Anthropomorphism - Vishnu, Krishna, Rama etc
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Any non-human characters that walk, talk, sing or dance are examples of anthropomorphism. Disney animal characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and many others represent anthropomorphic animals.
Our scriptures took this approach. God is treated as a human with super powers. In Human form, most of the souls don’t detect the true nature of God and performs all acts of papam and punyam. God will guide and punish the soul as needed being a human. There are many gods and their stories which were humanized. Even animals are part of this. We pray to them as well.
The human form of Gods have emotions like humans and does many of the humans activities. They frequently travel between divine worlds and earth blurring the lines of the reality and divinity. Humans Gods have ego and anger. Vishnu and Krishna as a human, love, marry, fight and pray. There were many instances cursed by Rishis or yogis and it ends mostly for betterment of this world.
Goal of anthropomorphism is to relate the incomprehensible Maha Vishnu as a human and connect with him, sing his praises in the form of poems, stories, miracles and scriptures, slowly gain his blessings for Vaikuntam. Those who believe that God is in temple and my god is the only one, they are fully trapped by Maya. Those with intent of killing and intimidating others will lead that soul to perform more and more paapam which leads to more and more Janamams either in this world or Patala Lokam.
God is not in temples, animals and symbols, but pervaded everywhere.
Human touch to non human entities
The term anthropomorphism was coined by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes when describing the similarity between religious believers and their gods - that is, Greek gods were depicted having light skin and blue eyes while African gods had dark skin and brown eyes.
Neuroscience research has shown that similar brain regions are involved when we think about the behaviour of both humans and of non-human entities, suggesting that anthropomorphism may be using similar processes as those used for thinking about other people.
Anthropomorphism carries many important implications. For example, thinking of a non-human entity in human ways renders it worthy of moral care and consideration. In addition, anthropomorphized entities become responsible for their own actions - that is, they become deserving of punishment and reward.Although we like to anthropomorphize, we do not assign human qualities to each and every single object we encounter.
What accounts for this selectivity? One factor is similarity. An entity is more likely to be anthropomorphised the more similar it appears to humans (for example, through humanlike movements or physical features like a face). Various motivations may also influence anthropomorphism.
Since the beginning of time, humans have been attributing unexplainable events to entities that they cannot see or feel, only sense and infer. Some scientists claim the neurological basis for anthropomorphizing contributes to this phenomenon. In essence, we could even be constructing ideas of gods in the image of ourselves.
Most religions are concerned with questions as the purpose of humanity’s existence and place in this cosmos. Giving the human qualities to God, with firm belief that the form of the God existed before we were created on earth and also, Humans are created in the form and image of God, thus we possess qualities of divine which has been masked by Maya, which we need to overcome to attain our divine self.
Anthropomorphism story which depicts Gods in human qualities and form
Sathyabhama, one of Krishna's consorts was proud of Krishna's love for her and wanted to show everybody that she was Krishna's favorite. Another consort Rukmini Devi also stayed in the same palace, and had unswerving devotion and love for Krishna. She did not worry about Krishna's love for her, instead tried to give all her love to Him and found happiness in loving Him.
One day Sathyabhama asked Narada muni about having Krishna just for herself. Narada muni told her that she could sell Krishna to somebody and buy back Him by paying money and gold equivalent to Krishna's weight! If she did that Krishna would belong to her completely.
Sathyabhama agreed and thought it was easy to weigh as much as Krishna weighs by using not even half of her jewelry. So she sold poor (!!) Krishna to Narada himself and asked Krishna to sit on a balance to weigh enough gold against Him. The obedient Krishna sat on the plate on one side of the balance. Sathybhama started adding her gold jewelry to the plate of the other arm, to balance Krishna's weight. She added and added and exhausted herself and all her jewelry. Still Krishna weighed more. She panicked and ran inside to Rukmini Devi. She was offering Tulasi leaves to Krishna who was dwelling in her mind. She heard the story of Sathyabhama, got up and came near the balance with a Thulasi leaf in her hand. She prayed with sincere love and devotion and placed the Thulasi leaf along with all the gold ornaments Sathybhama had put.
At that moment, weight balanced and actually Krishna's side slowly went up a little bit more than the side with Tulasi leaf. Sathyabhama was ashamed of herself and her actions and left the room with tears in her eyes. Krishna smiled at Narada and then at Rukmini Devi “whatever you give Me, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water, with devotion , I will accept happily”
Here Sathyabhama as in mortal form displayed all the human qualities of ego, jealousy, pride, selfishness etc. It is a moral story for humans to convey that to attain Krishna, you must control or conquer all the human qualities which hinders knowing self and attaining Vishnu, especially that we are created in the “Image of God”
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