Hindus have no monopoly on idols
DAWIE KRIEL via the social media complained about the fireworks display during the Diwali celebrations (Festival of Lights).
He wrote: “Hindus are idol worshippers and devil disciples.” According to the Christian Book of Genesis, God created the world perfectly good and its first inhabitants in the Garden of Eden were innocent and without blemish.
It was the devil (serpent) which introduced evil into this world. Is the Christian God the creator of evil or is there another power equal and parallel to God?
One finds among the Catholic Christian churches of Europe and other parts of the world some that are full of idols of Virgin Mary and Jesus. Protestant Christians of Northern Europe accuse the majority Catholic Christians of praying to idols.
During the Middle Ages many idols of Jesus and Mary were destroyed by the Protestant Christians who claimed that idols should be banned.
But idols are still to be found in the majority of the Catholic churches in Europe and elsewhere.
Murtis (idols) are used by Hindus to reach their goal. Murtis are an aid, like a sign, but not the ultimate goal of worship.
Hinduism does not distinguish ideas of God as true and false, adopting one particular idea as the standard for the whole human race. Some of the ancestors of the British people as savages were dressed in animal skins and burnt men alive to appease their God.
Christ was tempted by the evil one, who had to be defeated before he could obtain freedom.
It is hard to resist that the Christian prophets have more in common with neo-pagan faiths than with the selfdenying, self-forgetful genius of Christianity whose symbol is the Cross.
Jesus predicted His own coming but this failed to materialise. Many Christians in different parts of the world practise flagellations, austerity and fasting as means of controlling the body and to reach heaven, the abode of God. Christians in Europe are turning away from Christianity because of its ascetic tradition. St John in the Bible tells us that “the whole world lieth in wickedness”.
According to Hinduism, a spiritual life is sustained not only by insight, but by a rational philosophy (Hindu philosophy) and sound social institutions.
Many Hindus are annoyed that some Christians could treat as a subject for derision religious beliefs that Hindus hold in deep reverence.
There is a queer impression among Europeans that Hindus who talk about philosophy are more domesticated in the world of the spirit. DRS SEARS APPALSAMY
Umkomaas