AW: Symbolism in the Worship of God

[Guest guest]

All religions in some form or the other have got symbolism hidden in their

systems.

 

Muslims turn towards the Holy Kaba and pray. Kaba is nothing but a symbol.

Hystory says that Holy Kaba has been destroyed, due to natural causes, for

almost 7 times. Everytime it is destroyed it is rebuilt! I think, the last

time it was reconstructed was in 13th century. There is a blak egg shaped

stone (looks like our Bana Linga) Kept on the ground, almost attached to the

Holy Kaba Wall. Muslims who go there first touch their head to that stone

and kiss it! Again that is symbolism. And one more thing which brings them

close to accepting symbols, is their Hajj! People who closely follow their

Hajj knows that there is a Stone Throwing ceremony. Muslim pilgrims, as a

part of their Hajj, have to pelt 3 huge pillars which are standing in

Makkah. They say those pillars are Satan and they are throwing stones at

satan condemning Satan. All is good, but when you ask Muslim Scholars

whether these stones are really Satan, then they deny that saying these

pillars merely symbolize satan :-) There comes the art of symbolism in to

their religion. It is irrespective whether you worship (symbolze) a few

stones, or a thousand stones (like Hindus) acceptance is there. Same is the

case with Christians. They symbolize the cross! They kiss the cross and

take good faith in it.

 

So I believe, every religion believes in Symbolism. Only thing is that

Hindus publicly acknowledge that they are symbol worshipers, where are

others deny it... And I believe, truth always stands as a truth, but it

makes sense to you when you start understanding it with an open mind.

 

Yours,

Madhava

 

-----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----

Von: Ram Chandran [rchandran]

Gesendet: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 1:32 PM

An: advaitin

Betreff: Symbolism in the Worship of God

 

 

All religions including Hinduism emphasizes that as humans, we cannot

comprehend the image of God! But human mind does have the capacity to

build a mental image of God and create that image in physical form.

The Tamil expression, `muppaththu mukkodi devas' represents millions

of such representations of the mental image of Nirguna Brahman. In

mathematics also, the non-comprehensible infinity has been

conceptualized in infinite ways! It is a fundamental fact, that which

can't be comprehended are represented by a symbol. In Hinduism, the

symbol of OM represents the Brahman. The religious symbolism is

further expanded in other fields: A country is symbolized by a flag,

love for a country is expressed by the national anthem etc.

 

The physical images of Parvathi, Saraswati, Lakshimi, Ganesa,

Karthikeya, Shiva, Vishnu and others help us focus and concentrate our

mind on the Nirguna Brahman during meditation or prayer. Worships and

Prayers are impossible without a ` mental image' of the

noncomprehensible Brahman. The question: whether a physical image

(idol) is necessary for prayer can never be resolved because the very

question goes beyond human perception. Any form of worship implies

some mental comprehension of God. Such comprehension could come

either from physical image of God or other symbolic expressions of God

such as the Bible (Cross) or Qu'an or other such symbols. Muslims

believe (rightly) that God has written Qur'an and for them Qur'an

implicitly represents the God. Similarly the Christians believe that

the words of the Bible represents the expressions of God. This may

explain why the Hindu implicitly worships the God while chanting the

Vedas. The reading of Qur'an or Bible are also forms of mental

worship of God using the physical means.

 

warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

 

 

Discussion of Shankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy of nonseparablity of

Atman and Brahman.

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