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{{short description|Auspicious sight of a deity or holy person in Indian religions}}{{About|the Hindu and Buddhist meanings of the term|the Jewish lay leader also called Darshan|Darshan (Judaism)|the Bangladesh border township|Darshana, Chuadanga}}{{redirect|Darshana}}{{Italic title}}File:Devotees offering prayers at a sanctum in Chennakesava temple at Belur.jpg|thumb|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, BelurChennakeshava Temple, BelurIn Indian religions, Darshana, also spelt Darshan, (Sanskrit: दर्शन, {{IAST3|darśana}} {{lit|showing, appearance, view, sight}}) or Darshanam (darśanam) is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person.{{sfn|Flood|2011|p=194}}The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology.{{sfn|Klostermaier|2008|p=26}}

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.ENCYCLOPEDIA, दर्श darśá, 470–1, 1981, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Monier, Monier-Williams, Monier Monier-Williams, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, Varanasi, Patna,weblink

Definition

Darshana is described as an "auspicious sight" of a holy person, which bestows merit on the viewer.{{sfn|Flood|2011|p=194}}It is most commonly used for theophany, meaning a manifestation or vision of the divine.ENCYCLOPEDIA,weblink Darshan - Hinduism, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2015, britannica.com, 12 February 2013, 26 August 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150826000944weblink">weblink live,

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. One can also take darshana of a sacred places like Kashi, Yamuna or Mount Kailash.BOOK, Ray, Himanshu Prabha,weblink The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice, Kulshreshtha, Salila, Suvrathan, Uthara, 2022-10-13, Taylor & Francis, en, The term darshana also refers to the six systems of thought, called darshanam, that comprise classical Hindu philosophy.{{sfn|Nicholson|2013|pp=2–5}}{{sfn|Perrett|2000|pp=88, 284}} The term therein implies how each of these six systems distinctively look at things and the scriptures in Indian philosophies.{{sfn|Perrett|2000|pp=88, 284}} The six Hindu darshana are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta. Buddhism and Jainism are examples of non-Hindu darshans.

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."{{sfn|Harrison|1992||p=223}}The Abhidharma, collections of systematic summaries of the sutras, mention Darshana-citta, i.e. visions.{{sfn|Gyatso|1992|p=288}}Indian Mahayana philosophers Vasubandhu and Asanga acknowledged five paths to liberation, of which the third is darshana-marga, the "path of seeing".{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=194}}Nagarjuna, a prominent philosopher of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, wrote that the wise person perceives tattva-darshana, true reality.BOOK, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, Chapter 26, verse 10, {{sfn|Unno|1993|p=347}}

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".{{sfn|Sivananda|1988|p=24}}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."{{sfn|Davis|2008|pp=363–364}}Poet Gary Snyder has given a naturalistic meaning to darshana:{{blockquote|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..."{{sfn|White|1994|p=148}} }} 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|date=October 2023}}

See also

• Blessing
• Dharma transmission
• Guru–shishya tradition
• Jharokha Darshan
• Pranāma

References

Citations

{{reflist|25em}}

Works cited

• BOOK, Davis, Richard H., Tolerance and hierarchy: accommodating multiple religious paths in Hinduism, 360–376, Neusner, Jacob, Jacob Neusner, Chilton, Bruce, Bruce Chilton, Religious tolerance in world religions, West Conshohocken, PA, Templeton Foundation Press, 2008, 174500978, 978-1599471365,
• BOOK, Flood, Gavin D., 2011, Miracles in Hinduism, Twelftree, Graham H., The Cambridge Companion to Miracles, Cambridge University Press,
• BOOK, Gethin, Rupert, Rupert Gethin, The foundations of Buddhism, New York, Oxford University Press, 1998, 38392391, 0192892231,weblink
• BOOK, Gyatso, Janet, In the mirror of memory: reflections on mindfulness and remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1992, 24068984, 0791410773,
• BOOK, Harrison, Paul, Commemoration and identification in Buddhanusmá¹›ti, Gyatso, Janet, In the mirror of memory: reflections on mindfulness and remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1992, 24068984, 0791410773,
• BOOK, Klostermaier, Klaus K., 2008, Hinduism: A Beginner's Guide, Oneworld Publications, 978-1851685387,
• BOOK, Nicholson, Andrew, 2013, Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, Columbia University Press, 978-0231149877,
• BOOK, Perrett, Roy, 2000, Indian Philosophy, Routledge, 978-1135703226,
• BOOK, Sivananda, Sri Swami, Sivananda Saraswati, The practice of brahmacharya, Shivanandanagar, Uttar Pradesh, Divine Life Society, 1988, 1934, 1st rev., 8170520673,
• BOOK, Unno, Taitetsu, Taitetsu Unno, San-lun, T'ien T'ai, and Hua-yen, 343–365, Takeuchi, Yoshinori, Bragt, Jan van, Jan Van Bragt, Buddhist spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and early Chinese, World spirituality, New York, Crossroad, 1993, 27432658, 0824512774,
• BOOK, White, Jonathan, Talking on the water: conversations about nature and creativity, San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 1994, 27640603, 0871565153,weblink

Further reading

• JOURNAL, Coorlawala, Uttara Asha, Darshan and abhinaya: an alternative to the male gaze, Spring 1996, Dance Research Journal, 28, 1, 19–27, 10.2307/1478103, 1478103,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150403105817weblink">weblink 2015-04-03,
• BOOK, Dass, Ram, Ram Dass, Darshan, 62–84, Be love now: the path of the heart, New York, HarperOne, 2010, 526084249, 978-0061961373,weblink
• JOURNAL, DuPertuis, Lucy, How people recognize charisma: the case of darshan in Radhasoami and Divine Light Mission, 1986, Sociology of Religion, 47, 2, 111–124, 10.2307/3711456, 3711456,
• BOOK, Eck, Diana L., Diana L. Eck, DarÅ›an: seeing the divine image in India, New York, Columbia University Press, 3rd, 1998, 1981, 40295673, 0231112653,
• BOOK, Grimes, John A., DarÅ›ana, 531–552, Mittal, Sushil, Thursby, Gene R., The Hindu world, The Routledge worlds, New York, Routledge, 2004, 54103829, 0415215277,
• BOOK, Purdom, C.B., God to Man and Man to God: the Discourses of Meher Baba, London, Victor Gollancz, 1955,
• JOURNAL, Sanzaro, Francis, Darshan as mode and critique of perception: Hinduism's liberatory model of visuality, Axis Mundi, Fall 2007, 1–24,weblink

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