A Messenger of the Lord
&quot;An angel can illume the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision, and by bringing within his reach some truth which the angel himself contemplates.&quot;
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
“Un ange peut illuminer la pensée et l’esprit de l’homme en renforçant son pouvoir visionnaire, et en mettant à sa portée une vérité que l’ange lui-même contemple.”
Saint Thomas d’Aquin (1225-1274)

Angels are usually viewed as emanations of a supreme divine being, sent to do the tasks of that being. 
Traditions vary as to whether angels have free will or are merely extensions of the supreme being's will. 
While the appearance of angels also varies, many views of angels give them a human shape.
The word angel in English is a fusion of the Old English word engel and the Old French angele. 
Both derive from the Latin angelus, and thence the Koine Greek angellos ('messenger') used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew mal'akh (yehowah) &quot;messenger (of Yahweh)&quot;.
The Bible uses the terms מלאך אלהים (melakh Elohim; messenger of God), מלאך יהוה (melakh Adonai; messenger of the Lord), בני אלוהים (b'nai Elohim; sons of God) and הקודשים (ha-qodeshim; the holy ones) to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels.
Hinduism has many different types of spiritual beings who act in a similar capacity to Judeo-Christian-Islamic equivalent Angels, like devas, however they normally don’t have the same iconography.

No wonder that many angels like this one appear on secular and sacred buildings in Varanasi (Benaras) but so far no one could explain me why ...
This angel was outside a little temple located near the Bengali Inter college in Bhelupura.
This is another picture with angels on a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva but at the other part of the city.
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