Diana Ecks Essay

Diana Eck’s writings in Darsan: Seeing the Devine Image in India address many of the key elements of the Hindu culture and traditions. Much of her writing deals with the visual aspect of the religion, and how it is more about the spirituality rather than the actual image itself. Within each chapter she hit on other major details within in the Hinduism. However this essay will discuss the specific concepts such as pilgrimage to certain sites, importance of the visual aspect, and how the construction is a religious discipline in itself. Diana Eck’s essay begins with the discussion of how Hinduism is a visual religion. Numerous times she explains how sight was a major aspect in worship and Darsan. In this section she goes on to explain that the very phrase of the Hindu religion is seeing is knowing. The whole point of the darsan aspect is to see and be seen by the god, goddess or diate that lives in the shine. Furthermore the eyes play a key role in the worship of gods. Through the eyes on can gain blessings of the divine. However to get to the dwelling places of these gods is not always a simple trip to a local shrine. She begins to discuss the pilgrimages or journeys of many people in order to achieve darsan at a specific place. During this portion of the essay she talks about the journeys and dedication that many of the Hindu followers partake in. not only do people traveling for gods but also living religious figures. For example Ghandi was perhaps the most exalted living Hindu figure. Thousands would travel just to get a glimpse of him passing in an attempt to achieve darsan. Towards the end 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. The very ground plan is a geometrical map of their cosmos with the sacred image at its center. Many of the temples are models of sacred mountains said 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 found one of her weaknesses was that the information got repetitive and made it difficult to focus throughout some of the paragraphs. A clear point however was the comparisons between Christianity’s god and the Hindu gods. Many times she compares the two saying a person that practices the Hindu religion could not comprehend the idea 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 decoration, 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 Eck’s 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 hindu 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.