Jai Radhe Radhe! Is it the same to worship a statue of the Virgin Mary as worshiping a deity of Radha? I've heard other devotees say that the Virgin Mary is a reincarnation of Radha, but given our sacred texts, how can we come to this conclusion?
I would think that to be the mother of Lord Jesus, Mary would have to be a devotee very dear to the Lord.
A devotee (SP disciple) recently sent me this post from Mexico, concerning the Cathedral at the Plaza de la Liberation: "at this church in Guadalajara the worshippers take care of a deity of Mother Mary a lot like devotees on the altar take care of Krishna. They dress her and offer incense."
The Virgin Mary in the Hebrew tradition and practice is an insignificant figure actually.
The exploitation and exaggeration of the Virgin Mary can be traced to a man made dogma of Catholicism. The similarities of the Virgin Mary and that of ancient Goddess worship is evident in the catholic portrayal of Mary, and of the importance placed (by them) on the Virgin Mary, was do to leaders of the early Catholic church 'not knowing' the proper meaning of the Torah, wherein descriptive prophesy of the Virgin was misinterpreted and/or misused in an attempt to fuse the virgin with the character of ancient Goddess figures (which also pulled in a lot of the pagans of the day to church membership) and was made into a dogma of the church, and one of the most successful dogmas in Christian church history. The Virgin Mary as Goddess offsets the masculine judgmental and authoritarian God of the Torah - you can go the mother for healing, when you can no longer bear the intensity of the father.
Note:
The Torah is written in what Jewish ascetics refer to as 'the language of branches' - it wasn't understood by many back then, and interestingly is still not understood by many today - its a brilliant system of divination, it will always reflect the intention of its users in and obvious manner!
Haribol, Jivatattva. Thank you for the post. Could you perhaps tell me more of what you mean by Virgin Mary as Goddess. It is to my understanding that Catholics don't worship her, but revere her and that she was a mere human being. But Radha on the other hand is God. And I'm wondering about the worship of Mary as Goddess by Krishna devotees, if it's possible. Thank you for your insight!
The Holy Bible is very clear as to the role and the status of the mother of Christ, he himself respected her as a mother, but never exalted her as a divinity!
The Catholic prayer books are full of prayers to Mary - this indicates worship.
There is none of this praying to Mary in the authentic messianic Judaic tradition.
The exaltation of Mary began in the early days of Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodox, Coptic and Eastern Orthodox churches, but mostly the Roman Catholicism. There are a few forms of Eastern Orthodox that do not emphasize Mary. So none of this is biblically founded, it is the ambitions of the human ego in the form of church clergy that has made this Mary thing larger than life.
Its like saying Mickey Mouse found God, and because he is so popular and because everyone loves him, lets put a little Mickey Deity on our home Altar! Sounds ridiculous, but this is how ridiculous it is.
This Mary worship is unfounded even in its native tradition, so what's to say about its relation to Krishna worship, or the lack thereof - no relation!
The relation of Krishna worship to Mary is like spirituality and amnesia.
-
P.s -Sources: See the politicizing of the developments of the perception of the Virgin Mary by the Catholic Church just within the last few hundred years - witness the development of liturgy from their own documentation - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm -- shows the reason for the synthetic nature of the current worldwide perception of the Virgin Mary, and how it is not biblically founded, but more so from the ego of church clergy.
Radha is the source of all feminine forms of God, Shaktis. As Krishna is the source of all incarnations including Buddha. The same Lord and Shakti is there but the moods and intentions of such worship is not the same.
You don't find that those who, if any, worship Buddha as God will worship Lord Buddha in same mood as worshiping Krishna.
very dear to the Lord
I would think that to be the mother of Lord Jesus, Mary would have to be a devotee very dear to the Lord.
A devotee (SP disciple) recently sent me this post from Mexico, concerning the Cathedral at the Plaza de la Liberation: "at this church in Guadalajara the worshippers take care of a deity of Mother Mary a lot like devotees on the altar take care of Krishna. They dress her and offer incense."
bhaktincarol
I would think
"I would think that to be the mother of Lord Jesus, Mary would have to be a devotee very dear to the Lord."
I would think that too
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All these Gods!
The Virgin Mary in the Hebrew tradition and practice is an insignificant figure actually.
The exploitation and exaggeration of the Virgin Mary can be traced to a man made dogma of Catholicism. The similarities of the Virgin Mary and that of ancient Goddess worship is evident in the catholic portrayal of Mary, and of the importance placed (by them) on the Virgin Mary, was do to leaders of the early Catholic church 'not knowing' the proper meaning of the Torah, wherein descriptive prophesy of the Virgin was misinterpreted and/or misused in an attempt to fuse the virgin with the character of ancient Goddess figures (which also pulled in a lot of the pagans of the day to church membership) and was made into a dogma of the church, and one of the most successful dogmas in Christian church history. The Virgin Mary as Goddess offsets the masculine judgmental and authoritarian God of the Torah - you can go the mother for healing, when you can no longer bear the intensity of the father.
Note:
The Torah is written in what Jewish ascetics refer to as 'the language of branches' - it wasn't understood by many back then, and interestingly is still not understood by many today - its a brilliant system of divination, it will always reflect the intention of its users in and obvious manner!
Haribol
Virgin Mary
Haribol, Jivatattva. Thank you for the post. Could you perhaps tell me more of what you mean by Virgin Mary as Goddess. It is to my understanding that Catholics don't worship her, but revere her and that she was a mere human being. But Radha on the other hand is God. And I'm wondering about the worship of Mary as Goddess by Krishna devotees, if it's possible. Thank you for your insight!
Never exalted to divinity
Bhaktin Gopala,
The Holy Bible is very clear as to the role and the status of the mother of Christ, he himself respected her as a mother, but never exalted her as a divinity!
The Catholic prayer books are full of prayers to Mary - this indicates worship.
There is none of this praying to Mary in the authentic messianic Judaic tradition.
The exaltation of Mary began in the early days of Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodox, Coptic and Eastern Orthodox churches, but mostly the Roman Catholicism. There are a few forms of Eastern Orthodox that do not emphasize Mary. So none of this is biblically founded, it is the ambitions of the human ego in the form of church clergy that has made this Mary thing larger than life.
Its like saying Mickey Mouse found God, and because he is so popular and because everyone loves him, lets put a little Mickey Deity on our home Altar! Sounds ridiculous, but this is how ridiculous it is.
This Mary worship is unfounded even in its native tradition, so what's to say about its relation to Krishna worship, or the lack thereof - no relation!
The relation of Krishna worship to Mary is like spirituality and amnesia.
-
P.s -Sources: See the politicizing of the developments of the perception of the Virgin Mary by the Catholic Church just within the last few hundred years - witness the development of liturgy from their own documentation - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm -- shows the reason for the synthetic nature of the current worldwide perception of the Virgin Mary, and how it is not biblically founded, but more so from the ego of church clergy.
More from the source. They are very good historians, and relatively honest about their man made influence on church doctrine - http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=sceltacat
Haribol
Radha is the source of all
Radha is the source of all feminine forms of God, Shaktis. As Krishna is the source of all incarnations including Buddha. The same Lord and Shakti is there but the moods and intentions of such worship is not the same.
You don't find that those who, if any, worship Buddha as God will worship Lord Buddha in same mood as worshiping Krishna.