Is Hindu Idol Worship Paganism or, Kafer?

When someone repeatedly denigrates your revered Deity (Ista-Devata), and use hateful terms to describe that form of God, one must not swallow that silently. He who is knowledgeable, must protest. Word spreads like forest-fire over the internet. And people ignorant of the actual Hindu culture are prone to believe the bogus hateful propaganda and form wrong ideas.

Instead of "Unity in Diversity" view of the Veda, some people intentionally spread Lies and still call that "Vedic"! Veda is the reservoir of  infinite knowledge, realized by sages (Rishi, Yogi) in transcendental meditation. The unpronounceable Truth obtained in samadhi state is then converted into words (which is a weak vehicle of ideas) and put down into the vedic verses. These verses taught by Gurus to their disciples in unbroken lineages through thousands of years. The Veda, Vedanta, Yoga-sutras, Tantra s (mostly) are records of realizations by authentic yoga-masters.

There is only One God, who is as such beyond names and forms. This has been said again and again all over the Vedic scriptures. How then can Hindus be called Pagans? As for the idol-worship of Hindus, there is a deep scientific truth behind it. One should not misjudge the Hindu religion and belittle it.

The greatness of Hinduism is that it allows one to choose the form of God according to one's liking. Hinduism is very open minded and NOT rigid. This is very good, because there are numerous kinds of people with various natural traits. All kinds of people cannot accept only one form to worship, just as someone likes to eat sweet things, another likes salty food, another still likes it sour. The taste is unimportant, as long as it satisfies the mind and gives us nourishment. So Hinduism/Sanatana Dharma allows various deities. But behind all those forms, there is only one God. And in reality, there is only one Absolute Consciousness, and that is BEYOND NAMES AND FORMS. Veda: "Na tasya pratima asti yasya naam mahadyasha." The Glorious Supreme Being doesn't have any form.

In Veda, Rudra, Vishnu, Adi-Shakti (Devi-sukta of Rigveda) are all Equal and Valid forms of God. None is lesser than the other. These narrow views have been created by ignorant sectarians at a later age in the form of insertions in the Puranas. Veda and Upanishads say that God is all-pervading, always present everywhere. Whatever we look at is an expression of God. So the wise Rishis advised the common people to worship God in beautiful forms, to focus their minds. Ordinary people are unable to visualize the Formless. Nor can we praise God without words, hence the many names and forms of God. Furthermore, the various idols of God were obtained from the meditations of Yogis, which are deeply meaningful. These idols were not created from imagination at random. God expressed Himself to sages in transcendental states and these have been passed down as meditation-guides or, Dhyana-mantras. Later artists were appointed to sculpt these idols following the mantras. So, Hindus worship that One Infinite God of all creation in idols. They don't revere the idol-material or, lumps of rock or, metal, but send their prayers to the all pervading Spirit (Paramtaman) within, that cannot be perceived with the sense organs.

Some wrongly call Hindus Kafer because of their buth-parasti (idol worship), as the accusers are not aware of the science behind that worship. To imagine the formless is not only difficult, but impossible. The mind unavoidably imagines some form. The Muslims imagine the Arabic calligraphy of "Allah", or, the image of Kaaba, or, some light (Noor), the Christians imagine Jesus in a cross, the followers of Buddha worship his image, all the above are NOT FORMLESS. In the Veda, God is Avang-manas-gochara, meaning Beyond the capacity of speech and mind. So, that is formless. No name can describe it, no image can grasp it. To imagine a deity is only a means to focus the restless mind on some aspect of God.

Only the Yogis among the Hindus can truly meditate on the formless Niranjan Paramatman. I am sure true Islamic sages must also have realized the Allah in a formless manner. But that mental level cannot be reached by the ordinary masses. For them there must be some image to focus on.