Question asked by Bhavisha
I live in india and hindu by birth. People worship here tons of locan deities about which i don't know whether they are enlighten or not. So what should I do regarding offerings and worship of them. Many people take trance of these local deities and i saw positive effect of this to people in the form of healing, answers of unclarity and future and blessings. But also once spiritually advanced lady told me who is from foreign that most of locan deities are nasty Astral entities and u should never worship them.
So put light on this whole topic that which deity i should pay respect and do offerings and how to know if the one is enlighten or not…and if one is not enlighten will i face averse effects by worshiping and paying respect and taking refuge….
Dear Bhavisha,
Thank you for your question. From the Buddhist perspective we should only take refuge in enlightened beings, for example the Buddhas and the various meditational and protector deities that we know are enlightened. Apart from the enlightened deities, there are, as you said, many many other gods, spirits, or entities out there.
In Buddhism, the Hindu gods and goddesses are recognised. In fact, they are part of Buddhist cosmology too. However, as Buddhists we do not take refuge in them, we do not put our faith in them. They do however have certain powers or abilities to help or harm people. That’s why in Hinduism if you want help, they go to certain gods and from the darker side, if they want to harm, they also go to the gods to give them the ability.
Even though this is the case, in Buddhism, you can still give offerings to the gods but not take refuge in them. It’s like giving them offerings to make them happy, but you do not take them as your source of refuge.
In certain pujas, we do make offerings to the gods, but Buddhists will not take refuge in them. So it’s okay to make offerings to them, visit their temples, etc., but not to take refuge in them.
Tsem Rinpoche has some students who were bought up Hindu but are not Buddhist now. Rinpoche said that they of course can still visit the temples of the gods, make offerings, etc, but not to reply on them or take refuge in them.
I hope this helps to answer your question.