Hindu veneration of statues - Essay Example

The arms of Lakshmi, for example, remind onlookers of her generosity in caring for her husband Siva. Another common form is the sacred cow who is associated with the goddess Shri, and reminds worshippers of the virtue of gentleness and non-violence. People acknowledge these statues as they pass with a gesture and there is evidence of offerings of gifts like colorful flowers or foodstuffs. The visual nature of Hindu belief can be explained with the concept of “darsan” which a special kind of reverent seeing: “the central act of Hindu worship, from the point of view of the lay person, is to stand in the presence of the deity and to behold the image with one’s own eyes, to see, and to be seen by the deity.

”1 Eastern people greet each other by putting their hands together, and lowering their heads, as a gesture of respect, and they do this to their religious statues too. Even simple objects like rocks or caves can be revered in this way, and this reverence for natural objects and man-made statues reveals a great sensitivity to the presence of the divine in every person, animal or object in the created world. Hindu believers include ceremonies involving religious statues into all of their festivals and celebrations, some having a special relevance at certain times of year, for example Lakshmi in the Diwali festival.

In some ways this is similar to Roman Catholic processions at Easter time, or special mass services in chapels devoted to particular saints or on special saints days or commemorative events. In the Roman Catholic faith the statues are an aid to focusing on God, who is invisible and hard to imagine. In Hinduism there is a very similar approach, whereby the representations of the divine give a concrete and local expression to very general truths: “The sacred image or symbol of the god represents a means of union with the divine, but is not usually identified with the deity – the god or goddess only temporarily resides within the fabric of the image.

”2 The second part of this observation can be interpreted as idolatry, and this has brought Hinduism into conflict with Christians in the past. Hindu gods are very flexible when it comes to the form that they take, and instead of one single incarnation of the divine into Jesus Christ, there is the possibility that statues can temporarily be an embodiment of the god. The modern usage of the word “avatar,” which people use across the world to signify a virtual persona on the internet, illuminates the relationship which people have with the statues: the avatars are obviously not divine in themselves, just as computer avatars in video games are not real people, but they are used by the being behind them to interact in a different dimension of experience.

The god shows himself or herself through the statue, and in fact each god can take many forms, and sometimes a statue is made of wood, or stone, or any other material, especially to serve as a locus for the god to descend into for the duration of a particular festival in his or her honor: “… on the full moon day at the beginning of the hot season in March/April, the Sri Vaisnavas of Madras carry the images of Visnu from their respective temples to the sea-shore, where all, including the deities, have a refreshing dip in the surf.

”3 Because of the changeable nature of the outward form of their gods, Hindus see no contradiction in seeing different