Most people are image-worshipers. The image they worship is their own self-image. Our self-image is the idea we have of our self and project to others. This idea is a superimposition on the mind. It is formed as a result of our identification with the mind, and by extension, the body and its interrelationships.
So, images are created by ego (the “power of identification”). This identifying-power is manifested when the Energy of Consciousness is channeled through the Principle of Knowledge (Mahattatwa), which is manifested from the union of Spirit (Purush, Energy of Consciousness, Atman-Soul projecting its own inherent soul-force or PRANA) with Matter (Prakriti, which in essence is simply pure nothingness).
In reality (Ultimate Reality), our images are nothing, our ego is nothing, everything is nothing. Beyond all this is THAT which is Real. When this is THAT, we are Real. Until then, we remain caught up in unreality. When what was and what will be is dissolved into now, Eternity is experienced in the moment, which is now and forever.
OM