Idol worshipping makes you intuitively liberal, says Amish Tripathi - The Hindu

The second day of The Hindu Lit Fest 2024 kicked off with a conversation on the power of idol worship, with authors Amish Tripathi and Bhavna Roy discussing their latest book on the same subject with dancer, choreographer and writer Anita Ratnam. Noting that this conversation was taking place just five days after the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Ms. Ratnam began by asking Mr. Tripathi to “describe the Ram Lalla murti” for the audience. Choosing ‘ishta devata’ The conversation returned to the book, and since its two authors also happen to be siblings with another literary collaboration behind them — a book on dharma — Ms. Ratnam asked Ms. Roy to speak about the projects, noting that the first one had come on the heels of a personal tragedy in Ms. Roy’s life — the loss of her husband. But we don’t choose, the deity chooses us.” Philosophy behind idol worshipping Mr. Tripathi talked about how he thinks that as many pagan idol worshipping cultures have been wiped out over the last 2,000 years, the remaining have what he thinks of as an “interesting variation of the battered wife syndrome”. It was out of a need to put across the philosophy behind idol worshipping that the book arose, and Mr. Tripathi added that while he wasn’t claiming that idol worshipping is perfect, he does believe that it “makes you intuitively liberal”.