IMAGE WORSHIP; RIGHT OR WRONG?
By: Dr. K.N. Bastola 

              Image could be, in the form of picture, art, symbol or a statue. In religion, statues are called idols, in case of eastern religions and icons, in case of Christian religion.

            We are human beings, and the more we learn, the wiser we become. There are various ways of learning, and we have different tastes. Kids love pictures, in a book, they in fact, don't like to read a book, without pictures. We adults are in fact, kids with larger bodies. There are two things in a book, which attracts us most, one is the story presented by the book (that's why, so many people, are grossed up, in  novels, specially on a train journey), and the other is, the picture, it contains. It has been found out that, people can conceptualise, understand and remember pictures, far more, than the textual description. Because, people remember the picture so easily, they become familiar with it , which creates a subtle bond between the picture and the person. Remember because of, defence mechanism, the brain tries to forget the unpleasant and difficult memory, from its store, where as pleasant and easy things are put in memory (Imagine, how sorrowful, our lives would be, if our brains continually remembered negative memories?). Since this process, of remembering images, is much more easier than descriptions, for average person, images clearly plays an important role in, understanding and appreciating things.

           Stories are also very easy to remember. People tend to remember the stories, they were told, during their child wood. Hinduism seems to have understood, this part of teaching method, and has created all those puranas, for easy memory and understanding  by the lay people.

What do images do to us?

  1. The presence phenomenon

              Let us say, a mother sees the photo of her son, who lives in a distant place. She looks at the picture, which makes her, vividly remember her son, and  she might even  shed a few tears. In fact, she might start talking to the picture, as if he were present. This is an example, of the tremendous effect of images, in our lives. What it does is, it recreates the presence. This is very important, for our emotions. And emotions, play a very important role, in our lives. Life without emotion, is meaningless. This, sense of presence phenomena, is very important, because we want our loved ones, to be, near to us. If the loved one is not there, the image will do the trick. This loved one, could be anything, including a deity.

  2.  The symbol phenomenon

           Symbols are very important in our lives. The symbol by itself, could be nothing, but it could manifest into a very powerful force. Say for example, the flag of a country. It is nothing but a piece cloth, with a coloured pattern, hanging on a pole. But it's symbolic importance is so great. Emotion, of a whole country, is tied up there. They wont let it down. Think about the half mast, which they do, when there is a sorrowful event, in the country. Similarly pictures, statues etc., can act as a very powerful symbol, to the general people. Symbolic presentation, is important, in any play. Image of deity, act as  a symbol. It acts as a symbolic representation of the deity. It recreates the presence of the deity. The attached manifestation of it, is very powerful. Powerful enough to have, a deep meaning in our lives, which could even change its course.

                  What is Bhakti? It is an emotional act of devotion, as opposed to the dry gnana, in which, there is no rasa of emotion. Images play a very important role, in Bhakti.

Is God there, in the statue?

                     Some people will, straightaway, reject the idea of God being present, in a statue. This feeling, is very much more rampant, in Islamic belief. In fact, part of the world history, has been shaped (or misshaped), on the basis of this phenomena, of rejection, of  the idea of God being present, in the statue, a non living thing. In fact Koran itself, dictates Muslims, to kill the idolaters (?iconolaters). The only good thing, about this fact, is that, the followers of the Koran, will not be allowed to do, this sort of killing of people of other religions, now and in the future, even in the Islamic countries, because, that is against the norm of modern  civilisation. We must be thankful, to the modern civilisation, for that protection. The practice of tolerating  idol/icon worshipers, by letting them live, in an Islamic country, without paying jijya tax, is distinctly unislamic. I would like to make it clear here that, it was not the Muslims, who killed people of other faith,  bad people. They were simply following their religion.

Let us look at the argument side of things, in  relation to, statue or symbol worship--

                 Major religions in the world describe God, as Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, without beginning or end and the creator of the Universe . This applies, to the God of Hinduism, Christianity, as well as Islam. If we regard God, as omnipresent, then we can't say God is not present, in the statue or the picture. By the very definition of omnipresence, God has to be present everywhere. In other words,  if God is not present in the statue, then, that God, cannot be omnipresent.

               If we regard God as omnipotent, then we must also say, that he/she can manifest, in the form of, a statue or a picture. If he/she cannot do that, than he/she, is not omnipotent.

Temple/Church/Mosque

               These buildings, themselves, have, a unique symbolic importance. The followers,  are attracted towards these buildings. They are attached to pray. They are buildings, where connection to God is made, or to put it  literally,  'God is found there'. The building itself, acts as a picture or a statue, to remind people of God. It becomes, a symbol of God. It's symbolic importance, and its attachment, to human emotion, can be seen, even  in Muslims, by the fact that, if any body destroys a mosque,  a Muslim becomes very upset. The mosque itself acts as a powerful symbol.

Shakti and temple

               There are two types of temples. One is with Shakti and the other without it. Shakti temples are also of two types,

   1. Shakti  is there naturally, i.e. a temple is made over the shakti, e.g. Lord Pashupatinath's temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
   2. Shakti is impregnated into the temple/statue, by gurus, who have  shakti.

                This shakti, makes the temple, and the statue, special. That's why people come, to have a darshan of the shakti, from far away places.

               Some of the historic Churches, do have legends associated , and are more attached, to the symbolic importance of the place, because of the legends, rather than being, actual shaktipith. Other Churches are, place of remembering God, rather than having actual shakti pith.  Hence these Churches, cannot be called shaktipith.

              While Christians, also worship statues in the Church, like the Hindus, the Church statues are mostly devoid of Shakti.

            While there are, many shaktipiths(temples), for the Hindus, Muslims have one shakti pith i.e. the Kaba. They did, possibly, have another, shaktipith, in Jerusalem, which was regarded as, the main shaktipith, by the Muslims, before prophet Mohammed, directed his followers,  towards Kaba. Since the people, have started researching,  the preislamic history, culture and religion of Islam, may be, in due course of time, one may find  evidence, to suggest, that the Kaba is, a Hindu shaktipith. What a Muslim does, to the elliptical stone in kaba, which could be siva lingum, is exactly, what a Hindu does, with a siva lingam, at other place- i.e. pray. Only the style is different. The argument by the Muslim, that they do not pray, immaterial objects, is not true. While the Muslim prays to the stone, in the Kaba, a Hindu prays, to siva lingam, at other places. If a Muslim says, that there is no God in the statues, how can they justify the presence of God in the stone of Kaba?

God  and the scientific community

              It is one thing to say, on the basis of impression, that there is no God in the image, it is quite another, to prove, that there is no God there. This applies to the existence of God itself. Yes it is easy, for the scientific community, to rely on natural selection, with its immense problem of missing link, and also on impression, without any scientific basis, to say that, there is no God. Remember, a scientist cannot, prove or disprove anything, on impression alone. Scientist cannot, just say, there is no God. They have to prove, that there is no God. Important question is, have they done any research on God?  To make an inference, on any subject, without proper study of it, will definitely hinder the scientific research and hence the development of a civilisation. This is not good, for science itself. The scientific position should be, ‘I don't know, because, we have not done enough research on it.’ It should also not be , ‘there is no way we can research on God’, because, the question which will follow this will be, ‘have you gone to the right places, to collect evidences? Have you checked, the wonderful, paranormal evidences, provided by Yoga, Meditation and Tantra, which are, only available in Hinduism and which,  the Hindus have so proudly, preserved since ages?
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           Hinduism has distinctly two level of, worship/understanding, of the religion. One is  that understood/worshiped, by the lay people, which includes, listening to puranic stories and doing pujas etc., the other, is the deep study, of the religion and philosophy as well as the practice, of  yoga, meditation etc. The relation between Hindus and image is very complex. It  plays an  important role, in the first level.

Let us look at the purpose of religion

           The purpose of religions, is to take guidance from the philosophy of the religion and try to come, near God, through Karma,Gnana and bhakti. The puja of statue, comes under bhakti, where, there is rasa of emotion, and  where, the  dry  gnana, is not important.

         When we discuss about, the practice of statue/image worship, we have to look at it, through different angles, as follows.-

  1. Is god present in the image?

           There is no way, an average human being, can prove or disprove, the presence of God, in the statue, at present. How ever, if we assert, omnipresence and omnipotence to God, then logically, we must say, there is God in the statue. Moving away from, what people assert God to be, we cannot, at present,  prove either the  existence or the non-existence of God, or his/her presence, in the statue, scientifically. This argument will take us nowhere. It is important, to leave this matter, at the moment, and concentrate on, other factors associated with image worship, in order to say, if it is right or wrong  to do so.

2. Is it beneficial to mankind?

            We human beings, are seeking a supernatural figure, who can give us the strength and if possible, a boon to live and progress. The strength, could be in the form of, real shakti or in the form of, emotional confidence. Emotion, acts in the mind, and mind, is the controller of the body. So, emotional strength, plays, a very important role, in our well-being. The statue gives us, the feeling of presence of God in it. For arguments sake, even if we say, God is not there, it is  there, for the believer, because of the factors discussed above, like a mother shedding tears of joy, seeing the picture of a, long lost son. It is like a country, being attached to the flag. It gives people, an incredible feeling of joy, to find  someone they adore to be, right in front of them. This feeling of joy, is definitely a positive trait. This does not hurt anybody else. It is difficult to understand the creed, which advocates,  killing of these joyous people.

            Even, if there is no real shakti, the emotional sakti, is enough, to be very much beneficial, to the development of mankind, through a positive force. That's why, I cannot say, image worship is a bad practice.
                           
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