Vivekananda during his famous Chicago address cited following sholk from Bhagwat Gita.
||यॆ यथा माम्́ प्रपद्यंतॆ| ताम्́स्तथैवभजाम्य् अहम् | ममवर्त्मानुवर्तंतॆ | मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः ||
In this hymn Bhagwan Shrikrishna tells Arjun that all men are following the path that ultimately leads to him (the God).
Hinduism is not all about idol worship , it is perhaps the only religion which recognizes all forms of worships as correct and denounces none.You will find in the writings of Swami Vivekananda that the great man has explained it at length about how atheism of Jain philosophy,agnosticism of Buddha and ritualistic aspects of Sanatan Dharma have all not only found peaceful coexistence but also flourished under this wide umbrella called Hinduism.
Hindus never crucified any of the reformers.To talk about reformers there were many starting from Jain thinkers who questioned the violence involved in rituals of animal sacrifice, there was Gautam Buddha whose agnostic thoughts preferred compassion over ritualistic religious zeal.In more recent history we had Guru Nanak founder of Sikh religion which emphasized on monotheism.Guru Nanak wanted Sikhs to do away with image worshiping although not in iconoclastic manner of Abrahamic religions. Maharshi Dayanand Sarswati,founder of Arya Samaj was was probably staunchest critique of idol worship and he wanted Hindus to get back to the methods mentioned in their oldest scriptures,the Vedas.
History thus shows that Hindus have whole heatedly embraced those who challenged religion of their time. Gautam Buddha, who challenged religious practices of Hindus of his time is even worshiped as God by Hindus.
In recent times Bollywood film makers have made subtle as well as overt attempt to condemn idol worship by Hindus.Oh my god staring Paresh Rawal criticized idol worship in sarcastic manner and now PK has used satire , mockery to take a dig at this form of worship.
Amir Khan in a statement made in defense of PK movie said he wants to consciously send a message to society through movies and hence he agrees with the message given by PK. So apart from primary objective of making money out of commercial movies there is also this moral grandstanding of spreading "right message". That means PK's mocking of idol worship can not be defended merely by saying that it is just a movie or artistic expression . People associated with the movie also say they are only against blind faith and not against Hinduism. They say they are especially against blind faith shown by people on God-men. Larger question is , don't you think faith in religion itself is blind. What is the difference between people who show blind faith in god-men and people who believe that god has stopped sending his messengers to the earth after certain messenger and it is that particular messenger who said this but we should believe that it was not the messenger but god himself speaking. Sounds like a blind faith isn't it?
Point I am trying to make here is , there is no problem with criticism of idol worship however we can not ignore hypocrisy of those who are trying to denounce one form of worship in the guise of reform.
Allow me to use following two quotes from Swami Vivekananda to make my point amply clear
1)“Superstition is a great enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. Why does a Christian go to church? Why is the cross holy? Why is the face turned toward the sky in prayer? Why are there so many images in the Catholic Church?Why are there so many images in the minds of Protestants when they pray? My brethren, we can Do more think about anything without a mental image than we can live without breathing-By the law of association the material image calls up the mental idea and vice versa. This is why the Hindu uses an external symbol when he worships.He will tell you. it helps to keep his mind fixed on the Being to whom he prays.”
2)“Those reformers who preach against image-worship, or what they denounce as idolatry —to them I say "Brothers, if you are fit to worship God-without-form discarding all external help, do so, but why do you condemn others who cannot do the same? “
It is great to laugh and poke fun at others when you have courage and honesty to also laugh at yourself and this is where CharlieHebdo,French satirical weekly magazine is different from Amir Khan starer Bollywood movie PK.Charlie Hebdo used satire against all religions including Christianity whereas PK is guilty of mocking one form of worship that is idol worship which incidentally also happens to be condemned in religion of film's leading protagonist.
Anurag Choudhary.
