Seeing God, But Only His Back

By -

The concept of darsan, or “seeing” the divine image, is fascinating to me. I often return to comparisons to Catholic practices and beliefs, not because I’m a practicing Catholic, but because it’s the environment that I was brought up in. I also found the reference to Western perceptions of idols and the references to Western attitudes toward pilgrimages interesting. The comparison jumps out to me because the role of images and the centrality of sight in Hindu tradition seems completely antithetical to what I learned in the context of Catholic tradition. In this tradition there was always a strong emphasis on having “faith.” Faith, by definition, requires a lack of tangible evidence. Of course there are images and objects such as crucifixes that are included in prayer, but they aren’t necessary for prayer. The call in Catholicism is to believe rather than to see. 


This also made me think of a few stories from Exodus that involve “seeing God.” The first is of course the burning bush, but the one that I am most interested in with relation to this discussion about sight is the story of God appearing to Moses and Moses seeing the back of God. This story in particular is interesting because it’s presented as a supreme privilege that Moses is able to witness “God’s glory,” yet Moses is still prohibited from seeing the face of God. “But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. “Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” It’s also interesting to consider that God appears to Moses after the ordeal with the golden calf, which was being worshiped as an idol. Darsan is kind of hard for me to grasp, I think because of my past experiences with traditions that preach both an emphasis on faith as well as faith and the sight of the divine as incompatible. 


One thing in Catholicism specifically that may actually be analogous to the concept of darsan is transubstantiation. Other denominations see this process as symbolic, but according to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, the Eucharist becomes the actual body of Christ during the mass. Eck quotes Agehananda Bharati who writes that there is absolutely no parallel to darsan in any religious act in the West. But in the way that I understand it, transubstantiation is at least in a similar arena. Eck writes, “The very expression is arresting, for ‘‘seeing” in this religious sense is not an act which is initiated by the worshiper.’ Rather, the deity presents itself to be seen in its image, or the sadhu gives himself to be seen by the villagers.” The Eucharist doesn’t involve “seeing” but it does involve the divine coming forth to be received through a physical medium. 

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausApril 28, 2022 at 7:25 AM

    I agree with you. I think transubstantiation as you describe it is a striking parallel to Hindu darsan. BTW, raising the Eucharist up for all to see has often been an important part of the communion ritual. So much so that Jews living among Catholics in medieval Spain imitated this practice by requiring that the seder plate with all its symbolic foods be raised high at certain point during the Passover dinner ceremony. As Sinead also pointed out, seeing is a kind of communion.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amidst the Pandemic

By -
Image
I think having the opportunity to take Smells and Bells and then experiencing a worldwide pandemic came with good timing. Oftentimes, we’re so rushed to get from one one place to another that we miss out on what happens around us. We’re so accustomed to the lifestyle of being busy that it has become the norm for many of us. However, the pandemic has forced us to slow down. We’re now appreciating everything that we had previously taken for granted and noticing things in our surroundings that we have never noticed before.  Take this quarantining/social distancing as an opportunity to be more aware of what you experience through the senses. I don’t think my senses have necessarily heightened over the past 5 weeks, but I am actively making the choice to pay more attention to what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I like going on nature/mindfulness walks and basking in the sunshine out in my backyard. This morning, I could hear a faint noise from the wind, hear the birds chirpin...
Read more

Food in the Afterlife

By -
Image
In Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , Perez talks of Ashabi and her grandchildren providing food offerings to their ancestors. This immediately reminded me of the practice of food sacrifice in early China. I've taken Chinese language classes for about 7 years now and in one of the lessons, we learned about food as well as the history of food in Chinese culture. Ashabi and her grandchildren would give food offerings to their ancestors every day. This included nine beverages (coffee, liquor, and water mixed with sugar and molasses) and nine square pieces of coconut topped with red palm oil and guinea pepper. The offerings would also include whatever food was dropped on the ground. In their house, food dropping on the floor signified more than it would in common American households. It signified that the ancestors wanted that food and had willingly made it fall to the floor. They also used dishware that had been chipped which was...
Read more