Vedas also say that Idol worship is a sin. I think that all major religions say that Idol worship is a sin. Idol worship as practiced by Hindus belong to pre-Vedic india.
According to Vedas, God is formless, unborn and omnipresent and hence it is wrong to say Yogi Krishna or King Ram was a god. Look at principal # 2 of Aryasamaj that directly comes from Veda.
RE:Idol worship is not part of Hinduism
by NuraniEaswran subhramaniyam on Jun 13, 2007 10:20 PM Permalink
in what way it is related to the issue. Do u mean no one need to enter the temple to avoid idol worship.
RE:Idol worship is not part of Hinduism
by Sanjeev Verma on Jun 13, 2007 09:42 PM Permalink
Idol worship goes against the teachings of Vedas. Vedas are the true source of knowledge and basis of Hinduism. God is omipresnet and formless and it is preposterous to even attempt to worship God in human form. Look at the following site.
RE:Idol worship is not part of Hinduism
by venkat on Jun 13, 2007 10:16 PM Permalink
That is the beauty of Hinduism. It has so many ways to reach God - Arya Samaj, Advaitha (which is form and formless) etc., Vedas did not mention about idol worship. They did not oppose it.
Any normal humans cannot realise Almighty just like that. We are just humans. To realise almighty practically, we do idol worship and advocate that let it reach the formless lord. understood?
RE:Idol worship is not part of Hinduism
by Sanjeev Verma on Jun 13, 2007 10:04 PM Permalink
Swan,
I am saying what I believe in. The goal of Arya Samaj is to reform Hinduism. I do not go to temples and worship God through Yoga and Meditation. If Idol worship helps us to transcend only formless then why do we have so many Gods and Godesses in Hinduism? Have you heard about wars between Vaishnavas (worshipper of Vishnu) and Shaivas ( worshiipper of Shiva) in the past? My theory is that these Gods and Godesses belong to tribal India in pre-Vedic period. The reality is that most of the world worshipped Idols before Christianity and Islam came. I do not beleive that Idol worship was invented to help us transcend formless as stated by you. I am aware of this argument. Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati has discussed this issue in detail in his famous book "Satyarath Prakash".
RE:Idol worship is not part of Hinduism
by cocainecobra on Jun 13, 2007 09:37 PM Permalink
idol worship is a start and hinduism appreciates gradual evolution of understanding almighty....each individual is different in grasping and understanding....people who donot require idols can go GNANA marga...hinduism allows everything
Its like LKG to Graduation...Hinduism recognises LKG and also directly allows graduation for people who can understand the higher order metaphysics
you cannot ask a first standard kid to understand quantum mechanics..its bad for both
