Veneration
Paduka is also gifted as part of a bride's dowry. They are worshipped and also given as votive offerings by the faithful believers.
In a festival associated with the Hindu god Vithoba, pilgrims travel to his Pandharpur temple from Alandi and Dehu towns that are closely associated with poet-saints Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram respectively, carrying the Padukas of the saints in a silver palkhi (palanquin).
The popular religious belief is that of the contact (sparsh) with the Salabhanjika yakshini's foot. It is said that when the Yakshini encircles a dormant tree with her leg around it, it starts to blossom and bear fruit. Shalabhanjika yakshi is also an embellishment in the form of an architectural bracket in many Hindu temples.
Another notable feature of veneration is of goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. On Deepavali festival day, Lakshmi is devotionally ushered into the house by symbolic representation with a series of her foot prints (paduka) drawn in paint or kolam and lighted all along with oil lamps, from the main door of the house into the private sanctum in the house. This is done with the prayerful wish that good fortune shall be bestowed by her on the householders.
Below the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya where Buddha got enlightenment, there is a vacant throne that is adorned with the foot prints on a foot rest of the Buddha. This place is deeply venerated.
- Vishnupad temple
Vishnupada Mandir is said to enshrine the footprints of god Vishnu. This footprint denotes the act of Vishnu subduing Gayasur by placing his foot on Gayasur's chest. Inside the temple, the 40 centimetres (16 in) long footprint of Vishnu is imprinted in solid rock and surrounded by a silver plated octagonal open enclosure. The temple is 30 metres (98 ft)in height and has 8 rows of elegantly carved pillars that support the pavilion. Within the temple precincts, the banyan tree called the 'Akshayabat' is located where the final rituals for the dead takes place.
- Paduka Sahasram
Paduka Sahasram, literal meaning "1000 verses on the padukas of the Lord", is devotional poetry extolling the virtues of worshipping the Paduka (feet) of god Vishnu whose deity is enshrined in Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam in Tamil Nadu. It is considered a sacred script of the Sri Sampradaya or Sri Vaishnavism, who are known by the surname Iyengar, also spelt Ayyangar in South India. The Sahasram was composed in 1008 verses in 32 chapters by Swami Vedantha Desika, a follower of the Vishishtadvaita philosophy propounded by saint Ramanujacharya. It is also said that Desika composed this magnamopus, as a challenge to his rival group of Tengalai Iyengars (Iyengars belonging to the northern school of the Srivaishnava philosophy), in one yamam of a night meaning one quarter of a night, which was acclaimed as a master piece of religious poetry and he was awarded the title of Mahakavi. The eulogy of the Lord's Paduka by Desika is spun around Rama's sandals (Paduka), which ruled the kingdom of Ayodhya for 14 years. He propounds that it was due to the special relationship that people of Ayodhya had with Rama's Paduka that they attained liberation, meaning salvation in life.
- Guru Paduka Panchakam
Adi Shankaracharya has also written nine devotional verses under the title "Guru Paduka Panchakam" as salutations to his guru, in this case meaning the Lord. The English language translation of the first verse means:
Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which is a boat, which helps me, cross the endless ocean of life,
Which endows me, with the sense of devotion to my Guru,
And by worship of which, I attain the dominion of renunciation.
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Famous quotes containing the word veneration:
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were still paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy; but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)