather than do the obvious ritual of bathing and anointing oil on her forehead, the guru had them place a Siva Lingam at her head, bathe it, and anoint it with oil instead. Now she had her father worship a Siva Lingam. When he leaves, the Siva Lingam shall be worshipped by the family. Tavayogi used to say that the soul or Atma is in the shape of a Siva Lingam. After Tavayogi's samadhi, Mataji had installed a Siva Lingam above his samadhi structure too. Libation or abhisegam and puja are carried out.
Agathiyar had told me earlier that it was only the things, methods, ways, practices, and rituals that they had done back then that they had also given us. Agathiyar, when traveling, would shape a Sivalingam and worship it. For instance, it is said that he brought the river sand from the banks of the River Kaveri together and made a lingam out of it that is worshipped until now at the Natadreeswarar Temple in Erode. Now I know why Agathiyar left behind a Siva Lingam wherever he went. He left behind his soul for us to worship. Coming into my home a day after his arrival as the bronze statue, a replica of his granite statue at Agasthiyampalli, Agathiyar told me to give it life by chanting his name 100,000 times. He also said that my soul would enter the statue while he walked the ground in me.
I have come to realize the reason we have statues and paintings at our home altar and worship them personally, and build temples and install statues and worship them publicly. We are taught to worship the Soul, the Self, Atma, and Pasu, which had brought together and supervised all the tatvas necessary for us to take a form, and that went into hiding later, externally for starters, at our homes and temples. Starting with Sariyai, shown by our parents, and the worship of the soul externally, we then walk through the phases of Kriyai, shown and guided by a guru is an extension of our Soul in the physical form. We bridge the worlds and have the Siddhas and deities frequent our homes and reside in these statues and paintings. Coming to the practice of Yoga, as we connect with the Prana and Prapanjam, Kundalini, the creative force that gave life and energy to an otherwise inert form, and which went into hibernation in the Muladhara, is awakened with the opening of the chakra. As it makes its way up through the other chakras by the grace of the gurus and the Siddhas, reaching Sahasrara and bringing on the flowering and blooming of this chakra, we step into knowing the last phase of the journey, Gnanam. The journey now takes on a reverse path, or a return journey, moving inwards, from the body towards the soul, which is termed as the true renunciation, contrary to the common belief and understanding of renouncing the world, as Iyengar writes in his "Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", HarperCollins Publishers India, 1993.
We come to know the Pati or God essence, Pasu or the soul, and Pasam or the many forms of attachments. We come to know the soul, the Self, and the JeevAtma within us. We begin to worship it now within us. I guess this is what I saw while sitting before Agathiyar in my prayer room many years back. Coming out of it, I pondered if I had dozed off while sitting, or if it was a dream? I shared the vision I had of the bathing ritual, libation, or abhisegam done for a Siva Lingam with the friend on the phone yesterday She pointed out that I had indeed seen the Soul and worshipped it.
We come to know that we are one with the guru. We leave Dvaita and come into Advaita when we come to know that we are one with Sivam, the ParamAtma or Pati. "In Kaivalya pada we lose our identities and merge in the soul (emancipation)," says Iyengar.
Hence, external worship is a tool to connect us with our souls. Once connected, we can opt to drop it. I understand now why Supramania Swami, being a Gnani, was asked to drop his 40-year-old desire to build a temple. I understand why Tavayogi, whom Agathiyar stopped from going into Samadhi, had him start an ashram and build a temple instead, told me that it was not for him but for the people. Hence, we understand why there are numerous Siva Lingams installed and worshipped throughout the length and breadth of India. This practice was brought to other continents when the kings of the past conquered other lands or their subjects migrated later.