Vatican City Museum Houses Small Vishnu Temple

[bp789]

Vatican Museums Display Replica of Temple to This Hindu God - World Religion News

This colorful 18th century Vishnu temple reportedly folds and unfolds revealing many stories of Vishnu and is made of wood, mirror, paper, pigments and glass paste. Collections of Vatican Museums also include bronze statues of Hindu divinities dating from 8th to 14th century.

Vatican Library carries extensive collection of ancient Hindu scriptures and various other Hinduism related texts; including books on Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad-Gita, Panchatantra, Krishna, Brahma, yoga, Shakti, Hindu theology, Hindu pantheon, etc. This Hindu collection is in various languages and some of the editions are as old as 1819.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, commending Holy See and His Holiness Pope Francis, said that it was a remarkable gesture and a step in the right direction to understand each other. Zed invited Pope Francis for a deeper study of ancient Hindu scriptures, which were very rich in philosophical thought, and offered to provide help if asked.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also lauded Vatican for including well-known verse from Brhadaranyaka-Upanishad (“Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality.&#8221, line from Tagore’s Gitanjali (“Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.&#8221, and reference to Mahatma Gandhi in “Way of the Cross at the Colesseum” Meditations and Prayers on Good Friday 2009 led by Pope and put together by Vatican Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Rajan Zed further said that in 200-page “Verbum Domini” (The Word of the Lord) apostolic exhortation released on November 11, 2010, Pope Benedict wrote about “the sense of the sacred, sacrifice and fasting…” in Hinduism.

Zed argues that in our shared pursuit for the truth, we can learn from one another and thus can arrive nearer to the truth. Dialogue may help us vanquish the stereotypes, prejudices, caricatures, etc., passed on to us from previous generations. As dialogue brings us reciprocal enrichment, we shall be spiritually richer than before the contact.

Over six million people reportedly visit Vatican Museums annually, which originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513). It includes works of Raphael, Michelangelo, Giotto, Leonardo, Caravaggio, van Gogh, Matisse and Moore. Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), library of the Holy See, whose traces go back to fourth century, has manuscripts, printed books, prints, photographs, drawings and engravings, coins and medals. It is said to hold over 180,000 manuscripts and over 1.6 million books, which includes Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, the oldest known nearly complete manuscript of the Bible.

Pope Francis is the ex-officio head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state within the city of Rome (Italy). Pope also heads the Roman Catholic Church, which is the largest of the Christian denominations with about 1.2 billion members. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about a billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.

Thoughts about this?

 

[Aupmanyav]

Wonderful shrine but in a wrong place.

 

[Kalidas]

I appreciate their attempts to be more open to other religions I really am. Yet given the past of the Vatican I will remain cautious as to the ramifications of this.

 

[JaiMaaDurga]

Namaste,

I am never in favor of increasing enmity between anyone, yet to be honest,
my first reaction was "These things do not belong in a museum of the Vatican."

The Vatican gave us the Dum Diversas, the Romanus Pontifex and the Inter Caetera;
forgive me if I do not quite share Mr Zed's willingness to forget the past.

JAI MATA DI

 

[Haryaksha]

I'm not a big fan of Hindu icons as art/display pieces, but at least this is a 'step in the right direction' from the Vatican's history of promoting the destruction of icons just like these.

A local art museum had an exhibit on Hinduism a few years ago with many murties, paintings, and sculptures from India. I saw firsthand how many people left with a greater appreciation of Hinduism. Many of the pieces were actually on a temporary loan to the museum from India. So situations like this can definitely be used as a learning experience and for people to gain a positive exposure to the beauties of Hinduism.

But this "Vatican museum" is obviously different than the average art museum. I would much rather have the Vatican fully open their secret archives to the public, so that it could be known exactly what the church has done throughout the world over the last ~2000 years.

 

[Vinayaka]

It's a library. They would have a lot of things. That's what libraries do. Meh.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

I'm glad they are treating it with respect rather then burning it like some things have been lost in the past. It's not all the surprising though. Many groups within Christianity are highly interested in history, philosophy and higher learning regardless of the origin. they just usually belong to highly insulated religious orders like monks and nuns.

:camp:

 

[Jainarayan]

I'm iffy about it:

If they are truly interested in shedding light on another religion, and/or preserving something of the religion, I'm cool with it.

If they are using these just as decorative art and museum pieces without giving due respect to what they represent, I'm not cool with it.

 

[Nyingjé Tso]

I'm iffy about it:

If they are truly interested in shedding light on another religion, and/or preserving something of the religion, I'm cool with it.

If they are using these just as decorative art and museum pieces without giving due respect to what they represent, I'm not cool with it.

I'm more worried if we link this "will to study and understand" our religion with the atrocious missionaries missions in India that uses distorded "knowledge" of Hinduism from their "studies" to "prove" how wrong it is. That' what worries me.

This treasure is at the wrong place.

 

[Vinayaka]

I'm more worried if we link this "will to study and understand" our religion with the atrocious missionaries missions in India that uses distorded "knowledge" of Hinduism from their "studies" to "prove" how wrong it is. That' what worries me.

This treasure is at the wrong place.

This pope is planning another papal to India at the end of this year. We'll see how that goes.

 

[StarryNightshade]

If the intent is to bridge understanding between the faiths, then I see nothing wrong with it.

However, only time will tell.

 

[Kalidas]

If the intent is to bridge understanding between the faiths, then I see nothing wrong with it.

However, only time will tell.

Yeah that is essentially whete I stand, luckily this new pope is pretty dang awesome.

 

[Vinayaka]

I don't share the same optimism, but hopefully I'm wrong.

http://www.ibtimes.com/pope-francis-can-he-heal-chasm-between-roman-catholic-church-hindus-1136345

 

[Maya3]

I also think it's great. Is it Pope Francis who installed this?
I think it will show people that Hinduism is a respected religion. The Vatican has a lot of power and if they show a positive image of it, then it is great.

Maya

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

I think this is a collection the Vatican must have had for a long time. I don't think Pope Francis acquired all these relics recently. I can't imagine modern India allowing the removal of such artifacts unless it was under some pretty extreme curatorial rules.

I think as long as they care for the artifacts and India isn't asking for them back, I see no problem with it. There are thousands of artifacts from different cultures that have been taken illegally for museums in the past, and many countries have asked for them back with limited success. On the other hand there are places (like Egypt) where the number of artifacts actually exceeds the antiquities department's ability to care for/ display them properly. These need to be placed in museums that can hold them unless we want to loose pieces of world history forever.

It's a balancing act, but I'm optimistic about Pope Frankie.

:camp:

 

[Vinayaka]

From that article ... "Collections of Vatican Museums also include bronze statues of Hindu divinities dating from 8th to 14th century."

It would be nice if they voluntarily returned these, as they were most likely looted. That era is when a ton of looting was done.

The 'foldout temple' sounds more like a high school science project, or maybe an individual shrine form someone's house brought out to celebrate festivals, turning the entire home into a temple.

 

[Aupmanyav]

If the intent is to bridge understanding between the faiths, then I see nothing wrong with it.

Unfortunately, with Christianity and Islam, it is never that.

 

[Vinayaka]

Unfortunately, with Christianity and Islam, it is never that.

I think it is possible that it might change at some point, but until there is action, words never mean much. As with other issues there, enough with the apology and start compensating us.

 

[Kalidas]

Unfortunately, with Christianity and Islam, it is never that.

THAT is my main issue. I have no doubt that Pope Francis is trying to be a good godly man and will more than likely be very respectful of Hindus(He said that Atheists can go to Heaven for Godsakes). I worry for what will happen AFTER him...

 

[Vinayaka]

Not much new in what the Pope said. Catholicism has always said that Christ died for all of humanity. Pope Francis says atheists can do good and go to heaven too! - Living Faith - Home & Family - News - Catholic Online

Trouble is many of us don't believe that. So I don't see the deal in expressing a Catholic belief. I do think this Pope is more PC than some of his predecessors.

Here's a Hindu's plea... http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/open-letter-to-pope-francis/