Re: Idol Worship - Reply to Mani
Posted By Ram V Chandran (chandran.burke@juno.com)
Sat, 24 May 1997 23:55:24 EDT
Varadarajan writes:
> Now, when it comes to the belief systems of the modern,
> English-speaking, alienated Hindu, such as those who regularly
> frequent SRH and quote isolated phrases from the Upanishads and
> the Gita with gay abandon -- well then, all bets are off.
I always respect the services of Sri Mani Varadarajan to the
Hindu Community through his Vaishnava Home Page in the Internet. He is
very knowledgeable on Vaishnava traditions and temple worship as
demonstrated in his various postings. I want to take this opportunity to
thank Sri Mani for facilitating me to grasp the significance of temple
rituals related to installations and worship of idols.
We are endowed with virtues and weaknesses. Humility is a virtue
and Ego is a curse. We need the Grace of God to curtail our Ego and show
humility in our actions and expressions. Ego blinds our eyes, ears and
mind and we incline to show arrogance and intolerance. Ego is a human
weakness and I or Mani is no exception. I have noticed that in several
of his recent postings he has shown less tolerance to other points of
views on "Idol worship." I am confident that with the grace of Lord
Venkateswara and Lord Ranganatha, he should be able to appreciate and
understand that TRUTH can be spoken in more than one way by more than one
person! It shouldn't be too difficult for Bhaktas (believers of God)
like me or Mani to SURRENDER our "EGO" and show more humility in our
expression.
Now let us turn our attention to the topic of discussion on "Idol
worship." Few years back Prof. V. Krishnamoorthy, a retired faculty from
Birla Institute of Technology has published the book, "Essentials of
Hinduism," (Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi). This book with a
foreword by Swami Chinmayananda was blessed by Periyaval (His Holiness
Sri. Kanchi Kamakoti Peetadhipathi). Professor Krishnamoorthy was trained
systematically in Hindu scriptural literature in the traditional manner
by his father Viswanatha Sastrigal, a scholar well known in India for his
expositions in Hindu religion and philosophy. Let me quote the relevant
paragraph from his book on "Idol Worship" (page 5, paragraph 2).
"An Idol serves the same purpose for a religious devotee as a
flag does for an army. Hinduism clearly lays down that mental worship is
superior to the worship of images. In fact, however, it must be admitted
that all worship is idol worship. Primitive man made a scrawl of a head
on a wall and called it God. Civilized man shuts his eyes and imagines an
anthropomorphic image with arms and legs and calls it God. Both are
idols. The difference is not one of kind but only of degree. Hinduism has
the courage to say so; it also has the humanity to admit within its fold
even those who cannot rise above grossly concrete representations of God.
A common labourer and an intellectual scholar require different concepts
of God to satisfy them. So Hinduism declares that each can worship God in
whatever form suits his competence and stage of spiritual evolution."
A simple example may be helpful to understand the significance of
"Idol Worship." When we were in the Elementary and Kinder garden
schools, we needed books with lots of symbols and pictures. But in
middle schools and high schools the books that we read did not contain
any symbols or pictures (at the most very few). Until we mature enough
to understand that "Godhead is nameless and formless" we do need plenty
of gods and goddesses in the most likeable decorated forms!
.
