Do you agree with idol worship?

[Guest guest]

It is a common practice in Hinduism to worship idols of gods. What do you think of this practice and if you partake in it as well, how does it help you?

[Guest guest]

Exactly what problem do you have with idol worship? Do you think God will punish you for it?

 

Actually it is a common practice in bhakti-yoga and not all Hindu practice it. If people want to worship God in this way, what is wrong with it?

[Sephiroth]

I don't see why this practise should be a problem.

[barney]

Dear Suraj,

 

Allow me to explain what idol worship means to Hindus. Take for instance a child is born and the mother cares for the baby dearly from birth. Upon reaching certain months the child reconizes the face of the mother and is recored in its memory. If the mother moves away from the baby for a few seconds the child would gaze around and cry. Why? That is because it misses the face and security and the touch of the mother. Than comes the part of the father where the mother shows the child the father and lets him handle the baby together with her so that the baby gets accustom to the father's touch and care. Now the baby is double assured that it is more secured as there are two faces to look after it.

 

Hinduism is like a mother. It has shown us the form of GOD from the begining and we feel comfortable and secured with the idol of GOD and the feeling that GOD exist to protect us all. The real truth is we know that GOD is formless and HE is one and at the same time we believe that GOD with all his powers can take a form and manifest in any form as desired to fulfill the devotees undying love for HIM. That is the power of GOD otherwise how could HE have created us in this form.

 

Can you really love something which is invisible and you cannot feel? Love only comes when you imagine because if you do not imagine how would you fall in love with a girl. Surely you would want to picture her as a beauty that you would love to be with. It is same with GOD, if you do not picture HIM you will not show full devotion and love. That is the beauty of Hinduism. It gives you something to hold on to. You are not empty handed and feel unsecured. You will be lying to yourself if you say I love GOD when you do not picture HIM.

 

Muslims on the other hand do not love GOD but Mohammed. Because they have a rough idea of how he appeared from the discription of their religious text. That is why they will flare up when you speak bad about him. All the praising of " ALLAH UAKHBAR" is just a camoulage but deep inside it's Mohammed that they love because of his assurance of wine and women in paradise. His assurance that they are superior to all others and his assurance that Islam is the only true religon of GOD. Same goes to the Christans as they have much much more love for Jesus than GOD himself. That is because they have seen the scetch of Jesus. In the end it is all a figure or idol that one holds on to. And that my friend is "FAITH"

[Guest guest]

Take for instance a child is born and the mother cares for the baby dearly from birth. Upon reaching certain months the child reconizes the face of the mother and is recored in its memory. If the mother moves away from the baby for a few seconds the child would gaze around and cry***

 

Etc. etc. Excellent story, very moving indeed. But shall we stick to the subject, please?

 

Hinduism is like a mother. It has shown us the form of GOD from the begining***

 

and

 

The real truth is we know that GOD is formless****

 

Nice contradition, keep it up.

 

GOD with all his powers can take a form and manifest in any form as desired***

 

So God is so pathetic he takes multiple forms even though he's formless. Riiight!

 

Can you really love something which is invisible and you cannot feel? Love only comes when you imagine because if you do not imagine how would you fall in love with a girl. Surely you would want to picture her as a beauty that you would love to be with. It is same with GOD, if you do not picture HIM you will not show full devotion and love.***

 

Wow! Because you cannot love the *formless*, you give a form to the formless god and love him, knowing very well you're loving an unreal thing. Not suprising. I hear many people do that in their youth, especially girls with their barbie dolls and boys with their santa claus.

[Guest guest]

Hari OM

 

Both your and Barney's post are logical in their scope.

 

To proceed further we need to understand the concept of "Reality"

 

As per Vedas there are five types of realities

 

Perceptive reality: The reality as perecived by the senses (the everyday experience)

 

Cognitive reality: The reality as understood by mind by some clues (or parts) perceived by senses. A classical example given is the smoke. By seeing the smoke a man can understand the existence of fire, even though he might not have seen the fire itself, and this reality needs some amount of intelligence. for example even though animals and birds can see the smoke they can't deduce fire

 

Authoratitive reality: Reality based on some authority like Vedas , Gita or Guru (or even a scientist). Here we can neither see the reality itself or even the clues for reality. Example is existence of Heaven and Hell. We need to just accept the authority , no way to prove or disprove.

 

Scientific reality: This is realised in a deep mediative mood , when the mind dwells too long on a particular subject. Examples are scientific discoveries as well as some momentary glimpse of Truth. All (real) scientist, siddhas, prophets fall in this clause. Even though they see the truth, but it would be only for a fraction of time and they focus on one part of the total truth

 

Consicouness reality: Where the reality is directly "seen" by consicouness without any external aid, like senses, mind, authority etc., this is beyond explanation.

 

The reality about God can be seen only at the fifth level, until then we are only following authorative reality. It is just that your authority may be telling a completely contradicatory point of view than Barney's authority. There is no way for you to proove or disprove what Barney's authority says, similar to Barney has no way to proove or disprove what your authority says (in fact even trying to understand what one's authority really says in itself is almost an impossible task without good amount of effort and sincerity).

[barney]

###So God is so pathetic he takes multiple forms even though he's formless. Riiight!###

 

So you believe Krishna was not HIS menifestation? And so, you believe too GOD is powerless that HE cannot take a form? Than what do ou believe in? Muslims too believe in GOD but they believe GOD is powerless too as they think GOD cannot take a form to be with us. They ask a question why should HE? To this I think only GOD should reply directly. When I mean directly do not expect him to come invisible [formless] to talk to you, than you might say it is the voice of devil. He cannot come in the form of glowing fire, than you might think that this is the work of black magic. And he aproaches you in the form of human you might brush him asdie and say he is a lunatic.

 

Tell Bhimasena, in what form do you wish to see GOD. Please do not ask HIM to come down in HIS own form because HE is a million times more powerfull than the sun and you might be disintegrated. So, make up your mind before you wish to see HIM.

[Guest guest]

Dear all...Before making the assumption that idol worship is a contradictory aspect of a religion that states that God is formless, God is neither male nor female, has no beginning or end and is omnipresent, just stop to think about why such practices were introduced. India has suffered from many invasions that have brought with them intolerance and forceful conversions. Children were not allowed to attend school/university and many libraries full of religious text were destroyed. With literacy and Vedic knowledge at risk of extinction there were many initiatives that were introduced to simplify the religion and promote morals. One such initiative was to give pictorial representations of the different aspects of God. Thus emerged pictures of God in the form of a male and God in the form of female. It made God easier to identify and understand. With it, however, came confusion. People began to forget that it is not the pictures/sculptures themselves but the representation behind them they should worship. They also forgot that there is the one God who we as Hindus worship in different ways. God is in everything, but we appreciate the qualities of God in that when we see him as a preserver he is Vishnu, as a destroyer he is Shiva.

Whether or not Hinduism needs a revival in the removal of pictures/sculptures of God is up to the individual. Such practices have helped keep Hinduism alive so we should respect them.

 

[ajit12]

There was no idol worship in vedic religion & hinduism survived.The basis of idol worship is twofold

1] It is an idea borrowed from mahayana school of Budhism which laid emphasis on worship of Budha statues,stupas containing relics etc.These practices are apperent in Budhist temples all over the world.

2]Another reason was Hinduism adopted & took over places of worship of nonaryans ,shaktas etc.Deities such as Shiv,Shakti,Ganesh were added to hindu list of Gods.We also took over the centers of worship of these gods which were essentially temples & idols.over years this evolved into deep & elaborate rituals with beutiful temples.

There is nothing wrong with idol worship .It has always been way of worship in all multigod religions such as ancient Egypt,Babylon,Rome & greeks.We do not have justify this by giving convoluted arguments of deep thinking of our forefathers.Why not just say this was one of the several ways in which Hinduism evolved & these ways were all welcome in our religion.

[Guest guest]

We have all heard that the Muslims say.. 'let all the idolaters/idol worshippers goto hell'.

 

That we hindus can also agree, in what sense? well.. first of all we should be clear to tell the world that Vedic scriptures do NOT tell us to worship idol AS god.. (the idols and every other matter iis God's energy and comin from God and part of his power.. thats ok).. BUT the shastras teach us to worship God IN the idol.. which everyone shud be able to understand and accept...

 

Because, one of the characteristics is that the Lord is omnipresent. and thus the Lord is definitely in the idol too!! in that sense. Why shudnt the Lord be there? since the Lord is omnipresent and omnipotent.

 

So, we worship Lord in idol, which "represents" the Lord and thus lets us to eaaasily remember the Lord. and the idol cannot be jst anything, it should actually represent the Lord. Just like, ANY good, colorful piece of cloth cannot represent india.. it is ONLY that indian flag which represents india!!

 

ofcourse at a very high level of devotion we shud come to point of recognizing the presence of the Lord EVERYWHERE since the Lord is omnipresent. Just the same way Bhakta Prahlad saw the Lord inside everything and everywhere all the time.

 

those are my tiny thoughts as per my understanding..

 

-v

[Guest guest]

{It is an idea borrowed from mahayana school of Budhism which laid emphasis on worship of Budha statues,stupas containing relics etc.}

 

There may be some truth there but it is important to remember that idol worship in India, originated with the Jains and it was the Buddhists that adopted the practice then the Hindus during the period when the Puranas were written. It's also true that the Yajur veda does speak against Idol worship. Of course the Vedic religion believed in fire worship through the Havan.

 

{Why not just say this was one of the several ways in which Hinduism evolved & these ways were all welcome in our religion.}

 

Very well put and very honsest, thanks.

[Guest guest]

Hari OM

"We have all heard that the Muslims say.. 'let all the idolaters/idol worshippers goto hell'.

 

That we hindus can also agree, in what sense"

 

What the hell you are taking about, why should we agree with some barbaric race?

 

The way, time, form, i choose to worship is between me and my God? who the hell are you to say me to go Hell or Heaven, who gave that authority?

 

If my God likes my way of worship let him reward me, if He hates my way of worship then let He punish me. You have no right to interfer in my way. Don't create an Arabia in India.

 

[Guest guest]

I think you misunderstood what V Hebber said.

 

{What the hell you are taking about, why should we agree with some barbaric race?}

 

I agree, we can never agree with them.

 

{who the hell are you to say me to go Hell or Heaven, who gave that authority?}

 

For arguments sake the God of the Abrahamics, mainly Christians and Muslims. Because we are not believers in their religion we are instantly hated.

 

It's not about my god and your god, it's about different concepts of 'The God'. Imagine people are willing to kill over that, not only because they want to, but because they think it will please 'their' God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

 

For arguments sake the God of the Abrahamics, mainly Christians and Muslims. Because we are not believers in their religion we are instantly hated.

 

 

In addition to hating other religions, christians & muslims hate each other too! Do you think if you convince one of them that you are not really an idolator that their perspective of your religion will become positive?

 

There is no reason to seek approval from anyone. Religion is a personal thing and you do what you do without worrying about public opinion, inside or outside.

 

Cheers