Darshan (Indian religions) explained

In Indian religions, a darshan (Sanskrit: दर्शन, ; 'showing, appearance, view, sight') or darshanam is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person.

The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology.

Etymology

The word darshana, also in the forms of darśana or darshanam, comes from the Sanskrit root of दर्शन dṛś 'to look at', 'to view', vision, apparition or glimpse.[1]

Definition

Darshana is described as an "auspicious sight" of a holy person, which bestows merit on the viewer.

It is most commonly used for theophany, meaning a manifestation or vision of the divine.[2]

In Hinduism

In Hindu worship, it refers to seeing a deity (especially in image form), or a very holy person or artifact. One can receive darshana or a glimpse of the deity in the temple, or from a great saintly person, such as a great guru. One can also take darshana of a sacred places like Kashi, Yamuna or Mount Kailash.[3]

In Hindu practice, adherents often refer to their temple visits as going for darshana rather than simply worship. Darshana, often translated as the "auspicious sight" of the divine, involves seeing the deity's image (murti). This visual experience is charged with religious significance, as the deity is believed to be present in the image, allowing worshippers to receive divine blessings through their gaze.[4]

The term darshana also refers to the six systems of thought, called darshanam, that comprise classical Hindu philosophy. The term therein implies how each of these six systems distinctively look at things and the scriptures in Indian philosophies. The six Hindu darshana are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta. Buddhism and Jainism are examples of non-Hindu darshans.

Mahayana Buddhism

On the significance of darshana in Mahayana thought, Paul Harrison writes: "By the second century CE... the vision of the Buddha (buddha-darśana) and the accompanying hearing of the Dharma (dharma-śravaṇa) are represented as a transformation experience of decisive importance for practitioners, be they who have renounced (mundane life) 'ascetics' or householders."

The Abhidharma, collections of systematic summaries of the sutras, mention Darshana-citta, i.e. visions.

Indian Mahayana philosophers Vasubandhu and Asanga acknowledged five paths to liberation, of which the third is darshana-marga, the "path of seeing".

Nagarjuna, a prominent philosopher of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, wrote that the wise person perceives tattva-darshana, true reality.[5]

Other meanings

Darshana also sometimes has a more mundane meaning. For example, Sivananda Saraswati wrote in his book The Practice of Brahmacharya that one of the eight aspects of brahmacharya (celibacy) is not to look lustfully at women: "You should carefully avoid ... Darshana or looking at women with passionate resolve".

Scholar of religion Richard H. Davis has said that darshana (viewpoint, philosophical school) is one of three terms in classical Indian discourse that could be considered roughly analogous to what today's English-speakers understand as "religion." The other two terms are dharma (duty, morality, a code of proper conduct) and marga (route, spiritual path). According to Davis, "most Hindu texts accepted that religious paths (marga) are relative to the points of view (darśana) and moral responsibilities (dharma) of practitioners, whose individual circumstances may make one or another course of action more appropriate in their particular situations."

Poet Gary Snyder has given a naturalistic meaning to darshana: Darshan is also a part of the name of India's public broadcaster Doordarshan combining the word दूर dūra 'far' altogether making दूरदर्शन dūrdarśan 'television'.

See also

References

Works cited

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Encyclopedia: दर्श darśá . 470–1 . 1981 . A Sanskrit-English Dictionary . Monier . Monier-Williams . Monier Monier-Williams . Motilal Banarsidass . Delhi, Varanasi, Patna .
  2. Encyclopedia: Darshan - Hinduism . . 2015 . britannica.com . 12 February 2013 . 26 August 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150826000944/http://www.britannica.com/topic/darshan . live .
  3. Book: Ray . Himanshu Prabha . The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice . Kulshreshtha . Salila . Suvrathan . Uthara . 2022-10-13 . Taylor & Francis . en.
  4. Book: Eck, Diana L. . Darśan: seeing the divine image in India . 1998 . Columbia Univ. Press . 978-0-231-11265-9 . 3rd . Translations from the Asian classics . New York, NY . 3.
  5. Book: . Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way . Chapter 26 . verse 10 .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Darshan (Indian religions)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.