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.)
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