VISITATION REPORT:

HINDUISM

Hinduism

Religion is a term that many people worldwide use to identify themselves. It is a set of conducts resulted from a belief system about the ultimate power. It is generally expressed as prayers, rituals, or other practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality (the cosmos, and human nature) which may yield a set of religious laws. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience. Despite many differences between religions, there are also many similarities that outline the general nature of a religion. For instance, every religion emphasizes on the need to do good and to serve the society wholeheartedly, and not for any selfish motive.

In order to understand a religion apart from one’s own, one needs to visit the religious institute or the centre of prayer for the religion. In order to explore more about Hinduism, I visited a Hindu temple called “Ram Temple”.

Upon entering the temple, I was required to take off footwear and place it on the shoe racks available. There were also coat racks available in the room to put our coats away. Once I took my shoes off I walked through a long hallway where I saw many different colourful pictures and paintings of the temples and the Hindu deities.

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The Murtis I saw upon entering the temple

Then I entered the main praying hall which consisted of various sculptures which were different representations of the God. Each God had their name written at the bottom of their idol. There were chimes playing in the background which were being sung in the ancient language Sanskrit. I also noticed the “OM” symbol which is a sacred word of the universe, on the podium.

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The Om symbol

The people were going to every god and taking their blessings by touching their feet and then touching their bodies. At the very end they went to “Shivling” which was a white round sculpture with three lines running horizontally. The people ended their worshiping by pouring the holy water over them and offering fruits to it.

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The Lingam

After observing the temple and the people performing rituals I wanted to know the significance of performing the prayer the way they did since it was a totally different way of worshiping than my religion, Islam. Hence, I had an interview with a pundit, which is a Hindu priest, named Vijay Sharma.

The very first thing that he told me was that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life and that Hindus live what they preach. He said that it was one of the first religions in the world but there is not too much documentation and historical facts about it since it is from the Eastern and not Western part of the world. Moreover, he mentioned that there are four ages or “Yugs” in a Hindu’s life, the first being Satyug, which is the age of truth, Dwapuryug, Tratayug and Kalyug which is the age of reincarnation. He said that a Hindu’s life is like a relay race where everyone starts at the same time and that the Hindu tradition is all about looking for answers to questions like why God might be unjust and why people are born the way they are with different types of social status and families. He also cleared a misunderstanding I had about the sculptures of the deities and told me that they were called “Murtis” and not idols since Hidus don’t pray to idols and they were representations of the same god or “one god” or Brahman according to the pundit, depending on the relationship. The Hindu tradition consists of a trinity with the god in the destructive form, creative form and as a sustainer. We then went to the murtis and analyzed each of them starting from the left of the room. The first murti was called Jalaram Bapa who was wearing a long necklace of rose petals, holding a wooden stick in his hand and wearing all white with bronze lining and wearing a white turban.

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Murti of Jalaram Bapa

The pundit then told me that this murti was of a saint who chose god’s pathway and served humanity with all his heart. The next murti was of Surya who is the sun god with seven horses around him, representing the seven rays of the sun.

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Murti of Surya

Furthermore, Vishwakarma was a murti of an old looking man dressed in yellow with four hands holding a ruler and a rope with a beard and a crown. Vishwakarma was the architect who designed the universe.

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Murti of Vishwakarma

The next murti was of Hanuman who was the topmost devotee of Bhagvan or God, had the face of a monkey, was dressed in red and gold and was holding a mountain in one hand. This representation of God had supernatural powers similar to those of a superhero and could do anything from flying to holding mountains.

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Murti of Hanuman

The next two murtis were of Krishna with a flute in his hand who came in the tritiyug and Radha, they were both dressed in red. The pundit told me that these two murtis are always placed together and are incomplete without each other since they were unmarried lovers.

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Murti of Radha and Krishna

Ganesh, who was dressed in yellow, had a rose in one hand and a rope in another was placed in the centre if all the murtis and he had the head of an elephant which represents wisdom since elephants are considered to be very wise animals.

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Murti of Ganesh

At the very top were the murtis of Vishnu and Lakshmi with Vishnu laying down on the cobra and Lakshmi messaging his feet. I discovered that they were both husband and wife and their murtis are always placed together since they are both incomplete without each other since Vishnu is the preserver and Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth who was dresses in orange and they are both linked. Vishnu is a sustaining version of God who is responsible for the day to day running of affairs and takes care of all the problems; he has also taken forms of a fish and a turtle to provide support at the ocean.

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Murti of Vishnu and Lakshmi

The next three murtis were of Lakshman, Ram, who came in the Dwapuryug and Sita who were all dressed in red with the two brothers, Lakshman and Ram carrying a bow and an arrow on their backs and Sita was Ram’s wife.

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Murti of Lakshman,
Ram and Sita

The next two murtis were of Sarasvati who was dressed in all white and was holding a “veena” which is a musical instrument and Shiva who had four hands and was holding a sword.

[pic] [pic] Murti of Saraswati Murti of Shiva

Shiva was the rejuvenating aspect of God who destroys everything and then starts fresh. He is sometimes represented blue in colour since once the air was poisonous so he swallowed the aur and therefore the colour blue represents the poisonous air that he swallowed. Shiva and Sarasvati are always put together since Sarasvati represents knowledge and Shiva represents creation, hence when someone is created they need knowledge to live therefore knowledge and creation are linked and that is why these two murtis are placed together in a temple. The next murti waas of Durga who was sitting on a lion had had six hands to represent all the things she has done while the lion represented power.

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The pandit told me that Durga represents the power of the Supreme Being that preserves moral order and righteousness in the creation. The Sanskrit word Durga means a fort or a place that is protected and thus difficult to reach. Durga, also called Divine Mother, protects mankind from evil and misery by destroying evil forces such as selfishness, jealousy, prejudice, hatred, anger, and ego. The sound that emanates from a conch is the sound of the sacred syllable “OM”, which is said to be the sound of creation. A conch in one of the Goddess's hands signifies the ultimate victory of virtue over evil and righteousness over unrighteousness. Other weapons in the hands of Durga such as a mace, sword, disc, arrow, and trident convey the idea that one weapon cannot destroy all different kinds of enemies. Different weapons must be used to fight enemies depending upon the circumstances. For example, selfishness must be destroyed by detachment, jealousy by desirelessness, prejudice by self-knowledge, and ego by discrimination.

Furthermore, there was a “Puja” which means a prayer that was held in the temple. This puja was called the “Shorashupachaar puja” which means sixteen steps of prayers and occur at the sixteen different milestones of a Hindus life called the “sola samskaar” starting at the point where the mother gets pregnant with the child to the very end of a person’s life known as “antimsanskaar”. The prayers are combinations of sixteen steps, where in the first step, the diety is invited to the place of worship and the place of mind through chantings. Secondly, the priest, or the worshiper offers the deity a seat just like a guest is offered a seat by the host at their house. Moreover, the feet of the deity are washed by holy water from the Ganges or milk, yougurt, or honey showing love and sffection to the god since these products are considered to be very pure. The deity is then offered clothes, makeup where sandlewood is used for makeup of the god. The priest or a worshipper then lights the “diya” which is a lamp, also the “agarbatti” is lit which provides the fresh scent and makes the environment soothing.

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The Diya

They also offer food, especially sweets and mostly dairy products making sure that the food is 100% vegetarian. Moreover, beetleleaves or “pan” is also offered for medicinal value to keep the deity healthy. They also offer gifts which includes mostly money. The very last step of this puja was when everyone stands up and does “Arti” which consists of holding the diya with one hand and holding the arm of that hand with another hand and waving the diya three times. The diya was then passes around and sent to everyone, who place their hands over the lamp and then touch their body. The symbolism of this ritual is that since diya means light which is a form of energy, by putting the hands over it symbolizes that one is taking the positive energy and spreading it all over their body by touching the body after, therefore the Hindus perform this act to ask god to send the positive energy to them. There were chantings that were being sung throughout this puja. One of the chanting that I noticed was being sung over and over again was in Sanskrit “Mangal bhavan aman vihadi” which means God is the house of bliss and remover of all the impurities. After this puja was finished, people were going up to each god individually and taking their blessing by placing their hands on their feet or bowing down in front of them. People weer also performing their individual arti to the gods. The very end they approached the shivling and offered it “Prasad” which were fruits in most cases. The “lingam” was the final touch to the prayer where the people pour the holy water, or milk over the shivling. The shivling symbolizes the time when shiva took a form of a pillar. In addition, there was a bell located at this place and the people rung the bell to show joy and happiness that a Hindu feels to be in the presence of the god or deity. The act of praying individually is called “Sanskrit Sholoks” in Sanskrit and a Hindu usually begins their day by performing “Surya Pranam” which means worshiping to the Sun god. The pundit also informed me that yoga, mediation and breathing exercises are all various ways of praying. Moreover, Hindus touch the ground and then touch their heart representing humbleness. Furthermore the Hindu tradition is known as “Sanatandharma” in Sanskrit which means a religion with no beginning since the Hindu tradition did not have any founder. While leaving the temple, the pundit offers “prashad” to the people, when I saw this act I was really curious to know the significance behind it so I asked the pundit himself. He told me that at the beginning of the puja, people bring prashad or offerings, which are then collected and distributed amongst everyone when they leave as a sign of sharing and caring.

Moreover, the prayers are held in the temple twice on a normal day. These two times are when the day and night meet which is a very auspicious time to pray and is called the “Sandhiya time”. These are the two pure times when an individual should be praying. The prayers early in the morning and in the evenings include “Artis”, which are the hymns and some “Shalokas” or verses from the Hindu sacred text called, “Gita”. Gita is a sacred text which was spoken by Lord Krishna himself and written by Sage Vashishta. In total, Hindus have three holy books, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Gita. Ramayana is based upon Rama’s life on Earth and Mahabharata and Gita are based upon Krishna’s life on Earth. Gita is a part of Mahabharata, which enlightens the man and talks about everything about who God is, what God does, what an individual is supposed to do, what an individual’s duty on Earth, etc. Overall, Gita teaches a person the values of life and how to live a life of purity and sanity.

On my way home after visiting the temple, I was thinking about all the various facts and stories the pundit told me. I began comparing my religion, which is Islam to Hinduism. I realized that there were significant amount of differences between the two religions. Firstly, unlike the Hindu tradition where there are a lot of various representations of the God, in Islam, there is only one God, Allah who is in only one form. Furthermore unlike the Hindu traditions where one can create sculptures of their gods, it is a major sin in Islam to make sculptures of any living thing and it is impossible to visualize Allah since nobody has ever witnessed the God. In addition, the gods Radha and Krishna were unmarried lovers hence encouraging the aspect of having a relationship before marriage. However this is a major sin in Islam since you are not supposed to fall in love or have a relationship before marriage. Also, the Hindu tradition allows one to pray at any time but has preference of praying at sunset and sunrise. This is different because a Muslim is supposed to pray five specific times of the day and these prayers are mandatory. It is also similar in a sense because two of the praying times of a Muslim are similar to the preferred times on a Hindu which is at sunrise and sunset. In addition, similar to the Hindu tradition, upon entering a mosque one is to remove footwear to demonstrate respect and to make sure that the place of worship is kept clean. Also, during the prayer, everyone is sitting together. This is very different form the Islamic aspect of praying since it is segregated and the men and women perform their prayers separately. Also, the women are required to cover their heads at all times especially in a mosque and wear fully covered clothes. However this is not the case in the Hindu tradition and a woman can wear anything she likes and does not have to cover her head. Also, there are three holy books in Hindu tradition which is different from Islam since there is only one holy book which is the Quran. Moreover, the gods have many different relationships for example, a brother in Ram and Lakshman’s case, a lover in Radha and Krishna’s case and a husband in Ram and Sita’s case. This contradicts the Islamic aspect since it is clearly stated that Allah has no relationships with anyone and is above all and God has no son nor is he anyone’s husband. Despite many differences between the Islamic and Hindu traditions, there are many similarities between the two religions. Firstly, the main aspect of serving the community and being kind and humble to the people around you is an essential aspect of how to live one’s life. Furthermore, mosh traditions teaches one to respect one’s elders as they are wiser and more experienced and to share and care with others. A Hindu is supposed to control their anger and not be angry and to show this they put a “tilak” which is “sindoor” which is a red powder and is placed on the forehead. The purpose of putting it on the forehead is to represent that the head is calm since one often refers to the head being outraged when one is angry hence the tilak placed on the forehead represents that one has a peaceful mind. This is similar to Islam since it is considered a sin if a person gets outraged and a muslim is supposed to have a peaceful mind and is not supposed to get angry and have control over their anger. Furthermore, the interior of the two religious institutes may appear to be similar since they look like a normal building from the outside, however the inside is completely different. First of all, a mosque does not have any pictures, paintings or a sculprture of a living thing. Secondly, a mosque contains calligraphy which is written in Arabic and has different names of Allah, the one and only God. Also, there are praying mats with beautiful designs on them for a muslim to pray on. Also all the prayers are in Arabic and are led by the “Imam” which is a priest. All the actions in the prayers are done in a uniform fashion after the “Imam”. Most importantly, there is no interaction between the two genders.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed visiting the temple and it has been a very memorable experience. The Pundit who I spoke to was a very nice and humble man and answered all my questions in a polite manner. A lot of my concepts about the Hindu traditions which were blurry before were cleared. The main concept that was cleared was that I thought that the Hindu tradition was polytheistic, and that there were many gods. However, after visiting the Ram temple, I discovered that Hinduism has a monotheistic base as there is only one God who has several forms of himself. For example, Hanuman is a form of Shiva who is a form of Vishnu. After completing by visit to the temple, I realized that one should have an open mind towards all the religions and not criticize any religion because despite the numerous differences in the religions, the base of the religion after all is similar in all the religions which is to be a kind and a humble person and to serve humanity to the best of ones ability.

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The outside view of the Ram Temple