We are all born idolaters, and idolatry is good, because it
is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God-man.
The rest are all idolaters.
So long as we see this universe before us, with its
forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This is a gigantic symbol we are worshiping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater.
We are spirit,
spirit that has no form or shape, spirit that is infinite, and not matter.
Therefore, anyone who cannot grasp the abstract, who cannot think of himself as
he is, except in and through matter, as the body, is an idolater.
And yet how
people fight among themselves, calling one another idolaters! In other words,
each says, his idol is right, and the others' are wrong.
- Swami Vivekananda, Talk in New York
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