If Hindu's worship idol's they are going against there scriptures...?

Question

Consider the following verse from the Gita:

"Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures."
[Bhagavad Gita 7:20]

The Gita states that people who are materialistic worship demigods i.e. ‘gods’ besides the True God.


UPANISHADS:

The Upanishads are considered sacred scriptures by the Hindus.

The following verses from the Upanishads refer to the Concept of God:

"Ekam evadvitiyam"
"He is One only without a second."
[Chandogya Upanishad 6:2:1]1

"Na casya kascij janita na cadhipah."
"Of Him there are neither parents nor lord."
[Svetasvatara Upanishad 6:9]2

"Na tasya pratima asti"
"There is no likeness of Him."
[Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:19]3

The following verses from the Upanishad allude to the inability of man to imagine God in a particular form:

"Na samdrse tisthati rupam asya, na caksusa pasyati kas canainam."

"His form is not to be seen; no one sees Him with the eye."
[Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:20]4

Answer 1

Good question.

One of the things I like about Hinduism is how they understand their gods to be. There is only one God in Hinduism - Brahman. All the other gods are recognized as mythical understandings and are not thought of as literal gods.

This type of understanding leads to a much more profound understanding of divinity than the literal and linear way most Westerners view religion and divinity. Hindus recognize the divine in all things, as all things and people are aspects of the oneness of Brahman (or Vishnu as the creative force in the universe). There is no "other", only Self as in God.

The stories of the Upanishads and of the Gita are not meant to be read as literal and historical. They are read as mythical in the most profound sense. You can't read these books with a Western mindset and expect them to make sense. Read them and feel what the stories point to, what they inspire, not if they are literally true.

Answer 2

If hindus worship idols, there is nothing wrong with it. they are perfect in what they are doing. they are not going against the scriptures. you must read all those scriptures properly.

do not pick a verse and quote, which is typical habit of a christian or a muslim. the same yard stick cannot be applied to hinduism and its scriptures. none of the hindu scriptures says idols are evil or they are against the scriptures.

whatever you quoted above are true and i agree 100% with it. but what you have not understood is your mistake. you have not studied hinduism. it shows you lack of knowledge on hinduism.

idols have a special place in hinduism. they are for a purpose. if you want to go to the 100th floor of a building, you just dont reach there the moment you thought floor no.100. you have to get into the elevator at the ground floor or wherever you are and move to floor no.100. apply the same yard stick - move from idol to the formless. that is why you find a hindu more graceful, charming, at peace with the world. they do not negate everythng like christians and muslims. everyone need time to evolve from one stage to other. that truth has to be seen and understood.

i do not know whether you understood those verses from Gita and Upanishads you quoted here. you said one more thing, upanishads are considered sacred. yes, for a hindu upanishad, gita, puran, vedas, samhitas, aranyakas and host of other scriptures are sacred. apart from it, the whole cosmos and all that contains in it is also sacred. nothing is excluded. everything is sacred - highest and lowest.

Answer 3

No, I don't think so.

What you quote from the scriptures is simply stating a condition that some people are subject to. I think it is just saying 'that`s the way things are'.

The people whose highest aspiration are idols and demigods are at the level they are at. All will change - some for the better and some for the worse.

Surely all the scripture is saying is that people who value materialism like their deities to be materialistic. In that sense it is perhaps a better alternative than them treating an unshaped ingot of gold as their idol.

Some people in valleys only aspire to climb to the top of the nearest hill, without realising that the nearby hills simply hide the more distant mountains from view.

Answer 4

What you have quoted are all correct . But god has two forms the Saguna and the Nirguna. Lord sent Uddhava to explain Nirguna brahman as quoted by you to the GOPI's of vrindavan.
Uddhava went and explained your quoted concepts to GOPIS.
The gopis unanimously said O uddhava we are asking for krishna who played with us, who stole butter and curd from us, .That Krishna who tendered the cows, played the flute. If your Brahman has no ear, no eyes , no form etc we surely do not want it we want our Krishna alone so please go back."
Uddhava then went to Raadha and tried to explain that Krishna had to go to Mathura as his duty called him there.
Radha asked him "which Krishna are you taking about? The one who is in front of me has never moved from here can you not see him.? Uddhava saw Krishna sitting there and smiling at him.
Uddahva the great exponent of vairagya and universal Brahman understood the truth.
He went back to Mathura and prostrated before the lord and said Lord pardon me I was proud and you have destroyed my pride I have lost to the Gopi's who have pure un udulterated love for you.
A child cannot understand the concept of Nirguna brahman. The puranas have described the lord in Physical form and there is a great science called Agama silpa sastra according to which the puranic Images aree sculptured. There are varoious vedic hyms and procedures according to which the Idol is installed after that the pran prathishta is done. There are many things which only the Hindu pundits and sanyasis know.So I requst you to go deep into hinduism study all the scriptures consult vedic pundits visit many temples and shrines befor making your observations

Answer 5

Very simple.
Just as Islam is always made out to be a religion of peace but then in every Islamic country there is killing, daily by the hundreds.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan & Sudan.
This does not include countries where the innocent have been killed by the thousands.

Your question is just a case of 'Pot calling the kettle black'.

Answer 6

Has anyone ever seen god, touched or sensed? We can only think of god as being the omnipotent. Do we really believe in what we preach? The answer lies between your heart and your mind. If your heart tells you something about something; it's you reflecting on your past experiences of life with emotion as you have perceived it without the element of intelligence. If it's your mind telling you something about something; it's your lifelong learning with or without emotion. God only exist in the form of what we know or we believe. God has given you an intellectual brain unlike any other of his creations; use it wisely!

Answer 7

If you are caught up in the concrete, one-dimensional meaning of words, then you live a very sterile, stagnant existence with no joy except to throw mere words at people. Expand your mind a little. See beyond the words.

Answer 8

No offense but if u are really interested in learning about the philosophy behind the idol (or learning about any other religion), u should research Hinduism (other religions) yourself rather than rely on what Zakir Naik and Co. have to say about other faiths. My answer will be REALLY REALLY long so i hope u read it.


In higher levels of Hinduism (Vedanta and Sankhya philosophy) we believe in "Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti" meaning "that which exists is one, sages call it by different names". There is no monotheistic polytheism in Vedanata, only monotheism. But Vedanta is beyond the scope of this question.

First let me tell u in brief about the concept of God in Hinduism.

Supreme Reality - Brahman has two aspects, transcendent (impersonal) and immanent (personal). In the impersonal aspect Brahman is without attributes (nirguna Brahman). In personal aspect (saguna Brahman) the God is creator, preserver and controller of the universe. Saguna Brahman is worshiped in male and female form. Hindu Deities represent various perceptions of a one God. Hindus believe in monotheistic polytheism, rather than polytheism.

The Hindu Trinity i.e. Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Shiva (destroyer) represent:
* Three Faces of Divine
* Three Cosmic Functions of the Supreme Lord
* Creation + Preservation+ Dissolution
* Generator + Operator + Destroyer = GOD



Now for the part on idol worship

Hindus do not worship idols as God's, they worship God in the form of idols.
Idol-worship is not peculiar to Hinduism. Christians worship the Cross. They have the image of the Cross in their mind. There are so many images in the catholic church. The Mohammedans keep the image of the Kaba stone when they kneel and do prayers. The people of the whole world, save a few Yogis and Vedantins, are all worshippers of idols. They keep some image or
the other in the mind.We can no more think about about anything without a mental image than we can live without breathing. By law of association The mental image calls up the mental idea and vice-versa.
Hence Hindus use an external image for worshiping.
As we find somehow or the other by the laws of our mental constitution we associate the idea of infinity with the blue sky, the ocean so we naturally connect our idea of holiness with the holy cross, the mosque, a church. The Hindus have associated the idea of holiness, purity, truth, omnipresence with external images and forms. But with this difference that some people devote their lives to the idol of the church and never rise higher because to
them religion means intellectual assent to certain doctrines, the religion of Hinduism is centered in realization. Man is to become divine by realizing the divine. Idols etc are only the support of the spiritual childhood.

The scriptures say that external worship is the lowest stage struggling to rise high, mental prayer is the next stage, and the highest stage is when God has been realized. The Hindu will
never call anyones idol or call its worship a sin. It is a necessary stage in life. The child is the father of the man so would it be right for the older man to say that childhood / youth is a sin? If a man can realize his divine self with the help of an image would it be right to call that a sin? Even when man has passed that stage it would not be correct to call it an error. To a Hindu, man does not travel from error to truth, but from truth to truth, lower to higher
truth. All religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism mean an attempt of man to grasp and connect with the infinite God. The absolute can only be realised of, or thought of, or stated through the relative and the images, the crosses, the crescents, kaaba, are simply so many symbols-so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for everyone, but those that do not need it have no right to say that it is wrong. Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism. "Idol worship" is just the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths. To Hindus all religions lead to the same goal. It is the same light through the glasses of different colors. But in the heart of everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared during his incarnation of Krishna that "I am in every religion as the thread through the string of pearls. Whenever thou seest extraordinary
holiness and power raising and purifying humanity know thou that I am there."

There is no expression in Hindu philosophy saying that only the Hindu will be saved and not others.



On earth there are many factors without which life cannot sustain, like water, air, fire, rain etc. All these are respected and given the status of devas. All the devtas are the servants of the supreme lord and carry out his orders. They are just various manifestations of the divine, and not God / Gods.



Each and everyone of us in different ways is an "idol worshiper". As i explained above Christians worship the Cross. They have the image of the Cross in their mind. There are images in the catholic church. The Mohammedans keep the image of the Kaba stone when they kneel and do prayers. They keep some image or the other in the mind. The mental image also is a form of idol. The difference is not one of kind, but only one of degree. All worshippers, however intellectual they may be, generate a form in the mind and make the mind dwell on that image.Everyone is an idol-worshipper. Pictures, drawings, etc., are only forms of Pratima or the idol. A gross mind needs a concrete symbol as a prop or Alambana and a subtle mind requires an abstract symbol.

Even a Vedantin has the symbol OM for fixing the wandering mind. It is not only the pictures or images in stone and in wood, that are idols but dialectics and leaders also become idols.

Let us take pictures / "idols" of your parents / Kaaba / the cross, if u do not worship it then surely u can spit on the "idols"? Can u make an image of the quran / bible and then spit on it / disrespect it? "Idols" in this case only help the human mind to stay focussed. It is in a way an image of God.

Answer 9

You obviously have no real compreshension upon the subject of which you are speaking. All the myriad god and goddesses are merely manifestations of Brahman.

Answer 10

that is so interesting. it's amazing how many people who "believe" in a religion don't follow it. like in the Koran it says that there is no compulsion of religion. it also says not to kill innocent people