The Vedas declare: ‘Durat dure antike cha’ (Farther than the farthest and very near too). This statement means that the Lord is as far from you as you consider Him to be, and as near as you feel His presence. It is your own feelings, which account for the distance, the remoteness or nearness should not be attributed to the Divine, who is omnipresent. (SSS Vol.24, p. 94)
Where is Divine? The Shastras (ancient scriptures) say the Divine is twenty feet away from the Brahmachari (the bachelor). The reason is a youth suffering from the fever of adolescence cannot perceive the Divine. He relies on his mental abilities and the power of his muscles and heart. He has no faith in the power of Dharma or God. Hence, one who is remote from Dharma is also distant from God. For a Sannyasi (the ascetic), God is said to be three feet away. Wearing the yellow robe and having a shaven head cannot make a man a genuine ascetic. He must have renounced all bodily attachments and all materials desires. Although he may have renounced many things, because the Sannyasi (renunciant) has still some delusions regarding the body, God is said to be three feet away from him. Only in the case of the Grihastha (house holder) is God said to be residing in his heart. But even if God dwells in his heart, till the Grihastha sheds vices like greed, hatred and envy, the Divine will not be visible to him. Attachment and ego will make him blindfolded. To secure the grace of the Divine, it is not necessary to seek knowledge, wealth, power or position. Purity of mind alone is enough. Every cell of one’s body will be filled with the Divine when God is worshipped with pure and single-minded devotion. To the self-sacrificing devotee, the Divine will be Omnipresent. (SSS Vol.16, pp. 182-183)
The Omnipresent is not absent in the icon or the picture. We do not reduce God and shut Him up in a stone image; we affirm and realise that He is in the icon also. We raise the image to the dimension of the Absolute, we expand the picture far beyond its frame and through the processes of Sadhana we become aware that picture too can be made a tool for the mind to escape from its limitations.
When the Maharaja of Alwar in Rajasthan argued before Swami Vivekanada that God can never be perceived in a picture drawn by an artist, Vivekananda called upon the Prime Minister who was standing reverently by, to get the Maharaja’s portrait down from the wall and spit on it! He said, ‘you need not hesitate. The Maharaja says it is just a blotch of colours on a bit of canvas and that he should not be confused with idea that it is the Maharaja.’ But everyone at the Durbar withdrew in fear. The picture of Maharaja was for them an object of worthy of adoration. (SSS Vol. 10, p. 246)