Question: Eventually, when we realise God, will all these things drop off?

Sri Chinmoy: They will all drop off. Then no outer form will remain. We will become one with the Formless. But in the beginning, it is necessary to approach God through form. In the beginning, a child reads aloud. If he does not read aloud, he feels that he is not reading at all. He has to convince his parents, he has to convince himself, that he is reading the words. But when the child grows up, he reads in silence. By then, he and his parents know that he can really read, so the outer form can drop away. These outer forms are of paramount importance during the seeker's preliminary stages. Then they will go, because they are no longer necessary.

I may keep a flower before me when I meditate. The flower is not God, although inside the flower is God. But the flower inspires me. It offers me purity. I may burn incense. Incense itself is not God for me, but incense gives me a sense of purity and helps me in my spiritual progress. Anything that inspires me I shall use in order to increase my inspiration and my aspiration, whether it is a picture of someone, or a candle or a flower. For when my inspiration and aspiration increase, I feel that I have taken one step ahead towards God-realisation; I feel that I am nearing my goal. But a candle itself or the picture itself is not the object of my adoration.