[Beyond India (working title) explores changes in perception of Hindu icons in the United States where second and third generation Hindu Americans have increasingly adopted American attitudes toward sacred objects. Viewing them as symbolic, rather than as actual presence of the deity, this change marks an important transition in Hindu attitudes. The text describes the traditional path in India where Hindu images have been cast for millennia through the lost wax process and brought to life by priests. It also explores the origins of western attitudes toward sacred objects as symbolic. Both perceptions now co-exist in a western globalized world in the United States in a complex layering of attitudes.].