Worship in Hinduism Flashcards
Nature of puja in the home
Mandir: Position and size vary, normally kitchen as pure.
Who?: Woman, three times daily, sometimes Brahmin. In such an occasion man is considered the host.
Preparation: Purify body in morning, new clothes, washed, shoes removed
Worship:
-Bell is rung to awaken your istadeva (or multiple devas)
- Dipa is lit, shows you worship many, but all are Brahman, symbol of purifying
-Joss sticks lit, smoke, shows god is omnipotent
- Murti washed in gangajad and dressed in fine clothes
-Murtis have pastes of sandlewood applied, along with sect markings (tilaka) in red powder
-Prasad: food, sweets, further gangajad. Offered to mouth, remaining is offered to family/guests.
–> Guests may be offered garlands
-Arti
-Gayatra mantra, morning, brahman as rising sun
-VARIES ACROSS SECTS, no set order, arjuna texts
Purpose of puja in the home
- Has been in the past to appease malevolent deities
- To bring good will (ie praying to Ganesh in exams)
- Shows Bhakti, brings you closer to God and mocksha
- Worship was in vedic (2000-1000bce) ritualistic and not spiritually uplifting. Now ritual is to bring you closer to Brahman
- Invites God into the home and treats them like an honored guest
- Obligatory debt owed by humans
- Brings family together and strengthens religious identity
- Fulfilling dharma
Temples
- Used since classical period, connect divine/humanity
- Instructions for building them found in Aganas/Vasta Shatras but difference in Northern/Southern styles
- Design/size varies across India but purpose is constant
- -> Darshan, pilgrimage (tirtha), homage murtis,
- Temple worship optional but may be more direct way to worship ista deva as devas manifest in temple and as temple. Architecture considered sacred
Design of a Hindu temple (both northern and southern style)
- Garba Griha. Most important part, place of shrine, ‘womb house’, faces East into sunrise. Centralised: in Southern temples it is center, in Northern last building reached in temple pilgrimage. Raised platform, significance
- Surrounded by Parikrama, circumambulation
- Antarala, stairs, symbol of passing between realms
- Mandapa/Mahamandapa, hall for congregation
- Ardhamandapa, porch, with bell to awaken deity. Maybe also torana (gateway) symbollic of passing between realms
- Guarded by vahana, for Siva = bull
Temple worship: Nature of Yajna
- Vedic (2000-1000) origins, means literally sacrifice
- Sacrifice of animals/food to deity in fire. Shows hospitality to deity ‘present’ at ritual
- Performed outside in sacred fire pit
- At temple: ‘srauta’ rituals
- At home: ‘grihya’ rituals
- Now called Havan ritual. Continued to be practiced as recorded in vedic texts by Brahmins
- Seen as very powerful rituals
- Animals now replaced with fruits and sweets (ghi)
- Vedic slokas chanted
- Rarity now as replaced by standard puja eg arti but wealthy Hindus may still practice havan on special occasions
- Arya Samaj community: more commonly practiced as they want to revert back to old customs, more pure. Vedic yajna>murti puja
The practice of a havan ritual
-Public srauta ritual. May be inside temple or outside in courtyard
- Vedic yajna, carried out by Brahmin priests
- Up to three sacred fires used
- Sacrifices of ghi, milk, yoghurt, rice, pulses, sacred plants, leaves
- Ritual can take from minutes to a year long
-Brick, stone or copper altar used
-fire pit varies in depth
Process:
- Fire to be used is kindled and consecrated by Brahmins/pujaris
- invocation of the deity or deities to connect to the ritual
-The sacrifice of offerings into the fire
-Vedic mantras are recited
-Brahmins/guests sit in concentric rings from centre of fire
Purpose of a havan ritual
- Invites God to form connection with realms of humanity (raises sacrificed soul up to god, Gods invited to ceremony
- Appeases malovent deities or can ask for something
- Aayushya havan, to ward off evil influences present in a child’s life immediately following its birth, thereby ensuring longevity
- Durga havan supposedly cancel negative energies
- Lakshmi Kubera havan is even supposed to bring wealth and material prosperity
Temple festivals
- Key function of a temple
- Happen all year round and annually
- Huge celebrations, key to the purpose and importance of a temple
- Examples include Holi, Divali, Ratha Yatra, Durga puja, Maha Sivatra
Rath Yatra festival
-Temple of chariots
-Mela, huge Indian fair
- Dedicated to Lord Jagganatha (krishna form)
- Celebrated at temple of Orissa, Puri, East Coast
- Huge chariots carrying the murtis move to Gundicha 2 miles away for 7 days then return
- Pulled by thousands of devotees, bhakti
- See Vamana, dwarf avatar
Purpose? Importance?
- See the murtis up close, not usually possible as guarded by the temple priests
- Darsan
- Pulling murtis, bhakti, to achieve mocksha
- Tirtha, pilgrimage
Divali festival
- Festival of light
- Celebrated across many temples in India
- Lasts five days
- Lighting many divas, filled with oil, symbol of good>evil and knowledge> ignorance, light> dark
- Celebrates day Lord Rama returns from 14 years of exile after defeating Ravana
- amavasya, new moon so dark, countered with divas
- Slokas are chanted, arti performed, people go to temple of Lord Badrivishal (vishnu incarnation)
- Financial new year, Go to temples to bless account books, pray to consort Lakshmi
- Lots of food displayed in the temple, wealth and good fortune
Differences in the designs of Northern and Southern style temples
NORTHERN
-Shikara tops the garba griha, shows importance. May also top mandapa and ardhamandapa, himalayan like God’s home (tirtha, pilgrimage)
SOUTHERN
-Garba griha topped with vimana
-Gopurams, 200 ft high at 4 midpoints of temple walls, rectangles stacked. Elaborately decorated connotes complexity of our world
-Courtyard, dissected by 3/4 concentric squares: microcosm, represents different realms of the universe. Demon>human> lesser deities> Brahman
-Couryard has space for meeting halls, shops, schools, library, yajna puja fire sacrifice pit, hall for offerings (bohg mandir) and dances (nat mandir)
Purpose of temples
- Shows bhakti to ista deva to travel there. Fulfilling dharma to discover God
- Pilgrimage: to temple (tirtha) , in temple (circumambulation) and to see Gods (likened to Himalayas)
- Rituals: arti, receiving prasada, may receive the blessing of Brahman
- Darsan
- Devotional hyms (bhajans) and dances in nat mandir
- Havan rituals usually performed here
- Festivals, such as Rath Yatra, Divali
Worship in the home vs worship in the temple
HOME:
-Shrine at home, can perform many rituals alone without need to travel to temple
-Rituals done at sunrise, impractical to get there
-Temple may not have your ista deva so better to work at home
- Many rituals can be completed at home Ie samskaras, where Brahmin comes to your house and performs them for a small fee
- Strengthens family ties
-Worship individualistic so temple worship unneccesary
- God omnipresent so no need to go to temple
- Worship in temples has never been obligatory (bhakti)
TEMPLE
-Concecrated murtis, eyes awakened, more spiritually fulfilling
- Darshan at temples, not possible at home
-Arji Samaj: rejects murti worship, shallow representation of Brahmin, home alone not adequate worship
-Temples built on grounds of miracle or manifestation
-Temples more important to Hindus
-Cannot circumambulate/home is not a tirtha
If God is everywhere, why have special places of Worship?
No need for special places:
- God is omnipresent, therefore we can experience Brahman in our day to day lives and there is no need to visit a place of worship
- Arji Samaj: murti worship too shallow to understand God. Brahman transcends the physical, we cannot know him through a place of worship
- God seen to be present in Rivers (ganges) animals (cows) flowers (lotus), lots of representation around us
Special places still important:
- Help us understand God, through design of temple (concentric squares, journeying in, gopurams represent complexities of our world)
- Place of pilgrimage
- Darshan, consecrated murtis, more direct religious experience
- God was active at site of temple and present in architecture
- Site of festivals
Is worship essential to the Hindu way of life?
j
