What do you know about Idols, Deity and mind ?

Historically for thousands of years Idols have been made by humans invariably to represent an abstract form of something perceived by the human senses or imagined, into a real physical form. New humans always found better ways to represent the same but wronged the old ways and similarly some old ways of representation wronged the new ways as well, nevertheless there have been a continuous growth and diversity in this form of art & abstract representation.

Idol and deity are two complete different concepts. Idols are just made for specific purpose, either show pieces of art and culture of the period or expressing the mood of the society, or communicate to the future society...A Stone or metal is clearly carved, molded, modified to a clear physical form which can amaze anyone seeing them. Only in the Indian subcontinent, some of these idols go through extra process to achieve significant additional meanings. The process of "Prana Pratishta" literally meaning "inducing life" is what followed, to transform an "Idol" to a status of "Deity".

Not all idols are created for purpose to be made a Deity...Many temples have clear procedures that may take anything up to 45 days or more to achieve bring a status of a stone carved into a physical shape to something that represents Infinite meaning.

"Aagamas" a collection of scriptures prescribe certain procedures of purification of an Idol, adding minerals, sounds and chants.. many of them are retrieved from Vedas itself... Aagamas also prescribe the mind set of sculptors, where to place the idol, how to transport, Size, lighting, air circulation, material types to use and so on. Once the process is completed, the Deity now represents several meaning, having life of its own and only then rest of the society is allowed to see and seek blessings from the Deity. For the people, the deity represents prana or essence of life, the infinite energy, the giver of all..At this point the Deity becomes sacred to the society and part of the family.

At a scientific level this basically represents "Bimb Pratibimba" in samskrith, a concept of "reflection of the original"...a mere reflection (pratibimba) of its prototype (bimba). Many mesoamerican, African & eastern cultures do have some versions of such procedure before they start worshiping an idol as an entity...The alternative world for very long period in history has seen such society as idol worshipers, pagans or idolaters and so on. The fact remains that the entire aagamas revolve around trying to reach an elevated consciousness using tools available at the point in time. The Deity is more like symbol of infinity "∞" where we really can't realize or give a exact value for this, nevertheless we deduce the infinite to a finite just to make things easier. The modern world mostly has forgotten the science and value behind this whole concept including many who are part of this same eco system. There is a old law of attraction which says "when you ask something for the universe, the universe responds", the more focus and awareness of your mind the more stronger the response. The intrinsic value of the Deities system represents a great focal point for a whole society to focus on something very common to entire society like the knowledge, wealth, health, thus you have specific Deities representing each such faculty like saraswathi, Lakshmi, Dhanvantari and so on. People from alternative world of knowledge or culture might not even get close to understanding these finer aspects.

as part of Aagamas, It is also interesting to note that numerous parallel thinkers in last 2000 years have given us non-Deity concept of reaching higher awareness and consciousness like yoga, dhyana, vipasana to name a few..The co existence of conflicting ideologies existed alongside in unison which is a dream in this today's world.. The Mind science have been a core value subject of Indian thinkers for ancient & modern world, but sad part is there are statistically over 10 million manuscripts of Indian Literature (two-third in Sanskrit) are on yet to be deciphered/translated/understood in-spite of millions destroyed all along history.

Unlearn -> Learn, Learn -> Unlearn