Why bother with icons? (Learn to respect your symbols)

Published on 21st October, 2016, in The Organiser. I remember the time my friend took me to the Kapaleshwara temple in Chennai. It took the two of us almost an hour to reach the sanctum sanctorum. No, not because it was crowded. But because we were enjoying the vast range of Shaiva iconography that decorated the temple from the gate through the corridors right up to the innermost structure in which was located the enshrined deity. Meanwhile, dozens of devotees were rushing in to temple to get darshan and rushing out to do their daily chores. No one seemed interested in, or even aware of, ..