"The Hindu is no idolater; he does not worship stocks or stones, the tree as tree or the stone as stone or the idol as a material thing, but he worships the presence of the Lord which fills & surrounds the tree, stone or idol, and of which the tree, stone or idol is merely a manifestation or seeming receptacle.
We say for the convenience of language and mental realization that God is in His creature, but really it is the creature who is in God, न त्वहं तेषु ते मयि. "I am not in them, they are in Me."...The presence of the Lord who is infinite, must be thought of as surrounding each object and not confined to the limits of the object,.... When we see the tree, we do not say, "This is the Lord", but we say "Here is the Lord".
The tree exists only in Him & by Him; He is in it and around it, even as the ether is.
(Sri Aurobindo, CWSA 17: 178-9)
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