V.R .

Ba le of Wits?
PONDER
Swami Vivekananda meeting with a King
The meeting between Swami Vivekananda and Mangal
Singh and the conversation between them has historical
signicance and has been discussed and analysed by
various scholars and biographers.

THE MYSTERY OF A SIMPLE TRUTH!!!

Incident
When Mangal Singh met Vivekananda he started making fun
of him.He rst asked Vivekananda "Well Swamiji, I hear
you are a great scholar. You can easily earn a living and live a
comfortable life, then why are you living a beggar's life and
roaming like a vagabond?"
Vivekananda immediately retorted "Maharaja, tell me why
you constantly spend your time in the company of Westerners
and go out on shooting excursions, neglecting your royal duties?"
Everyone present in the court was shocked and taken aback.
The king too became confused. He tried to give an excuse,
"Well, I like it, I enjoy it", he continued, "don't your Indian rishis
and munis waste all their lives meditating and worshipping for
the same reason?"
Now Vivekananda saw some stuffed animals and paintings of the
king's huntings in the court's walls. The king used to consider
those as his achievements. Vivekananda criticized Mangal Singh
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saying, "Even an animal does not kill another animal unnecessarily,

then why do you kill them just for amusement? I nd it
"meaningless"."
Mangal Singh smiled and replied "The idols you worship
are nothing but piece of clay, stones or metals. I nd this
idol-worship "meaningless"".
It was a direct attack on Hindu belief and Vivekananda had to
give a strong reply to it. He started explaining to the king
that Hindus worship God alone, using the idol as symbol.
But his reply failed to convince Singh. Thereupon, Vivekananda
saw a portrait hanging in the wall of the court. Vivekananda
approached towards the painting, looked at it, and asked the
dewan of the court to take it down from the wall. It was a
painting of Singh's deceased father. When the dewan took the
picture down from the wall, Vivekananda asked him to spit on
it. All were taken back, The dewan was horried. The king was

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furious, "How dare you ask him to spit on my father?", he cried,

in a tone of demanding an explanation.
Vivekananda saw, the king was gripped. He smiled and quietly
replied, "Your father, where is he? It is a just a painting a
piece of paper, not your father."
Vivekananda's reply followed the logic of the king's previous
comment on Hindu idols. So, he was perplexed and speechless
and did not know what to say.
Vivekananda once again started explaining to him, "Look
Maharaja, this is a painting of you father, but when you look at it,
it reminds you about him, here the painting is a "symbol".

Similarly when a Hindu worshipper worships an idol, the idol

reminds him about his beloved deity and he feels the presence
of the deity in the idol. Here too it is a "symbol". Maharaja, it is
all about anubhuti (feelings and realization).

Ba le of Wits?
PONDER
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Hinduism vedas (the most authentic hindu scriptures

accordingto most scholars and hindus them self) and several
other hindu scriptures ban idol worship.In fact many great
hindus like swami dayanand saraswati ,Raja Rammohan Roy,
Srimanta Sankaradeva etc were against these practises.
(Swami Dayanand Saraswati was undoubtedly the most
vociferous critic of image worship.
He believed that since the Vedas do not specically speak of
image worship, it is an anti-Vedic practice.)
Yajurveda Chapter 40 verse 9
They enter darkness those who worship natural things
(for e.g. air, water, re, etc.). They sink deeper in darkness
those who worship sambhuti i.e. created things
(for e.g. table, chair, car, idol etc.) (Yajurved 40:9)

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Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires

they worship demigods i.e. idols. (Bhagavad Gita 7:20)
and Swami Dayanand Saraswati etc were some famous hindus
who condemned idol worship.

Quran 112:1-4 Say, He is God, the One, God, the Absolute,

He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing
like Him*.
Exodus 20:3-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord
Deu 6:4 I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there
is none like me.
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Zoroastrian But His unity is not a numerical oneness, but is a

personal a ribute. "He is one, not one in number." (Namah
Shat Vakshur Zartusht Dasa r, p. 69.) 2., "He has none like Him.
" 3. ""Nothing resembles Him". 4. "He is without an origin or end,
without a rival, an enemy, a prototype, a friend, father, mother,
wife, son, an abode, a body or form and without colour and scent."
(Ibid)
Buddhism- There is, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated,
unformed. Were there not, O monks, this unborn, unoriginated,
uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world
of the born, originated, created, formed.
Judaism :A summary of what Jews believe that: GOD exists .
There is only one God.There are no other gods.God can't be s
ubdivided into different persons
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Sikhism: "God is One. He is the Supreme Truth. He the Creator,

is without fear and without hate. He is immortal. He is neither
born and nor does He die.. In the beginning, He was the Truth.
Throughout the ages, He has been the Truth. He is the Truth now
and He shall be the Truth forever" (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, 1).

King James Bible Deut.5:8

Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of
any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The rst of all the
commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
IDOLATRY ACCORDING TO THE QURAN
Many Muslims incorrectly assume that idol worship is
restricted to worshipping statues or simply ttributing other
Gods with the Lord Almighty.
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Although statue worship and attributing other forms of

deities with God is no doubt a form of idolatry, limiting it to
this understanding is untenable from the Quran's perspective.
Idol worship from the Quran's perspective can take many forms.
Here are some examples:
(1) ONE'S OWN EGO AND DESIRE AS AN IDOL 025.043
"Have you seen him who takes his desires (passion, impulse, lust)
(Arabic: Hawahu) for his God (Arabic: Illahahu)? Will you then be
a protector over him?"
(2) INTERCESSORS AS IDOLS 010:018They serve, besides God,
things that hurt them not nor prot them, and they say: "These are our
intercessors with God." Say: "Do ye indeed inform God of something
He knows not, in the heavens or on earth? Glory to Him! and far is He
above the partners they ascribe (to Him)!"
(3) WORSHIP OF DEAD SAINTS AND PROPHETS AS IDOLATRY
018:102 Do the Unbelievers think that they can take My servants as
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protectors besides Me? Verily We have prepared Hell for the

Unbelievers for (their) entertainment
017.056-57 Say: "Call on those - besides Him - whom you fancy:
they have neither the power to remove your troubles from you nor to
change them." Those whom they call upon do desire (for themselves)
means of access to their Lord which of those who are nearest and they
hope for His Mercy and fear His Wrath: for the Wrath of thy Lord is
something to take heed of Prophets would never have allowed any
form of idolatry and would have asked their followers to study the
scripture instead.
003.079 It is not (possible) for any human that God should give him
the Book and the wisdom and prophethood, then he should say to men:
Be my servants rather than God's; but rather (he would say): Be
worshippers of the Lord by virtue of your teaching the Book and your
reading (it yourselves)
003.080 Nor would he instruct you to take angels and prophets for
Lords and patrons. What! would he bid you to unbelief after ye have
bowed your will (To God in Islam)?But people claim they are doing
nothing wrong:
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039:003 Is it not to God that sincere devotion is due? But those who
take for protectors other than God (say): "We only serve them in order
that they may bring us nearer to God." Truly God will judge between
them in that wherein they differ. But God guides not such as are false
and ungrateful Even though whom they seek help from are only servants
and created beings like them:
The Striking Resemblance of the Deni on of GOD is Obvious. During the Life me
of these Founding Fathers or even a Hundred Years a er there was no Images!
Yet Man's Insecurity and Popular Opinion of those who understand there Needs
with somewhat cause and eect take Control of the Religion they Profess.
Ra onality is a two-edged sword and serves the purpose of
love equally as well as the purpose of hatred.
Ra onality is the pla orm on which the truth standeth.
No truth is a ainable without reason. Nevertheless, in mere
ra onality there is no room for truth, though it be the
instrument that masters the things of the world.BUDDHISM
Like a famous dialogue between two Scholars:
I will follow by submi ng to the Will of God
You follow what you THINK what god wants of YOU

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It is not possible to get these details.

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