>>>Uddhava Gita speaks about deity worship it can be found on Krishna.com.<<<

Thanks, I'll see if I can find anything on that site.

>>>the word Idol is a demeaning term which is seated in the word imagination, thus idolatry meant turning an imagination into God.<<<

Yes, I agree with you about the demeaning nature of the term "idol", which is why I'm writing an article about the subject, because I believe that it's a concept that my Neo-Pagans bretheren ought to reclaim.

>>>The practice of deity worship is rather different, the form of the deity is not imagined but rather is explained in detail through scripture, sastra. There is a tribe already dedicated to Deity Worship with many priests in the group. Elaborate discussions about installations ceremonies can be found there. I suggest that you also inquire there. deityworship.tribe.net also at DeityWorship.com<<<

Thanks, I'll look there, too! Now, is "sastra" a type of Hindu scripture, like the RIg Veda, etc.? (I hope I've undewrstood correctly, as there's a lot about Hinduism that I'm unaware of, I'm afraid.)

Take Care,
Wade

Idol means imagination. The deity is not an imagination of the Lord. Deity worship means that the Lord personally appears in the form of the deity not that the deity is just a personal physical aid.

Monotheism is a term invented by Christian "scholars" and it has nothing whatsoever to do with any other religion - with the possible exceptions of Judaism and Islam.

Almost all polytheistic religions have posited a "supreme" Goddess and/or God, and many have even gone so far as to speculate about a transcendent highly abstract form of Divinity that is "beyond" but also includes all of the various Gods and Goddesses. But those religions continue to venerate their many different Goddesses and Gods - whereas monotheism is characterized by a REJECTION of all but the one officially approved God. Said rejection is most generally punishable by death.

It is often the case (and very revealing) that polytheistic pantheons that have a single supreme Deity cannot agree on which one is supreme! Shiva versus Vishnu versus Maha Devi in Hinduism, for example. In the ancient world (prior to the rise of Christianity), one group of people might have a solar Deity has their supreme God, while another might have a Mountain Goddess as their supreme Deity, and another might have a Sky God as the supreme Deity. But these different pantheons were fluid and interconnected. And in any given cult the Deity of that cult was almost inevitably spoken of, prayed to, praised, pictured, etc, as the supreme Deity for the members of that particular cult.