During the third Puja we observed, to Rame, we were able to see the use of the camphor flame at the end of the ceremony once we had received the Prasada. (In this case it was water and nuts that we ingested.) It appeared as if the use of the camphor flame was in a way the highlight or the climax of the Puja. During the use of the flame the Hindu devotees placed their hands over the fire and then their fingers to their face. Fuller describes this as “God…become[ing] man and a person, transformed has become god; they have been merged and their identity is then reinforced…” (Fuller, 73). The significance of the camphor flame cannot be overstated. The gods’ benevolence, power and grace are located in the flame. By cupping your hands over the flame and placing your fingers on your eyes, these are being transferred to the devotee. By doing this one is completing the process of the prasada. The “flame and prasada together divinize the human actor to achieve the identity between deity and worshiper, which completes the transformation initiated by the offerings and services made during the Puja” (Fuller, 74).
At the end of the field trip a third Puja was occurring, however not necessarily in the traditional sense. A Brahman was performing a Puja on a car. The Brahman and the owners of the care were in the parking lot, barefoot, having the car blessed. The car and the surroundings temporarily became sacred space. In fact, in Hinduism any place can become sacred space as long as rituals and procedure are followed. This is an interesting idea, the idea that the god is transcendental, just like in many other faiths (such as Christianity and Islam). God can transcend all physical things and reveal or work through other means such as miracles. H...
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...to strengthen their faith but also one’s own. This could be seen in the temple with people discussing how their week has been, or the large tables in the dinning hall where fellow Hindus discussed an array of issues. Finally the passion with which Hindus and their priests praised and honored their deities is what I found most similar to my religion. Unwavering faith and love for [the] God/gods from the devotees, and the immense passion with which the Hindu priests performed all their duties. Visiting this temple has made me appreciate what I believe even more. Nevertheless, it has also opened my eyes to similarities that religions have and to the idea that maybe, as one of the Brahmins at the temple indicated, God’s love, tolerance, and understanding is not unique to my religion but is universal. The only thing that changes is how we show our love and faith to God.
Picture yourself in a town where you are underprivileged and sometimes miss a meal. In the novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie wrote the book to show hardships that Native Americans face today. Alexie shows us hardships such as poverty, alcoholism and education. In the novel, Junior goes against the odds to go to an all white school to get a better education to have a better life
As the sunrises over the crisp fall horizon, followers begin to surround the sacred space in anticipation for what is about to take place. The sacred space is soon surrounded by people who are dressed in the sacred colors, some wearing necklaces of their totem, while others wear headdresses that adorn with their sacred symbol. People begin to drink, play music, and prepare a banquet feast for each other, creating a festival atmosphere in hope that today’s ritual will be a success. As the ritual gets set to begin followers begin to crowd into the sacred space, surrounded with pictures and names of those who have reached greatness. As the ritual begins, music is played in order to bring everyone together and prepare for the events that are about to unfold. It is now that the followers have a very simple focus, to aid in the success of the ritual. Those who celebrate the ritual take there places in the middle of the sacred space, with the followers surrounding them; now that the ritual has begun the celebrants begin to perform and focus on certain actions in order connect themselves with the transcendent sacred. The followers who look on begin to aid by chanting, allowing themselves to also transcend. In hopes that the ritual was a success, everyone does their part until the last second of the ritual is completed, it is only then that it can be decided if the ritual was a success and they can either celebrate or grieve by signing in their most sacred song, bonding them once again with each other.
The presence and function of pilgrimage in both the worlds New Age and Judeo-Christian religious landscape is incredibly important as it often provides individuals with an opportunity to exemplify and extended their spiritual beliefs and understandings and gives them a chance to create a meaningful, life changing and life affirming spiritual experience. New Age Pilgrimage in particular creates a chance for New Age adherents to explore the choices they made through encountering deep spiritual journeys and experiencing sacred energies through a range of different experiences. We will discuss the appeal of New Age pilgrimage with reference to two sites in particular, the vortex experience in Sedona, Arizona in the United States and the Ayahuasca rituals and journeys that occur all over the Amazon Rainforest in South America. These sites are worthy of looking at because they market two completely different spiritual experiences, but upon closer inspection seem to be important and appealing to the New Age community for similar reasons. The sites are similar because pilgrimages to these areas do not pertain to one strict site or one dogma of spiritual understanding; in fact they do the opposite by providing a large landscape in which individuals can create their own pilgrimage experience. Indeed it seems that the two most enticing factors about both these sites is the fact that they both feed and satisfy every individual’s desires and provide individuals with a chance to make sense of and answer the larger questions about life and the world that people struggle to answer. However both these sites also offer something that is unique to their pilgrimage alone, in Sedona that being the accessibility and ease of choice pertaining to practis...
Religion has always been a prominent part of our culture, yet is constantly changing. The stereotypes within these religions are slowly disintegrating, forcing people to become more accepting and open minded. Buddhism, specifically Shambhala, has changed what it means to be religious, focusing less on memorizing and worshipping, and more on finding the meaning to their life and who they are. The Shambhala tradition uses its rituals in order to answer questions about various other aspects of life. These rituals are derived from Buddhists myths, and form the foundation of the religion as a whole. The direct connection between ritual and myth allows Shambhala to be a transformative religion, in which it is redefining itself and our society.
1.) Intro: I decided to focus my Religious Ethnography on a friend whom I recently have become close with. Adhita Sahai is my friend’s name, which she later told me her first name meant “scholar.” I choose to observe and interview Adhita, after she invited me to her home after hearing about my assignment. I was very humbled that she was open to this, because not only was it a great opportunity for this paper, but it also helped me get to know Adhita better. I took a rather general approach to the religious questions that I proposed to the Sahai family because I didn’t want to push to deep, I could tell Hinduism is extremely important to this family. Because this family does not attend a religious site where they worship, I instead listened to how they do this at home as a family instead.
Identity. Social Injustice. Coming of age. Those are three out of several other themes that are touched on in The Diary of a Part-Time Indian, written by Sherman Alexie.
I was very nervous to visit the Hindu Mandir. However, once I got there, I saw how beautiful and amazing it really was. It was so beautiful that I thought that I was in a museum instead of a place of worship. It was absolutely nothing as I expected it to be at all. While I was in the Mandir, I felt a sense of honor and serenity and at peace while looking around at all the beautiful art. In addition, I learned many different things because of this visit about Hinduism. The visit made me learn things that I would have never learned if I did not go on the trip. I learned about what a Mandir is, a Mandir functions, the history of Hinduism, their beliefs, and their festival celebrations.
Different religions, different ways, and one aim of maintaining religious identity. Hinduism and Judaism, two of the world’s biggest religions, are seemingly completely unalike. With differences such as their views of afterlife, death and birth Hindus believing in rebirth and “oneness” with Brahman, and Jews believing in a world to come, focusing more on God’s image, never really mentioning what happens after death. Yet when you take a closer look into both religions you find some similarities. Both religions’ rituals focus on the same things, they may be celebrated differently but the meaning behind the celebrations and the meaning behind some of their symbols are the same, and their purposes help people maintain their identity and keep the traditions of their cultures strong.
I arrived at the destination of where the ritual observation was to take place at 9:45 a.m. on February 23, 2014. The ritual takes place in Brockville, Ontario in a building called the New Hope Brockville Tabernacle. The tabernacle is a large building that has a tower, also known as a steeple, erected on the roof. On the steeple is the symbol of the cross. The front doors opened up to a large foyer where the majority of the people inside were gathered in various small groups. These groups were composed of members similar in age. Everyone who entered through the doors was greeted with lots of hugs and welcomes.
Religious discrimination is the biggest social issue in the USA. Since the 9/11 attacks Sikh’s have been tortured and treated really badly only because of their appearance. Arabs and Muslims are also tortured because of the religion they belong to. People should not insult other people without even knowing about their background. People should try to get to know about other person’s background before coming into any conclusion, he might be the best person they have ever met. The U.S. should abolish the practice of practice of profiling based on appearance at government office, schools, private offices etc.
I decided to visit a Hindu temple because the Hindu religion was the religion that I knew the least about and was interested in. This assignment gave me an opportunity to learn more about this religion and what their worship services and rituals were like. The temple that I went to was called BAPS Shri Swaminaryan Mandir and it was located in Lilburn. As soon as I walked in, I was amazed by the beautiful architectural design of this Temple. It seemed like it took a lot of hard work and dedication to make the place what it is now. While I was at the temple, I watched the Hindus perform an ancient Vedic ritual called the Abhishek, a ritual bathing to honor the murti of their God.
Upon reading about the historical and religious background of Ancient India, one can clearly assume that the country was strongly influenced by three main religious teachings: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. These three sects in religious thinking have many similarities as all recognize the life-cycle and the need of liberation, they worship one central deity that used to be a human who gained enlightenment and they all recognize the existence of the eternal soul and after-death re-incarnation. However, they also share a lot of differences that mark the underlying principles of practicing them. I will identify the scope of differences and similarities in these ancient religions in an attempt to understand why each attracted followers, why each was shaped a certain way and how they preserved the interest of followers on into the modern times as well.
The other source has been Puranas which are eighteen in number and contains information about the creation and dynasties of god, sages and kings and detailed description of yugas. All the sources are on the same footstep and no one has supremacy over the other.
Before I really get into my personal experience at the Durga temple, I would like to begin my experience paper by throwing a light on my religion. I personally belong to a Muslim family and have practiced Islam throughout my life. Islam is one of the monotheistic religions, which means people only believe in one God usually referred as Allah. All the individuals, including me, believe that everything in this world has been created by all mighty Allah. He has the power and authority of diminishing and raising thing. Islam is based on its five pillars; Namaz (prayer), Roza (fasting), Hajj (pilgrimage), Zakat (Give away), and Jahad (struggle in way of Islam). In contrast Hinduism has many different deities and all of them have a specific purpose. For example Shiva is widely known as the destroyer while the Vishnu presides over the maintenance of the living being. The reason I decided to go to the Hindu religious practice is because I have heard many different stories about the conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Furthermore, I also wanted to see the temples because I have never seen one, I have been to a lot of churches, mosques, and synagogue, but never got the change to visit a temple. Both Islam and Hinduism are the most popular religions in the world and they have millions of followers. However, there is a day and night difference between both of them.
If there is such a cuisine that is distinctly Asian, curry that is. Curry is to South Asia as fish and chips is to Great Britain. One of those Asian cuisines that has transcend boundaries, various curries have found their way into Southeastern and Far Eastern gastronomy, Great Britain curry houses and Caribbean kitchens. Indeed, curry is as colorful and diversified as the different cultures of Asia.