Hinduism

In some sects, a human guru, or spiritual teacher, is revered with the same fervour as a deity. Hindu worship takes different forms. Ways of worshipping include offering water to the rising sun or a river deity; sitting cross-legged in front of an image in a temple and saying the name of the deity; walking around the shrine of a deity in a clockwise direction; or singing hymns in a temple. The most common form of worship is called puja. People make offerings of red kum-kum and yellow turmeric powders, rice grains, sandalwood paste, flowers, fruit, incense, and light to an image, either at the home-shrine or at a temple. Puja is offered to the family deities each morning after bathing. A more elaborate puja is performed at times of festivals. Food and fruit are offered to the deity at puja and received back after they are blessed. This blessed offering is called prasad. Daily puja in a Hindu temple is conducted by the chief priest and his helpers. After the morning and evening puja, the sacred light called the arati is brought into the hall of the temple. Worshippers receive the light and place offerings of money in the arati tray. Pilgrimages. Hindus go on pilgrimages to distant temples to view the image of God and to offer worship, or to fulfil a vow. There are many centres of pilgrimage throughout India dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva, or the Mother Goddess. Important places of pilgrimage for Hindus are Badrinath in the Himalaya, Mathura on the River Jumna, Varanasi on the River Ganges, Puri in Orissa, Tirupathi and Kanchipuram near Chennai (formerly Madras), Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and Rameshwaram and Kanya Kumari at the southern tip of India. Festivals. Hindu festivals are colourful, joyous occasions. They are celebrated either as private worship at a household shrine or as public neighbourhood festivals. Everyone in the neighbourhood takes part in the public festival, but the celebrations at home are restricted to each family and close friends. Some festivals such as Raksha-Bandhan, Diwali, Navaratri, Dusserah, and Holi attract large crowds all over India. Other festivals such as Durga-Puja, Saraswati-Puja, Naga-Panchami, and Ganesha are more regional in their popularity. Every large temple celebrates the annual festival of the deity to which it is dedicated. At this time a replica of the main image is taken in a chariot procession, called ratha-yatra, through the town. The processions at Jagannath Puri and Udipi are famous for their colourful pageantry. Navaratri is the Nine Nights festival dedicated to the goddess Shakti. On the eighth night, Durga-Puja is celebrated as a public festival in Bengal. On the day after Navaratri is Dusserah, the climax of the Rama-Leela festival in north India. It commemorates the exploits of Prince Rama, as described in the epic Ramayana. Twenty days after Dusserah, usually in October or November, comes the festival of Diwali, dedicated to Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi. On the Raksha-Bandhan day, in August, women tie a silk thread round the wrists of their brothers to renew ties of affection. Holi is celebrated towards the end of the Hindu calendar year, with a bonfire and merry-making. People worship Saraswati in a public festival in Bengal. In August in western India, Hindus in rural areas worship live snakes on the day of Naga-Panchami. In Maharashtra in western India, the Ganesha (or Ganapati) festival is celebrated for ten days in many towns and cities. A large clay image of the deity is installed in a temporary pavilion, and puja is offered morning and evening. Recitals of Indian classical music, folk song contests, and plays are arranged as entertainment. On the last day, images from the different localities are taken in procession to the local river, and immersed in the water. Hindu life-rituals. Hindus perform rituals at important stages of development in life. Hindus believe these rituals purify the body and ennoble the personality. The ancient Sanskrit word for such a ritual is samskara, meaning sacrament. There are 16 samskaras recommended in the Dharma-Shastras, or ancient law books, but only a few people undergo all of them. Most well-to-do Hindu families perform some of these rituals, but only boys experience the sacred thread ceremony. Three samskaras are performed during pregnancy; after the birth of a baby come six childhood sacraments: to mark the birth, the naming of the child, its first outing, first solid food, first hair cut (also experienced by girls in south India), and earlobe piercing. The tenth, and initiation, sacrament is called the upanayana, when boys of the three upper varnas are invested with a sacred thread before they begin their study of the scriptures and start formal education. The next two sacraments are included symbolically in the thread ceremony. The 13th samskara is vivaha, or marriage. The 14th is the householder stage, and the 15th is the so-called forest-dwelling stage when a special puja is performed after a person retires from regular employment on the 60th birthday. The 16th and final sacrament is cremation of the dead. The upanayana sacrament is important as the "second-birth" of a boy. After this ritual, he can represent his family in religious rituals. Worship and prayers are offered to Agni (sacred fire) to endow the boy with strength and understanding. Worship is also offered to the Sun so that the boy may have intelligence to study the scriptures. The boy is then taught the Gayatri-Mantra from the Rig-Veda scriptures. (A mantra is a sacred utterance, often a single syllable.) Fifteen different rituals are performed in a Hindu marriage ceremony. The most important one is the sapta-padi, or seven-steps, which the couple take near the sacred fire at the time of their marriage vows. Hindus cremate their dead. The funeral pyre is lit either by the eldest or the youngest son of the deceased person. The son also has a religious duty to perform shraddha, a ritual in annual remembrance of deceased parents or grandparents. Literature Hinduism has no single book that serves as the source of its doctrines. But Hinduism has many sacred writings, all of which have contributed to its fundamental beliefs. The most important of these writings include the Vedas, the Puranas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad-Gita. The Vedas. The teachings of the Vedas existed for centuries before they were finally written down. There are four Vedas: the Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. Each has four parts--the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads. The Samhitas contain prayers and hymns, and are the most important part. The Brahmanas deal with ritual and theology, and include explanations of the Samhitas. The Aranyakas deal with the philosophy of devotion for hermits and saints. The Upanishads are works of philosophy written as dialogues.

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