Hindu Idols and Bollydharma
Written by Jayesh Patel

The Liverpool Hindu society held their fortnightly discussion workshop on Tuesday 26^th January, entitled “Hindu Idols and Bollydharma”.

The hour long discussion focused on the worshipping of divine idols by Hindus and the influence Bollywood has with one’s dharma and what influence society has on Bollywood.

Led by President Hashita Patel, the discussion of what role divine idols play in the worshipping of the Hindu gods produced some interesting responses. One of the most interesting was that worshipping idols focuses one’s attention on the act of worship itself, a fact supported by modern research in neural science of the mind’s capacity to manifest reality.

The second discussion, of what influence Bollywood has one’s dharma and what influence society has on Bollywood, was an interesting discussion on communication studies and the psychology of society and moviemakers in the world’s largest film industry. Led by ex-president Ságar Solanki, the discussion led to a number of intriguing responses. One such response was that issues within society, such as homosexuality, are reflected in modern day Bollywood movies whereas the same issues were not touched upon 30-40 years ago when society, particularly within the Indian community, was more conservative than it is today, an argument that society does influence Bollywood. Another response was that Bollywood has no effect on one’s personal dharma (the view of the righteous path) as, one should be mentally strong enough to not be influenced by Bollywood otherwise one’s dharma would not be worthy of following.

The hour long discussion produced some fascinating responses overall and hopefully the next Hindu Society workshop will be just as informative.