The widow's offering

The widow's offering

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.

Sunday Sermons

 God speaks through Gospels where He expresses His divine will to human beings.  Before we start reading any biblical passage, our minds must be first conceived of the biblical, geographical, historical and theological background which will help us understand the passage meaningfully taking into consideration each and every aspect. Then only the true meaning will be brought forth.

            Today’s Gospel is taken from the Gospel of St. Mathew 25:14-30

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF LORD ḲṚṢṆA

HINDUISM:

THE ICONOGRAPHY OF LORD ḲṚṢṆA

கி ரு ஷ் ணா, க ண் ண ன் 

Man is a rational animal who found it difficult at a point to control some natural events and eventually fell into the submission of nature and personified it with his same rational interpretation. He developed his spiritual substance into an organized orderly system which he called ‘Religion’ from where onwards his inborn quest continues with acceleration to know the Divine.

Therefore his attempt to a lively actualization of ‘God’ brought forth symbolic or iconographical interpretation along with the sculptural and portrayal depiction or exposition of the above. Hinduism has been highly compared with this concept, of which this discussion goes, for the reason that it still has the original attempt of man in personification of his spiritual entity. For the naive view, this many-god religion never fails to give sufficient information or rather description to all its gods through iconography.

Lord Krishna, one among the many Avatārs of Lord Vishnu who was an emitted prince of Kamsa was brought up by the leader of a cowherd.  He later killed his father with Balarāman his step- brother and obtained the kingship in Dvārakā.  He was a divinized person who met with an actual death in his last phase of life.  But, however on his insistence, the pastoral community was converted from Indra worship into Vaisnavism and added to that for his triumphant rule he was believed to be an Avatār.  All his life was written down and put in art and sculpture describing his nature through the iconographical explanation.  There many forms of symbolic expression namely, diagrammatical and emblematic, pictorial, gestural and physical movements, verbal, musical, conjunction and combination of various modes.

            The iconography of Krishnā can be defined in many ways in accordance to the artist who makes it with the intention of expressing something.  In that way nature takes a prominent place.  Krishnā is depicted as a child, showing his opened mouth in which the whole universe is seen. This is connected to an event happened during his childhood that tries to say that the whole universe was created by Vishnu and he controls the ‘time’; Lord Shiva destroys the world once the circle is over whereas Vishnu becomes the cause of re-creation by first bringing forth Brahmā, the creator god.  It also reminds of his another famous Avatār,  Vāmana who measured the whole three worlds with only three steps (Satapatha Brāhmana xiv, 1,1,6).  In another form he is depicted as a boy who stands on the top of a poly headed snake in water.  Water (Āpah)  is an integral reality, therefore, has healing power (Cf. RV x, 137,6; AV ii,3,6; vi,91,3; SB iii,6,1,7)Purification is their first anthropocosmic function.

            Another point of discussion would be the human relationship which is mostly the family bonds such as mother and child and father and child. These portrayals try to explain the relationship or intimacy between God and man that is done with one depiction showing Yashodā holding child Krishnā. The mother image is closely bound up with Earth symbolism, vegetation, agriculture, fertility, the reappearance of life and the lunar cycle. The image of the child, the subject, or slave again indicate man’s relationship to God; the image of the ruler (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, macropaedia, vol. 17, 15^th edition, pp 908).  Therefore the above expression is found in that image.

The next on the topic is the unavoidable part of human life, the sexuality which also has been used to carry message.  Lord Krishnā is seemed to be a mischievous man in his youth who plays fool with gopis, the girls of the pastoral community. Some pictures show naked gopis who are having bath while Krishna refused to give the cloths to them.  These try to say the analogy between divine love and human love. Divine lover is shown playing the flute, surrounded by adoring maidens and cows. People must be attracted towards god having genuine love for him as it is shown.  Vaisnavite theology brings forth this idea that we also find in saivism in the formless form of Shivalingam (Linga-Yoni symbolism) which is the complete power results in the combination of Shiva and Shakthi and the same was done with Krishna and Rādhā.  Here, the cow is seen in most of the images and sculptures standing for prosperity because, the cow is considered a god called Kāmadhēnu that is in Dhēvalokha. The animal form is the representation of Divine (theriomorphism, or zoomorphism).  

            Culture also influences the formation of iconography for the reason that the artist is already influenced by it. This can be evidently seen in the images of Krishnā in which he is depicted as a child dances on the snake and so on. The people of the pastoral community were in fear of fearful animals so that, he is seen as it is said above and also cow is mostly shown because that was their bread winning job. Hunters, farmers, shepherds, artisans and merchants and their activities are represented in religious pictures and appear in verbal symbolism of religion (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, macropaedia, vol. 17, 15^th edition, pp 908).

            Conceptual influences are widely seen in the incorporation of ideas, theories and structured system of thought into images. The conflict with Indra worship is substituted by Vaisnavite theological inputs which are shown in the image depicting child Krishna showing the universe in his mouth. Krishnā as he preaches the Gitā is the best example for this in which he is shown as the protector and preacher of Dharma giving instructions to Arjun. It is an example also for the Chrematomorphic motifs that places holy books or scriptures and objects.

Though the images and sculptures are apparently normal they have a treasured meaning with them in their iconography. These religious concepts have been abbreviated in the iconography of pictures and simplified to be given to the people with a message to say.  Krishanā was a triumphant king and a good human being whereas the divinization of this King initiated a new branch of Hinduism called Krishnaism still followed by North Indians and the same happened with King Rama. Krishna was just a reformer or rather a new god who changed the Indra-dominated Vedic religion among the pastoral community into Vaisnavism.  His life is fully narrated in Bhāgavata Purāna but not much in Vedas. All his images bring some news or specific interpretations with them and all of them are mostly hybrid motifs.  It is the core of this codification that the people who look at the work god experience is given. Therefore Krishna’s iconography becomes useful in order to understand him better.

-An Assignment submitted to REVD. FR. DEVIN COONGHE IVD

க ணே ஷ ன் 

Ganesa is a very popular and certainly the most universal member of the Hindu pantheon. Every worshipping Hindu, regardless of his theistic affiliations, pays homage to this deity. 

Krishna கி ருஷ் ணா 

Krishna (कृष्ण in Devanagari, kṛṣṇa in IAST, pronounced [ˈkr̩ʂɳə] in classical Sanskrit) is a deity worshiped across many traditions of Hinduism.

Krishna is often described as a dark-skinned man during his earthly descent, often depicted as a baby, as a young boy playing a flute as in the Bhagavata Purana, or as a youthful prince giving philosophical direction and guidance as in the Bhagavad Gita.