Mary and Hinduism

Since ancient times, goddesses have been both well known and revered in India. Thousands of images of women that were found in the North-West of India in the ruins of the Indus Valley civilization (around 2500-1500 B.C.) show that goddesses played an important role in the religion of this culture, even though male divinities dominated the written traditions.

Goddess worship is very developed in Hinduism

The daily worship of goddesses in Hinduism is visible at a village level, where goddess worship occupies a key role. Although in the minds of the villagers goddesses are part of literature and tradition, many of them in fact only have a regional or local reputation. These village goddesses care for the existence, interests and well-being of the community. They are particularly associated with fertility – both of the crops as of the human – as well as illnesses.They are usually revered by all the members of one village and identified with that specific village.

The existence of a Great Goddess...

Some Hindu theologians believe in the existence of a Great Goddess who appears in different forms.  Numerous goddesses in the Hindu tradition represent a unifying cosmic principal, powerfully fecund, active and female in gender. Although this character has many names, she is generally known as Devi (Goddess) or Mahdevi (Great Goddess). She is often called Sakti, which means “power” and hints at her wide and unending powers of creation. This Great Goddess is fundamentally an active divinity, attentive to the stability of the world and to the needs of her worshippers.

…which reminds us of the Virgin Mary without being comparable to her

The dark, destructive, blood-thirsty side of the Great Goddess is seen as a natural part of a certain sense of order given that she covers all things and affirms a positive and necessary interaction in the cosmos between life and death, creation and destruction, strength and rest. The devotion of Hindus and other Indian religions towards the Blessed Virgin Mary should be put into this context of worship of the Hindu goddesses.

If we were able to speak to them convincingly of the real greatness of Our Lady as Immaculate Mother of our Redeemer...

The popular concept of the Hindu goddess cannot be applied to Our Lady, even though she has many of the attributes of Hindu goddesses.  She is respected and venerated by Indians in popular tradition like a holy woman who answers their prayers for material and spiritual needs. However if we were able to speak to them convincingly of the real greatness of Our Lady as Immaculate Mother of our Redeemer, they might grow to respect and venerate her as she deserves.

Cardinal Francis Arinze

Réflexions données lors du Colloque sur "Marie dans les relations œcuméniques et inter-religieuses" Lourdes, 8 juin 2001. Réf. : OMNIS TERRA (Édition française), n. 382, mai 2002, pp. 182-188.