IDOLATRY AND DOGMATISM: THE VEILS OF MAYA

Hinduism and Idolatry

As a universal tradition, Hinduism contains within itself a place for all forms of worship from the most basic ritual to the highest meditation. This includes worship with and without form - whatever may be valid for different human temperaments and stages of development. Therefore Hinduism employs abundant forms of all types, as well as every sort of formless meditational approach. Most Hindus use images in their religious worship and most Hindu temples contain many of them.

This abundance of forms has been criticized by aniconic (anti-idolatry) traditions not as a universal approach, but as the idol worship of primitive people. They associate Hindu images with the idolatry and perversion that was charged against the Pagans by the Christians, Jews and Muslims. The idea is that whoever uses images in religious worship is somehow immoral, perhaps a worshipper of the devil, and does not know there is only One God.

Image worshippers may be lumped together with criminals, perverts, or whoever at the moment is regarded as representing deviant behavior in society, as if the use of images led to moral depravity. Such ideas are prejudice, if not bigotry, and are akin to racism and its negative stereotypes. People who hold them never take the time to communicate with so-called idolaters and find out what they are really doing (and discover that they are also human beings, often with more love and tolerance than the religious zealots who attack them).

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