Idol

Knowledge, Information and Experience

There is a logical reason why keeping broken idols of gods in temples or at home is discouraged, and it has nothing to do with bad luck.

Offering prayers before broken idols is considered inauspicious in India. It is believed that such an act brings bad luck. Let’s break this myth of bad luck today. There is a logical reason why keeping broken idols of gods in temples or at home is discouraged, and it has nothing to do with bad luck.

Be it in Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other religion- just because an idol of god is broken or the picture is torn- the image of the deity in essence does not lose any grace. 

However, when you worship a defected image, your mind can go back and forth, noticing the defect in the image every time you pray in front of it. According to scriptures, a person should have his/her complete focus on the deity while praying. He should have a clear picture of the deity in his mind while offering prayers.

If an idol is broken, then given the fidgety nature of the human mind, a person might not be able to focus on God; instead his mind will keep getting distracted. And such prayers don’t yield any results.

Why do Hindus do Idol Worship? A Scientific and Spiritual exploration

Idols in the Hindu temples are not toys or statues. They are physical bodies which have been energized to vibrate in a certain way such that they impact everything around them. The entire concept and the science behind the idols and their handling is given under Agama Shastra, a tantric scientific methodology that has been perfected over many millennia. The idol as indeed the entire temple becomes a vibrating body that can impact any person that is in the vicinity of the temple. This practice of energizing idols was traditionally known as “Prana Prathishta“, literally meaning Establishment of the Life force in the idol. In English, although not completely consistent, we could use the word consecration for it.

Is it even possible to energize a physical substance, one may ask, in such a way that it can impact physical reality, using meditational techniques? Can something which is apparently being done via mental and intentional ways, impact physical reality? The answer lies in the research by Stanford’s Dr. William Tiller.

Again, this concept of the Hindus has been proven to be in alignment to the distinction between Quantum world and the Physical world. Even though every molecule is distinct with its own properties, at the sub atomic level, it is one wave! Somewhere, the wave gives way to the material reality as one goes from subtle to the gross.

In this vast expanse of One Indivisible Universal Consciousness, everything conceivable is a manifestation of that same One showing up at the gross level as matter. That is why, even though Sanskrit term for Creation is Kriti, the Hindus never used it to describe this Existence. Instead they used the term Srishti! Srishti comes from the word Srijan. Srijan is the growing of a tree from a seed. Tree is the manifest form and seed the unmanifest.

Is a Hindu’s idol God? Scientifically and Spiritually it is a resounding YES! At a more mundane level, that idol has been consecrated or energized to bring well being to him. It is therefore a complete system of Spiritual and Social growth, something that those who denounce Idol Worship have never been able to comprehend. Both Spiritually and Scientifically they have made a fool of themselves!