common questions and misconceptions
Do Hindus pray to idols, and is Hinduism an idol-worshipping religion?
What a murti is
The word idol suggests a lifeless object that someone mistakes for a god. A murti is something different. Before a murti is placed in a home or temple, a ritual called prana pratishtha is performed. The tradition holds that through this ritual the divine is invited to be present in the image. After that, the murti is treated as a living presence, bathed, dressed, offered food, and spoken to. The worshipper is not praying to stone or metal. They are using a form as a meeting point with something much larger than the form itself.
Form pointing beyond form
Much of Hindu thought holds that the divine is ultimately formless and beyond description. The tradition calls this nirguna, meaning without qualities. But most people find it hard to connect with something completely abstract. So the tradition also offers saguna worship, the divine with form and qualities. A murti of Vishnu, Shiva, or Devi is not meant to be the whole truth of what the divine is. It is a doorway. Advaita thought, one of the major philosophical streams, teaches that all these forms point toward one formless reality called Brahman. The form is a support for the mind, not the final destination.
Not all Hindus agree
There have always been voices within the tradition that reject image worship entirely. The Arya Samaj, a reform movement, holds that murti puja is not supported by the oldest scriptures and that the divine should be approached without any physical form. Many Hindu philosophers and saints have also taught that inner worship and meditation matter more than outward ritual. So disagreement about images is not new and does not come only from outside the tradition.
Why the question keeps coming up
The word idol carries baggage from old debates between religions. When outsiders used it to describe Hindu practice, it was often meant as a criticism. Many Hindus today push back on that word and ask that murti be used instead, because it carries the tradition's own meaning. Others are comfortable explaining the practice on its own terms and letting the explanation speak for itself. Either way, calling it idol worship misses what the practice actually means to the people doing it.