IDOLATORY - SWAMI VIVEKANAND AND BIBLE

Listen to these words of Swami Vivekanand.

It has become a trite saying that idolatry is wrong and every man swallows it without questioning. I once thought so, and to pay the penalty of that I had to learn my lesson sitting at the feet of a man who realised everything through idols. I allude to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. If such Ramakrishna Paramahamsas are produced by idol-worship, what will you have - the reformer’s creed or any number of idols? I want an answer. 

Take a thousand idols more if you can produce Ramakrishna Paramahamsas through idol-worship, and may God speed you! Produce such noble natures by any means you can. 

Yet idolatry is condemned! Why? Nobody knows. 

Because some hundreds of years ago some man of Jewish blood happened to condemn it? That is, he happened to condemn everybody else’s idols except his own. If God is represented in any beautiful form or any symbolic form, said the Jew, it is awfully bad; it is sin. But if He is represented in the form of a chest, with two angels sitting on each side, and a cloud hanging over it, it is the holy of holies. If God comes in the form of a dove, it is holy. But if He comes in the form of a cow, it is heathen superstition; condemn it!

Like most of the urban youth of today, Swami Vivekanand (earlier name - Narender Nath) was a product of missionary school. The fact reflects in the earlier part of his statement. But he was strong and aware enough to get out of the fraud.

In the intervening period of more then a century, missionaries have tightened their grip over the Hindu psyche to such an extent that they take pride in being what the missionary schools and our education system wants them to be. Secular. 

The effect is so profound that something so base as Bible has started gaining acceptance as a 'holy' book. 

The classic case of 'An oft repeated lie becomes truth'.

Let us see in what tone the Bible talks about Hindus. Five hundred years ago, the term idolaters would have included Mayans and Incas also but they have been wiped out by Christians, only Hindus are left.

The following extract is from the New International Version of Bible. It is chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, which is a part of the new testament.

1. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.

2. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

3. They all ate the same spiritual food

4. and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

5. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

(Are we talking about the God of mercy?)

6. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

(It is like a teacher slapping Vijay to teach a lesson to Ajay)

7. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

8. We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

(The 'God' is taking pride in killing 23,000 of his own creation in a day)

9. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.

(Can anyone even test God?)

10. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

(God acting as a bully?)

11. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

12. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

13. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

14. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

(Why is this God so jealous of idolatry?)

15. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

16. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

(Can drinking blood and eating flesh be considered civilized?)

17. Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

18. Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

19. Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

20. No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.

(Who created these demons? Were they created by God?)

21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

22. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

23. “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.

24. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

25. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,

26. for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

27. If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.

28. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience.

29. I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience?

30. If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

32. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—

33. even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

One can derive the conclusion that these are rumblings of some barbaric man claiming to be God, or can think otherwise!