Idol Worship
“Don’t confuse the moon with the finger pointing to it”
– Buddhist proverb
The above saying is implicitly built-in to Hindu culture. Hindus embellish God with numerous decorations, stories, etc. These decorations can manifest as Krishna, Shiva, Kali, Ammachi, Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, etc.
The word “idol” is a crude shallow-minded word (and even demeaning). Hindus (those who haven’t succumbed to 400 years of British indoctrination) prefer the word murthi (Sanskrit मूति). An even more abstract terminology is yantra (Sanskrit यन्त्रा, literally means “device”). An image of God in you favorite liking, including flowers, oil lamp, incense sticks, bells, chanting, chakra images,… are all yantras, to help focus your mind.
Hindus may give the same reverence and respect to the murthi, as they would to God. But will not confuse it as literally being God. For example, if the murthi were destroyed, they would recreate the murthi, and give the same reverence to the new murthi as they would do to God. This is because the murthi is not God, but a porthole to God.
Hindus believe if you energize anything (a mala, a stone, a picture, etc) by constantly “rubbing it” with mantras, puja, focus, etc, it opens up a porthole to God (just as one does “internally” in meditation). This is why great value is placed on murthis of ancient antiquity and murthis that have been worshipped by people with lot of spiritual focus (like sages, siddhars, sadhus, monks, etc).
Just as if you rub a piece of metal with a magnet, the metal becomes magnetized. There is an experiment which shows if you expose a cup of water to angry/harsh words, and expose another cup of water with love and affection, a sample of the later will form beautiful snow-flake-like patterns when it is crysalized, while the former will not.
Idol Worship In Other Cultures
Pop Culture
While in the West it is common to witness thronging crowds of thousands around pop star idols, in India it is much more common to witness a similar passion around more real idols – that represent Higher Wisdom, Learning, Strength, and Compassion. Over a dozen times a year, crowds of several thousands throng to a temple — tens of thousands on special days, and hundreds of thousands on festival days.
Idol worship by Hindu’s spiritually nourishes and insulates their soul (their sense of self and identity) from being hijacked by mass-market pop-culture (and the peer pressure and stress associated with) that can make your soul spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually weak and impoverished.
When Hindus do it, it is called “idol worship”, but when modern science does it is called “guided imagery”. Guided imagery is a technique used by psychiatrists to instil a positive role model image — where one is lacking in the real world.
Ancient India (and other indigenous cultures) has produced numerous spiritually enlightened sages because of their ability to harness their mind into extreme focus within meditation (to the point difference between subject and object disappears, you get a glimpse of the One, the Source). In contrast, Christianity produced only a handful of enlightened sages because it has less devices/yantras, and Islam even fewer – only one (because they absolutely forbid devices – symbols, idols, even music).
Religion — in this case mass market pop culture and the addiction associated with it, is the opium of the masses. True religious feeling/inspiration (i.e. spirituality, yoga) is not really “religious”, but about spiritual growth: knowledge, wisdom, compassion, humility, strength. Any religion that suppresses any one of those (like the pursuit of knowledge, including the freedom to ask critical questions) is a cult and easily prone to fanaticism.
Christianity
Christian missionaries tend to portray Hindus as some sort of primitive idol worshipers worthy of the need to be saved. If one were to cast the same narrow lens – we could look at Christianity as some sort of perverse religion where they worship (and their God is represented by) “some dead man nailed to two wooden planks” . Or one can choose to characterize Christians as cannibals (or crude cannibalistic rituals) when they symbolically partake the drinking of the blood of Christ and eating the flesh of Christ (in Churches, red-wine and bread are offered as “the blood and flesh of Christ”).
The Christian might protest that I’m ignorant and don’t know what I am talking about. Precisely my point: that Hindus are broadminded enough (since way back before Christianity) to understand the symbolism of other faiths, but for some reason these other faiths don’t reciprocate that.
One could call it Christ worship, Mother Mary worship, or cross worship. One can also say Christianity even has pagan rituals like “Christmas tree” celebration and Halloween. Ironically these rituals came from the pagans of Europe, which Christian missionaries so brutally wiped out while at the same time expropriating cultural artifacts from them, like their reverence for Nature (the worship of trees — later shamelessly turning it into a “Christmas” tree). Christianity was a marketing machine even from the early days, and they felt the only way to win over heathen cultures (like the pagans) was to absorb and incorporate things from their cultures into theirs (i.e. after centuries of persecution failed). That is, if you can’t beat them, you buy them. This stretches all the way back to the Romans who tried to kill Christ’s teachings (and the dedication of his Jewish followers). When the Romans found they couldn’t beat them, they turned the tables around by expropriating Christ and his teachings, and selling it back as “Christianity” (making the Jews as the evil people). Just like companies do a hostile acquisition of a competitor when they find they cannot beat it.
Perhaps because these other “faiths” are not just faiths, but religions (i.e. by definition fundamentalist in nature; i.e. “my way or the highway” attitude). It is only natural then that they would not care to accomodate the idea of symbology to other faiths. Yet, another justification why religion needs to go.
Islam
Similarly one can argue that many Muslims have pretty much idolized the Koran. Not to mention that the word “Allah” in Arabic script. I remember early in the Iraq War, a US soldier was beaten to death because he took a flag off its post and kicked it — apparently the flag had the words Allah written on it in Arabic. This happens on a much larger scale that does not make it to headline news: that even the smallest criticism of Mohammed is dealt with severely in many Islamic countries – including death or punishment by lapidation.
If one were to look at Islam with the same narrow lens that it looks at other faiths then one can say Islam is “Koran worship” (the way the smallest ill-treatment of the Koran, whether it be in words or physically is a grave offence), Mohammedism (even if not in form, in concept the idolization of Mohammed as the role model beyond question, and any questioning is a grave offence), or “black-stone worship” – referring to the millions who throng to Mecca to worship/kiss the locket around a black-stone known as the Kaaba (“the Abode of Allah”). Or for that matter the thousands that go for the “stoning of the devil” (not worship, but idolization nevertheless; a sort of reverse-worship, or allegiance to Allah through negative-reinforcement).
The Muslim might protest that I’m ignorant and don’t know what I am talking about. Precisely my point: that Hindus are broadminded enough (since way back before Islam) to understand the symbolism of other faiths, but for some reason these other faiths don’t reciprocate that.
Islam can be accused of not taking the least attempt to appreciate (not just tolerate) other faiths; because of the inherent belief that theirs is the true faith. This is in contrast to Hindu culture that has welcomed countless number of faiths over thousands of years – with exception of inherently fundamentalist faiths (like Christianity and Islam). Islam/Christianity only begrudgingly accepted the pluralism of Hindus (and because of that they were only begrudgingly integrated at a far slower rate than other numerous faiths and cultures that today comprise Hinduism).
Concluding Remarks
When a Christian bows down to a wooden cross, is the wooden cross God? When millions of Muslims go on pilgrimage to Mecca to kiss the black-stone, is God in there? All these are symbols elevated to the sacredness of God. When a mathematician draws a symbol of infinity, is that small symbol infinity? No, it is representational of infinity.
Similarly, each of these numerous representations of God that Hindus have are just that, representations. Each representation is God in totality to the Hindu. So not only is Hinduism not idolatry, nor polytheistic, but possessing a broadmindedness and pluralism way beyond its time (compared with those countries who are still struggling to embrace even the concept of pluralism). Total freedom of expression of expressing your love/vision of God in whatever way or form you like (i.e., not limited by some “religion” to be only one way – like a wooden cross, black-stone, a particular prophet, or a particular holy book).