Idol Worship?
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.
So if idol worship by Hindu’s insulates their soul (sense of self, identity) from being hijacked by mass-market pop-culture (and the peer pressure and stress associated with), and spiritually empowers you (instead of making your soul spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually weak and impoverished), then so be it!
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. The word “idol” is a crude shallow-minded word, not to mention insulting. Hindus (those who haven’t succumbed to 400 years of British indoctrination that still reeks in their school text books) 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.
This is why 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 – produced 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 worshippers worthy of the need to be saved. If I were to cast the same narrow lens – we can look at Christianity as “dead man nailed to a cross worship”. Or one can chose to characterize Christians as cannibals when they symbolically partake the drinking of the blood of Christ and eating the flesh of Christ.
Or also cross worship, Christ worship, or Mother Mary worship. One can also say Christianity even has pagan rituals like “Christmas tree” worship (ironically the ritual did come from the pagans of Europe, which Christian missionaries so brutally wiped out while at the same time expropriating artefacts from their cultures) to Halloween.
The Christian or Muslim might protest that I don’t know what I am talking about, that I am maligning Jesus or the Koran. Precisely my point. It is interesting 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.
Perhaps because these other “faiths” are not just faiths, but religions (i.e. inherently fundamentalist in nature; i.e. “my way or the highway” attitude)? Naturally then why would they care to accomodate or extend their vision 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. Similarly even the smallest criticism of Mohammed is dealt with severely in many Islamic countries – including 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”, Mohammedism, “Allah worship” (of the scripted word Allah), 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”).
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 Hindus who have appreciated thousands of faiths over thousands of years – with exception of inherently fundamentalist faiths (like Christianity and Islam) who do not reciprocate that act of appreciation.