Acharya Prashant responds to a question about idol worship being a preliminary stage in spirituality. He uses an analogy, asking if someone with a PhD would teach their newborn child PhD-level concepts directly. He explains that a child must go through the entire process, from the first, second, and third grades. Similarly, idol worship can be an initial stage, but only the one who has passed the initial test can move forward. The right to move beyond idol worship is not for everyone. He criticizes the common trend of people claiming they don't believe in idols, stating that for 99% of people, for 99% of the duration of their spiritual practice, worshipping the tangible is necessary. He clarifies that while the tangible (the idol) is a gateway to the formless, hearing this doesn't mean the tangible is no longer necessary for everyone. Only a rare few are qualified to move from the tangible to the formless. He cites the example of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, who possessed immense spiritual talent yet remained with idols his entire life. Even when initiated into Advaita, Ramakrishna found it extremely difficult to move beyond the idol. The speaker emphasizes that it took great courage and detachment for Ramakrishna to do so. He questions how ordinary people can assume they can easily abandon the idol when a great soul like Ramakrishna struggled with it. The speaker provides a criterion for who has the right to not worship idols: only the one who has stopped considering themselves an idol, meaning their own body. He asserts that everyone is an idol worshipper because they are attached to their own body-idol, constantly caring for it and offering it pleasures. He points out the hypocrisy of those who look down on others for worshipping a stone idol while being deeply attached to their own body. He states that everyone, whether theist or atheist, is an idol worshipper. Even those who revere a scientific image, like that of a black hole, are worshipping a form. The crucial thing is to choose an idol that genuinely leads you towards the formless. The right to stop idol worship belongs only to the one who has stopped identifying with the body. Until then, you need an idol.