What has gone wrong is that people take the words literally without understanding the whole. Without understanding Ishvara, if I invoke the Himalayas, it will not work. Himalayas will merely remain a symbol. When Krishna says, `Worship me as the Himalayas,’ I should be looking at the Himalayas as something sacred, as a manifestation of the divine. If I do that, there is no way I am going to pollute it. But if I take it literally and believe that the Himalayas are God, then I will worship them and pollute them at the same time. To take the symbol literally is like climbing a sign-post instead of following its directions. Polluting our environment is also because of a lack of understanding of the environment. This understanding was higher in our ancient culture, but our modern Indian minds have a very poor understanding of it. Maybe, now that we are going to have environmental studies in our schools, it will become better.
People have to understand what God symbolism is about. A symbol represents an idea or an ideal, a symbol is not sacred by itself. Like the linga. It’s just a stone. The stone is not sacred, it becomes sacred because of what is being represented. A stone on the road may be kicked about, a linga in a temple will not. Those who think of the Himalayas as sacred should understand what it is really about. We have to understand that the finger that points to the moon is not the moon.