B K Karkra
As believed by the Jews and the early Aryans, God is a Formless Eternal. Yet, this also could not be but true that He is capable of assuming any form. After all, He has created all the boundless matter and energy and countless life forms that we are physically aware of. Such an omnipotent Being could be presumed to be capable of incarnating Himself in any way that He might will. Whether He has actually done it in a particular instance or ever at all, is another matter. Whatever be the truth, man needs to relate Him to something known to him. There has to be an address to send prayers to.
. We have to thus think of God as someone or something, so as to be able to concentrate on Him conveniently. This is where the shrines with idols and paintings therein lend us a helping hand. This is what Pope, Gregory the Great, wrote in this context, “A painting can do for the illiterate what writing does for those who can read”. One of the ancient Fathers of the Christian Church, John of Damascus, explained the relevance of the icons equally aptly in his words, “What a book is to the literate, that an image is to the illiterate”. Concurring with the reverend Father, the Seventh General Council of the Greek and Roman churches that was held in AD 787, declared that pictures, images, cross and Gospels should be held in reverent regard for “the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents—”
Thus He was set in varied forms for human convenience from time to time.
The Jewish God, Yahweh, is believed to have descended on Mount Sinai hidden in a swirling storm of fire and smoke to leave His message with Moses in the form of some commandments. His first commandment was, “You must not make any molten gods for yourself”. The Jews, therefore, do not set up any idols in their synagogues. They satisfy their artistic urges by preparing their primary religious symbols— six pointed Star of David, Menorah (seven-branched candelabrum) and Torah mantles— in all sorts of richly ornamented designs. When they pray to Yahweh and focus on these symbols, their mind must be quietly slipping on to that benign ball of fire that descended on Mount Sinai before Prophet Moses. Another focus available to them for prayer is the site of their historic temple at Jerusalem, of which only a breast wall has survived to wail against.
Hindus began with silent meditations out in the open. They soon picked up a focus for their prayer in the form of a primordial sound that the cosmos produces in the course of its eternal motion at an unimaginably high speed. This celestial revolution takes place around the biggest mass of matter cast out after the Big Bang or the biggest star of the universe. One of their seers is believed to have heard it echoing endlessly from the far off cosmic regions something like ‘O o o o—-m’. All else emanates in the Hindu consciousness from this phenomenon, whether it is ‘The Trinity’, various ‘Avatars and their consorts/progeny and the countless gods and goddesses. The multi-focal way of looking at the God`s universe does not detract them from their belief in oneness of God. All that it indicates is that they believe that everything in the cosmos— the living beings, Sun, stars, stones, plants, wind, water, fire and so on— bears His touch and divinity lies scattered everywhere. You just focus on anything that appeals to you and you will find God peeping out of it. A saintly soul, Sarmad, used to be moving around naked at public places during the Aurangzeb era. The emperor had no stomach for such things. He ordered him to be beheaded. The godly man walked to the execution chamber with the excitement of a child being taken to Disneyland. Once there, he saw the executioner`s sword reflecting the image of God and exclaimed that he would not miss to recognize Him in whatever form He cared to come. If divinity could be seen in the executioner`s sword, it could surely be seen in everything else.
Formless ‘Om’ was difficult to concentrate on by the common man. Faces, figures and familiar objects were thus brought in for the convenience of His worship. These beings and objects are just suggestive of His presence and serve as focal devices for man to concentrate his mind on their Creator. What falls to their share is just the veneration and the worship part of it is meant solely for the divinity that they reflect. It is true that sometimes temples are exclusively dedicated to various deities and the rites that are performed there amount to worship. But it is equally true that they are not worshipped as God. If anybody thinks that Hindus worship Surya Dev (Sun God), Hanuman (Monkey god), various planets, plants and animal (cow for instance) as God, he is mistaken. They are just venerated as God`s gift to man and as the reflectors of His glory. This becomes abundantly manifest when worshipers of all hues periodically congregate in millions during the Kumbh festivals on the banks of sacred rivers, with their faces lit with just one light and their eyes bespeaking of just one belief. It is a sea of humanity surging to touch the feet of God, the Creator of all in the universe.
Buddhism and Jainism also needed images to flourish. Memories have a tendency to fade and vanish with time. Images help to keep these alive. Millions of Buddha icons were thus cast in various metals and sculpted in stones to sustain him in the mind of his faithful. Same was the case with Mahavira and the earlier Tirathankars. The vandals sometimes felt that they could destroy the human faith by melting the statues, blasting the sculptures and throwing the idols out of the temples for being ruthlessly trampled. But all this physical damage could not obliterate their images stamped on human heart. Human mind cannot reconcile to the view of He being just a nothingness.
The Jew thought of Yahweh as their private God. They believed that if they worshipped Him and kept their word given to Him, He would ensure their prosperity and keep them out of the harm`s way. Jesus universalized Yahweh in to everybody`s God and paid for this with his life. His hanging on the cross made the hideous wood holy and provided the Christian world a focus for their prayer, the Holy Cross. Jesus often lovingly referred to God as ‘Father’. By that he meant the ‘Universal Father’ that He actually is. On his death, however, his companions and disciples fondly declared him to be the ‘Son of God’, born to Virgin Mary through some divine intervention. Joseph, his worldly father, got pushed out of the frame. The faithful, thus, found another focus, a celestial baby held in the arms of the Virgin who could be brought before mind while engaging with the Divine.
Similarly, the Sikhs have their ten Gurus and holy Granth Sahib to set their mind on the ‘Sat Purakh’. Besides, they have the Golden Temple and other magnificent shrines to help them feel in audience with God as they pray. The melodious chanting of hymns in His praise (gurbani) lifts their mind to a loftier plain where they can feel themselves to be in communion with the Divine.
Man has to, thus, think of God as something. This imperative need for focus has given rise to numerous shrines of breathtaking architectural beauty in the world. God is, of course, right there in the heart of man. Yet, it is difficult for a common man to locate Him within. It is much easier for him to believe that He has His abode in temples, churches, mosques, synagogues, Gurdwaras and other shrines. Certain symbols available there help him to feel His presence there. Icons and symbols, thus, have an importance of their own in the world of faith. Religions surely need images to reinforce their message. You remove all the shrines, religious sculptures and paintings etc. from the world, the religions would feel orphaned.
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