Central Chinmaya Mission Trust; 12th reprint edition (January 1, 1983)
Edition
Hardcover
Book description
Conceptual thinking is hard to the many.To contemplate upon the formless and therefore the transcendental Essence is given but to a few.The majority needs some grosser expression of the pure and the Infinite,for their mind to conceive It and their intellect to contemplate upon It.These 'symbols' of the Eternal Ground,the Supreme truth are called idols. Thus an idol represents an ideal.When we do not know the ideal which a given idol represents,it is something like seeing a portrait in a studio !If it were the beloved's portrait one would have seen in it more than what the black-and-white picture represents. For the seekers the book is a valuable guide to decipher the meaning of the symbols. the book's popularity can well be judged from the fact that more than 30,000 copies have been sold and the book has run into twelve reprints since it was first published.
