Idol-worshippers

Idol-worshippers

There has been a mistaken idea, and fortunately it is dying out, that Hindus are idol-worshippers, and that they are worshippers of many Gods. They are ideal worshippers and not idol-worshippers. Their symbols are not idols. Their Ultimate God or Reality is called ‘Brahman’, and it becomes ‘Atman’ when individualized.

During the Vedic period, forces of nature were addressed as minor gods and goddesses. The Gods of the sub-division in Hinduism, such as ‘Skanda’ and ‘Ganesha’ are personifications of the Divine Attributes of the ‘Para Brahman’ or ‘Parama Sivam’. They are not different from the ‘Absolute Reality’. In the Vaishnava cult, Rama, Krishna, and others are worshipped as ‘Avatars of Maha-Vishnu.’

(This is a part of the excerpts of the speech of Mr. Ramachandra, the highly esteemed Editor of the internationally famous ‘Religious Digest’, who delivered this speech to sixty four Roman Catholic Nuns, belonging to different Orders, at the Aquinas University College, Colombo in 1971.)