Why worship deities?

What benefit accrues from worshipping a statue in a temple?

Yes , many-most seek the blessing, gifts a deity may bestow.

But many truly saintly Hindus offer prayers to divinities out of pure devotion.
What do you feel this creates within them.... by offering garlands and gifts to statues of deities? Or rather the spirit they represent?

I understand some Indian saints have done this to consecrate a temple, so it attains an energy for others to benefit from later on.
Is there yet more reason for devotion? Or is devotion of this sort beyond explanation, and something some just are urged to do.

I was raised Catholic very long ago, and I guess we do-did something rather similar. And statues were simply a way to visualize ones focus of love or prayer.

Yet for us it was more semi-passive tradition than passion....
and perhaps a certain magic is born from this kind of devotion.

The devotion levitating saints must have experienced.

I guess this is a tradition for many religions . now that I think of it.
I've never had an alter, statue or image that I prayed to ,or used for meditation.
Not even in childhood. I prayed , but never using an image, crucifix or statue as a focus.
Even in church, I never looked at anything during prayer.

There's still something to be learned here.

It seems perhaps the devotion expressed to Deities. their statues, may imbue them with a spiritual essence they otherwise would not have... and more easily allow those divinities to manifest blessings when pilgrims pray to them.

Before I offer an answer I would like to explain that Hinduism too is based on the principle ONE God who is infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent and eternal. The many personal Gods that we see as idols in various temples represent specific aspects or attributes of this One Infinite God.

They are presented as many individual Gods so that people can meditate and focus on certain specific attributes of the One Infinite God. For the mind to concentrate on the formless infinite is difficult, a picture helps bridge the gap.

For example the Hindu elephant God Ganesha is a symbol of Knowledge. Alongside Him are the idols of Goddess Lakshmi (symbolizing wealth) and Saraswati (symbolizing wisdom).

The idea being that on the path of attaining knowledge if we were to accumulate any wealth, we will also need wisdom to utilize it properly for the well being of all (and not squander it all on our own selfish desires).

A form or an idol of God, along with mythological stories built around them is necessary for most people to make tangible those ideas that are difficult to grasp.

This has been the way the intensely intellectual philosophy of the Vedas has has been democratized and explained to the common man for thousands of years through the various Gods and Goddesses in India.

It is like trying to explain difficult scientific concepts like the curvature of space-time, to an ordinary man on the street. You will try to use as many analogies as possible to bring out the key concepts.

Thanx for your reply.
I finally got it after a bit of thinking.
That yes, deities are simply aspects of divinity.....or gods if one prefers.

Hinduism has many faces. Is far older,deeper metaphysically, than say christianity.
Some consider it monotheistic, or polytheistic


Lovely explanation about "myths" That's quite helpful to grasp the connection.

This has been the way the intensely intellectual philosophy of the Vedas has has been democratized and explained to the common man for thousands of years through the various Gods and Goddesses in India.

It is like trying to explain difficult scientific concepts like the curvature of space-time, to an ordinary man on the street.

Recall reading a story about Shri Ma, vowing to do 1,000 puja rituals at her temple....before she would leave the grounds

I assume by this she was helping to consecrate the temple, imbuing it with sacred "energy" for all those who were to visit it.

This was the other part of my query.. why priests, saints do this?
Not for themselves but to benefit others to come, who would visit a temple.
No doubt there are other purposes, but that's my take.

[peteyzen]

I love this question Henri, and would add my own answer which spiritual bee has touched on above. Because the belief in hinduism is that god is omni present, that is, we are in god and everything around us is god. When an image or aspect of the divine is created here by us ( a temple built, a statue made or picture painted, or even a photo taken of an avatar for instance) we now have a focal point for divine energy to manifest, because the divine invests that object with energy. Hence when someone prays with devotion before an image of krishna, they are praying directly to krishna, not just an image.
Because we are in god, we are never ever separate from god, yet we spend most of our lives unaware of this. When we take the time to connect with the source through these (for want of a better word) portals, and immerse ourselves in devotion, we merge with our true nature. This can be done without focal points, by simply praying to god without an object, many find it easier though with a visible focal point, and they can often sense the energy imbued in these objects as well.

As to your more recent question about why saints perform pujas for others, It is done out of compassion, but also when you look at karma, what you put out returns, so when we do good things, these come back to us, so perhaps they are just selfish after all LOL

Hi Henri77,
Glad you found my reply useful :-) Peteyzen makes an excellent point about consecrating the idol. The process that Peteyzen describes is called Prana Prathistha. The word Prana means life and Prathistha means to install. So the process means to infuse the Divine life into the idol.

(See this article for a good description: http://jainsquare.com/2011/11/09/pran-prathishta/)

This is the same as breathing consciousness into matter, or life into a dead man. And so divine energies are breathed into the idol. This is done by adept Gurus and Yogis only. And so a statue of stone, is no longer a mere rock, but a living representation of God on earth.

You will notice all Indian temples have elaborate rituals of taking care of the idols (bathing, clothing, and even "feeding" and resting hours) mainly because the statue is now imbued with divine life and treated like a living person.

Note that this process is not merely symbolic, but many temples of India are imbued with actual divine presence as confirmed by spiritual masters throughout the ages including: Swami Vivekananda, Shriram Sharma and Ramakrishna Parmahamsa who worshiped at the famous Kali Temple of Dakshineshwar etc.

Another point is that whether one does a prana prathishta or not, divine presence can be felt in any place of worship (churches, mosques etc), that people flock to with great devotion. It is their devotion that acts as a concentrating element to draw these energies.

On the flip side, Shriram Sharma, a great guru, once wrote about many temples in India which had turned into commercial establishments and lost their pious purpose, and as a result, the installed divine energies had left the temple idols.

Hope this helps!

[peteyzen]

Thank you SpiritualBee for putting into clear and simple to understand words exactly what I was trying but struggling to say.

Originally Posted by peteyzen

When an image or aspect of the divine is created here by us ( a temple built, a statue made or picture painted, or even a photo taken of an avatar for instance) we now have a focal point for divine energy to manifest,

I had this occur 3x.
Was visiting a customer in my prior day job, chatting in their kitchen.
And I whipped around, as a photo of Meher Baba on the fridge door was manifesting his presence. They seemed unaware of it however and continued talking.

Later a lapel button with his image on my car visor manifested his presence & he winked playfully.

Another day at picnic lunch with my spiritualist church group, I was wearing that lapel button, and he again manifested, catching the attention of a young man across from me, who followed Sai Baba

Thanx,
I pretty much intuited this was the result, that symbols get infused with divine energy through specific practices done by "qualified" gurus,saints, like Shri Ma.

I wasn't criticizing the practice of "worshipping" statues in these situations ,but wondering what the benefit-result was... both for the devotee and the statue-temple ...... but I evidently intuited what you explained beautifully.

Yes I've read stories from those who've visited such places.

And yes, Christian churches can manifest spiritual energy from the devotion. I recall visiting Chartres cathedral once, and it was quite an experience.

I visited a Sikh and Hindu temple in India and the divine presence was evident, despite the number of people there at the time.

Originally Posted by SpiritualBee

Hi Henri77,
Glad you found my reply useful :-) Peteyzen makes an excellent point about consecrating the idol. The process that Peteyzen describes is called Prana Prathistha. The word Prana means life and Prathistha means to install. So the process means to infuse the Divine life into the idol.


Note that this process is not merely symbolic, but many temples of India are imbued with actual divine presence as confirmed by spiritual masters throughout the ages including: Swami Vivekananda, Shriram Sharma and Ramakrishna Parmahamsa who worshiped at the famous Kali Temple of Dakshineshwar etc.


Hope this helps!