Beloved Baba further clarifies that when love for God is expressed spontaneously, then it is worshiping Him indeed, and such outbursts of true worship can be seen sometimes in the form of an offering of flowers and garlands, in singing hymns and bhajans and arti, in ecstatic dancing or rolling in the dust, et cetera. When such expressions are spontaneous — not formal — and are in praise of the Highest of the High, they constitute true worship of God, for this reaches Him and is acceptable to Him.
But when the mind expresses itself in patterns of formal rites and rigid ceremonies, it is nothing more than an empty echo of the habit of countless generations, performed automatically without "heart."1 Baba says that such a worship not only does NOT reach Him, but holds the worshiper more firmly in the grip of ignorance.
(2) Your second query is: Whether at the opening of Mehersthan Baba does or does not concur with you that Vedic hymns be sung in praise of the Highest in the installation ceremony, as was done in the past during the incarnation of Shri Rama when he installed Sri Ramalingeshwara at Rameshwaram.
Before replying to this query, I must first draw your attention to the fact that a statue of beloved Baba is not to be installed, BUT that beloved Baba's dear Person embodied in bronze is to be unveiled.
After the unveiling, not only Vedic hymns may be freely sung in praise of the Highest, but also full freedom should then be given to Muslims to recite the Koran in praise of the Highest, to the Christians to sing their hymns in praise of the Highest, to the Zoroastrians to sing their monajats in praise of the Highest, and to the Harijans to sing their bhajans in praise of the same Highest of the High!
Indeed, Lord Ram may have installed Sri Ramalingeshwara with Vedic rites and singing of hymns, but remember that any action of the Avatar's doing is NEVER the same as our doing that same action. As Baba himself has often told us: "Do as I tell you, and not as I do!"
Also, we should remember that, although whatever the Avatar does must be right (since he is God), his actions at a particular time are not necessarily for all time. Furthermore, in each successive advent, the Avatar has to clear away abuses which have become attached to his former actions, even at the cost of apparently denying the validity (at the time) of those actions.
Footnotes
- 1.Some Baba lovers felt that the recitation of the Master's and Repentance prayers and singing of Baba's arti routinely should not be done, as they would then become rituals. But Adi Sr. clarified that these were given by Baba — he had approved them being used at gatherings in his name — and they should be continued.