We are not really praying to statues. We are praying to God. Man requires something to concentrate on so he imagines God in a particular form. There is nothing wrong with it, unless you pray to the statues and don't learn anything from the prayers. Then it is useless. Statues are only an aide like the walker a child needs to learn to walk or the scaffolding a building requires to go up. Similarly, statues are the scaffolding for people to go by while they are building a life towards God and spirituality.  A time will come when you don't need to pray to statues. Your life will becomes a prayer. Human beings are God themselves, therefore, you treat them as living Gods rather than statues.

Statues have limited value. We don't pray to the stones and statues as such. Instead, it's just like looking at pictures of your mother. You don't look at the Kodak paper the picture is printed on. You looking at the pictures and get the feeling that she is your mother. You know that it is not your mother. It is a paper image. But it gives you feelings that helps you think about your mother and the loves she gave you. That's why we look at the pictures. It arouses the feeling and love. To one person it is piece of paper because for him it is not his mother. Each one has his own mother.

It is the same with murtis. We see God, not the stone. So one may love the statue considering that is his God and he is praying but to others it is merely a stone. It is not the outer appearance that matters but the feelings we impose on it.

-- Swami Radhanandaji