Darshan (Indian religions)

In Indian religions, a darshan (Sanskrit: दर्शन, IAST: darśana; lit. 'showing, appearance,^[1] view, sight') or darshanam is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person.^[2]

A *darshana* literally means a 'glimpse' or 'view'. In a Hindu temple, the term refers to viewing the *garbhagriha* 'inner sanctum' of the temple, which hosts the murti 'image of a god'. Devotees taking *darshana* of the god Vishnu in the inner sanctum of the Chennakeshava Temple, Belur.

The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology.^[3]

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.^[2]

It is most commonly used for theophany, meaning a manifestation or vision of the divine.^[4]

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.^[4] One can also take darshana of a sacred places like Kashi, Yamuna or Mount Kailash.^[5]

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.^[6]

The term darshana also refers to the six systems of thought, called darshanam, that comprise classical Hindu philosophy.^[7]^[8] The term therein implies how each of these six systems distinctively look at things and the scriptures in Indian philosophies.^[8]^[4] The six Hindu darshana are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta. Buddhism and Jainism are examples of non-Hindu darshans.^[4]

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."^[9]

The Abhidharma, collections of systematic summaries of the sutras, mention Darshana-citta, i.e. visions.^[10]

Indian Mahayana philosophers Vasubandhu and Asanga acknowledged five paths to liberation, of which the third is darshana-marga, the "path of seeing".^[11]

Nagarjuna, a prominent philosopher of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, wrote that the wise person perceives tattva-darshana, true reality.^[12]^[13]

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".^[14]

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."^[15]

Poet Gary Snyder has given a naturalistic meaning to darshana:

It's a gift; it's like there's a moment in which the thing is ready to let you see it. In India, this is called darshan. Darshan means getting a view, and if the clouds blow away, as they did once for me, and you get a view of the Himalayas from the foothills, an Indian person would say, "Ah, the Himalayas are giving you their darshana"; they're letting you have their view. This comfortable, really deep way of getting a sense of something takes time. It doesn't show itself to you right away. It isn't even necessary to know the names of things the way a botanist would. It's more important to be aware of the "suchness" of the thing; it's a reality. It's also a source of a certain kind of inspiration for creativity. I see it in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe..."^[16]

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'.^{[citation needed]}

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b Monier-Williams, Monier (1981). "दर्श darśá". A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Delhi, Varanasi, Patna: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 470–1.
^ ^a ^b Flood 2011, p. 194.
^ Klostermaier 2008, p. 26.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Darshan - Hinduism". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015. Archived from the original on 26 August 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2013 – via britannica.com.
^ Ray, Himanshu Prabha; Kulshreshtha, Salila; Suvrathan, Uthara (13 October 2022). The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice. Taylor & Francis.
^ Eck, Diana L. (1998). Darśan: seeing the divine image in India. Translations from the Asian classics (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Columbia Univ. Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-231-11265-9.
^ Nicholson 2013, pp. 2–5.
^ ^a ^b Perrett 2000, pp. 88, 284.
^ Harrison 1992, p. 223.
^ Gyatso 1992, p. 288.
^ Gethin 1998, p. 194.
^ "Chapter 26". Mūlamadhyamakakārikā [Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way]. verse 10.
^ Unno 1993, p. 347.
^ Sivananda 1988, p. 24.
^ Davis 2008, pp. 363–364.
^ White 1994, p. 148.

Works cited

Davis, Richard H. (2008). "Tolerance and hierarchy: accommodating multiple religious paths in Hinduism". In Neusner, Jacob; Chilton, Bruce (eds.). Religious tolerance in world religions. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press. pp. 360–376. ISBN 978-1599471365. OCLC 174500978.
Flood, Gavin D. (2011). "Miracles in Hinduism". In Twelftree, Graham H. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Miracles. Cambridge University Press.
Gethin, Rupert (1998). The foundations of Buddhism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192892231. OCLC 38392391.
Gyatso, Janet, ed. (1992). In the mirror of memory: reflections on mindfulness and remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791410773. OCLC 24068984.
Harrison, Paul (1992). "Commemoration and identification in Buddhanusmṛti". In Gyatso, Janet (ed.). In the mirror of memory: reflections on mindfulness and remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791410773. OCLC 24068984.
Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2008). Hinduism: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1851685387.
Nicholson, Andrew (2013). Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231149877.
Perrett, Roy (2000). Indian Philosophy. Routledge. ISBN 978-1135703226.
Sivananda, Sri Swami (1988) [1934]. The practice of brahmacharya (1st rev. ed.). Shivanandanagar, Uttar Pradesh: Divine Life Society. ISBN 8170520673.
Unno, Taitetsu (1993). "San-lun, T'ien T'ai, and Hua-yen". In Takeuchi, Yoshinori; Bragt, Jan van (eds.). Buddhist spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and early Chinese. World spirituality. New York: Crossroad. pp. 343–365. ISBN 0824512774. OCLC 27432658.
White, Jonathan, ed. (1994). Talking on the water: conversations about nature and creativity. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 0871565153. OCLC 27640603.