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Painting God

P. A. Joseph P. A. Joseph
19 Feb 2024

Two points come to mind when we think of god: 1. Who are we to study god? Our insignificance leaves us unable to deal with this subject. We cannot proceed at all; where can we start? How shall we go about it? Is there anyone to guide us? This we accept in all humility and total surrender before god. 2. Still yet in another point, we have to look at the divine with a spirit of contemplation as God in Himself / Herself: God is the Almighty, the most powerful, the eternal, omnipresent, immense being, limitless, prodigious, most significant, most august, most glorious, most eminent, incomparable, most fascinating, woe-inspiring etc. Taken in His / Her relationship with human beings and other creatures, He / She is most benevolent, merciful, forgiving, kind, magnanimous, fatherly and motherly, friendly with everyone, creating everything and everyone, preserving the whole universe, who exists by being creative always, most approachable, most tender by nature, most sympathetic, most lovable, perfect, etc.

We cannot put a limit on our contemplation of god. Even our experience of god is so relaxing and beyond human words. This is the experience of human beings following any religious belief, be it Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Parses, Animists and so on. In all these religious- traditions, we have numerous great contemplatives, such as Rabindranath Tagore, Moses, Theresa of Avila, Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanak, etc, who have reached the depth and height of mystic experience. Their number is numerous, and they sustained and kept their belief alive and went beyond any limits. All of them had a unique vision and life experience. It is said that one holy person named Abhishiktananda had a shock of happiness and died in that hallow moment of deep contemplation of god. How wonderful!

After this reflection, we come to the pran pratishtha of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Our belief shows Sri Ram is kind and benevolent. Why do we paint him with a bow and arrow weapon on his shoulders? Does a God who is taken as a great God need a weapon? Is he afraid of anyone to have a weapon with him?

Further, Laxman, who is the brother of Lord Ram, does he need a bow and arrows? In Ramayana, he dies in a battle and is resurrected through the power of a Maharshi. Is it meaningful as Ram is with him? Further, in Mahabharatha, Lord Krishna guides Arjun to fight and kill numerous brothers and even the great gurus. Could it have been more inspiring if Lord Krishna had directed Arjun to reconcile with his brothers rather than kill them all at Kurukshetra?

Further in the divine trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the last one is painted with a mortal weapon of Trishul! Does the all-powerful god need a weapon in the hand for self-protection? Are all these paintings of god meaningful or contradictory? Does god need a weapon? By the power of breath, god rules the whole universe. We see that all the divine entities in one religion have weapons in their hands. We create gods according to our own petty imagination. Also, we make houses for gods. Even the head of the nation X is involved in this meaningless task, all politically motivated! Is spending enormous amounts of money to build a house for god meaningful? As we believe, god lives in the heart of the believers. The mighty temple in gold and costly stones may remain a tourist spot rather than for worship. It would be unjust to single out any religion for this since all of them have a penchant for this.

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