worship of animals

[Guest guest]

Animals are worshiped in hindhuism. Like this will you please mention the other religions/civilizations where animals are worshipped.

 

From

Veena

emailveenahabilis@rediffmail.com

[Guest guest]

I think most tribal religions worship animals. Native Americans, Islanders etc... I don't think any modern nations have animal worship, though it may still be prevalent to some extent in India.

[Guest guest]

Please tell me which animal is worshipped in Hinduism. Only ignoramus speak like this ?

[theist 1]

Ganesh, Hanuman, Garuda are all venerated and associated with hinduism.

 

But please forgive me for being an ignoramus.

[Guest guest]

 

Ganesh, Hanuman, Garuda are all venerated and associated with hinduism.

 

 

Well yes, but they're not really animals. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

YS,

Prtha dd

[theist 1]

Are you being tricky with me? hehe

[Guest guest]

I've heard of a temple in India overrun by rats. The temple is to Ganesh, but since the rat is the carrier of Ganesh they venerate (not exactly the same as worship) the rats. They feed them and such. Apparently during a plague that swept through India, that area was not affected at all, which is odd since rats are the primary carriers of the plague.

[Priitaa 0]

 

Are you being tricky with me? hehe

 

 

LOL Or maybe Ganesh, Hanuman and Garuda are.

 

Or Krishna! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Myra 0]

 

Haribol!

 

I can't fully relate to the intricate personality or characteristics of these 3: Ganesh, Hanuman, Garuda. Sooner or later, I believe I will.

 

My question is, is it an offense if I won't worship them yet until I fully understand and enlightened about them? I do respect them, but I honestly feel quite uneasy to put them in my altar together with the picture of Lord Krishna Lord Jesus, Mama Mary and Radharani because I don't much know about them. Though I read books about them, but they are not yet interwoven in my existence unlike those I mentioned in my altar.

 

Sorry for my ignorance.

 

Hare Krishna, Jaya Yahshuah!

Myra

[theist 1]

Haribol Myra,

 

No need. Everyone is present already in Krsna's form. We don't worship any demigods separately from Krsna.

 

Other's are better to address this. I don't really have an offical altar at my home. I do like to offer some simple things like fruit flowers juice etc. to the Lord's pictures. But my lifestyle is so scattered I'm afraid to make it too much an offical/formal part of my practice because I have a hard time following through on things.

 

I like to think of a day when it will just be common Christian practice to offer fruit flowers water and juices etc. to a picture of Mary and Christ, and then chant some prayers and Their names on beads as They hopefully accept our offering.

 

This would be an advancement in Bhakti-yoga practice. Instead of just asking God to give us bread we can ask God to please accept some from us. Kinda like offering a candle to the Sun, or holy river water to the Ganges.

 

I am hoping to see more pictures of Christ and Krsna in the same frame. I have seen one. Christ preaching as a mind bubble shows him thinking of Krsna. I think Prthaa may have it on her site. I know I have seen it on another of Prabhupada's disciples disciples site, Siddha's.

 

Ultimately there are some distinct rules on how to prepare an altar which I don't know, as far as which forms go together etc.

 

Sometimes I like to read Krsna book to Srila Prabhupad or Lord Caitanya in Their picture manifestations. Place a flower before them and read a chapter. I find it nice.

 

Praise Christ Hare Krsna

[Priitaa 0]

Myra,

 

I hope you don't mind that I also respond to your question, as I had similar concerns when I first joined the movement. I did not understand this unusual concept of what appears to be animals, so I asked questions, and they got answered. But I don't feel anything should be pushed on anyone. I don't find it necessary to put Ganesh, Garuda or Hanuman on your altar. Even if we were to go to India, we would see many people giving worship to many demi-gods, who we as devotees do not worship. But we know how to simultaneously respect them, say for example, as one would respect a president or king, only they are in charge of an entire planet, but they are not God. And you are giving respect, so no problem there. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Although Ganesh, Hanuman and Garuda are not in the same category of demi-gods. Well, Ganesh could be, but that is not his real position. For all of them, their real position is that they are Vaisnavas.

 

As far as the animal part is concerned, this is one question I had too. One answer I was given was that in this age we live in called Kali yuga, an animal is just that - an animal. But in previous yugas there were different species. For example, there could be a monkey species that was highly intelligent in comparison to the monkey's of today. And there was. Hanuman was amongst that species, and he was not the only one. Even he had a famed brother, Sugriva, and an entire community as well.

 

So we can see there were many at that time, simply its not in the mundane history books. Or not in most. I have a suspicion if deep research were done, an intelligent monkey species from the past would be located. Especially since Hanuman is still living in India, so there probably are traces of relatives in the mountains up there. Anyway, that is part of the answer - that the animal-bodies of the past and those of today are not the same species. This would also apply to Garuda - different species, and highly intelligent too. Something we dont have experience of anymore.

 

As for Ganesh, he is the son of Lord Shiva. In a different way, it still is true that he is not the same species we are acustomed to. He wasn't even born on this planet but in the heavens, so its an entirely different ballgame.

 

Anyway, he too is Vaisnava. This is how the devotees understand these so-called animal-bodied personalities - not as animals at all but different species from those we have not had experience with, and highly intelligent which is opposite to that of animals in this age, and as pure devotees of God/Krishna.

 

I don't know if this helped or not, but thats my two cents. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Myra 0]

 

Dear Theist and Prthaa,

 

Thanks for you enlightening words. Now I feel much better.

 

There are many ways to offer our God in return of His blessing through sharing our talent and fruits of our labor to His children. Yet so true that there are a.k.a. christians who only know God when they ask something but can't remember to thank God when they are already an answered prayer. But I believe time will come that they will be called, in His way...sooner..later.

 

Jaya Yahshua! Hare Krishna!

 

Myra.

 

[bhaktachris 0]

Hare Krishna,

 

I have not yet been able to "cut and paste" so i can not give the exact words,but Srila Prabhupada's Krishna book has a pastime of Krishna and Nanda maharaj. In this pastime Nanda maharaj is getting ready to worship Indra, but Krishna stops this and insists that Nanda maharaj should worship Goverdhana hill along with the cows of the hill.

 

Perhaps someone who is good at the cut and paste trick could put down the pastime here to show that Krishna by example worshiped the cows?