Diana Ecks Essay

Diana Ecks writings in Darsan Seeing the Devine Image in India predict some of the key elements of the Hindoo culture and traditions. Much of her writing deals with the opthalmic aspect of the religion, and how it is more about the spirituality rather than the actual attribute itself. Within severally chapter she hit on other study elaborate within in the Hinduism. However this essay will discuss the fall inicular concepts such as pilgr design to certain sites, importance of the optical aspect, and how the construction is a religious discipline in itself.Diana Ecks essay begins with the discussion of how Hinduism is a visual religion. Numerous times she exempts how sight was a major aspect in pietism and Darsan. In this section she goes on to explain that the very phrase of the Hindu religion is seeing is knowing. The whole daub of the darsan aspect is to see and be seen by the god, goddess or diate that lives in the shine. what is more the eyes play a key role in th e worship of gods. Through the eyes on can gain blessings of the divine.However to beat back to the care places of these gods is non always a simple trip to a local shrine. She begins to discuss the pilgrimages or journeys of many people in tack together to achieve darsan at a specific place. During this portion of the essay she duologue about the journeys and dedication that many of the Hindu followers theatrical roleake in. not only do people traveling for gods but also alert religious figures. For example Ghandi was perhaps the almost exalted living Hindu figure. Thousands would travel just to get a glimpse of him passing in an attempt to achieve darsan.Towards the annihilate of her passage she explains the importance of the construction of the images, and how each one was a religious discipline in itself. Later on in the passage she begins to explain how the construction of a temple becomes part of the cosmos and in its construction the entire universe is rearranged. Th e very filth plan is a geometrical map of their cosmos with the sacred image at its center. Many of the temples are models of sacred mountains express to be the dwelling places of the gods, and diates. In a larger sense the temple are said to be images themselves.The construction of the temple gives evidence to this. Eck explains that from the beginning of the construction to the end is a ritual. My thoughts on the passage were that the author had extensive knowledge on the Hindu art forms along with its culture and myths. Her organization made it so each topic led to one another, and also goes into detail on almost every topic discussed. On the other hand I pitch one of her weaknesses was that the information got repetitive and made it difficult to boil down throughout somewhat of the paragraphs. A clear point however was the comparisons surrounded by Christianitys god and the Hindu gods.Many times she compares the two formulation a person that practices the Hindu religion co uld not comprehend the liking of one almighty invisible god, and that it would also be difficult for us to understand the importance of vision being a main part of the Hindu religion. This book has also shown me that each and every design has a specific importance to the religion itself. Before I assumed most of it had to be meaningless ornament, and that gods with more than eye actually serve a purpose for in achieving darsan. I had always assumed that it was just decoration or something completely different from its actual purpose.In this essay I have given a brief summary of some the major points in Diana Ecks book Darsan Seeing the Devine Image. These points include importance of the visual aspects of Hinduism, the ritual practice before during and after in constructing a Hindi monument, and what the purpose of the pilgrimage is. I also have given a person opinion on the author strengths and weaknesses, prior stereo types and some comparisons that can be found within the book . Overall I found the book to be helpful in the fact that it gave specific reasons for many of the decorations and practices in the Hindu religion.