A Hindu temple contains a very different religious experience compared to what I 've previously experienced in the past. Perhaps the most obvious difference comes from just how individual it can be compared to a group service for example. While there is a portion of the service that is led by a priest for the vast majority of your stay the experience is really upon you and you alone. While there are traditions to follow it 's still a unique experience. During my attendance at the Hindu temple of Atlanta I almost assuredly didn 't follow all of the customs and traditions but nevertheless, did my best to at least not offend my hosts. The experience was alien compared to anything else I 've ever experienced in this capacity and to be honest …show more content…
The setup of this temple was similar to the other with deities lining the outer perimeter. In this area after circling the building was led into an inner chamber with a few followers. Eight people were placed to the right and the left of entry way to this sanctum and the priest was ritually chanting something. After a time he began ritually feeding the deity by offering a small amount of liquid before it 's mouth before pouring it into a basin above. He then takes a flame and spins it around multiple times. The priest then took a flame to each follower to hold their hands around. He then takes the liquid from early and offers it to assembled people. They each take a sip of the liquid then splash the remainder over their heads. The priest then takes a large ornate metal hat and places it on each followers head. Then, fruit was given to each follower there some of children kept it while some of them seemed to be used to give a food offering to some of the statues of deities. Upon leaving food was serviced to guests in the form of a spicy rice. Lastly, upon going to leave I noticed that one of the priests had gone outside with some food to offer it to a statue of a deity though, this wasn 't a part of the service directly It was clearly a part of their daily lives. Overall this was a very different type of service compared to a christian service for example. To be honest I feel like not knowing Hindi made it so a lot of the subtext behind the service was lost to
Hinduism practiced by individuals, certain groups, mass festival, and at the temple. In the beginning of the film, the narrator’s guru confessed his devotion to Kali – meaning that individuals can choose certain god which fits his will. interesting thing is that people having primary god means Hindus categorized into different sections depending on their gods. Those categorized people could experience tension between one another in my opinion. However, the existence of millions of gods decrease the tension between the groups. The festival of Saraswati was the perfect example to practice the religion for certain groups. The students celebrate the festival to refresh their motivation and seeks higher will to learn. Yet, there was another form of practice – mass festival like other religions. The example was the Ganges River cleansing festival. The river was considered sacred, pure, and has a power of cleansing sins of whomever bath himself/herself. To me, the catering of thousands of people trying to cleanse their sins off shows the power of the religion and devotion of Hindus. Also, the most common form of practicing religion is temples. Hindu temples have its own architecture and art forms to amaze people.
The author here has mentioned “Shrine”, which in fact, is not a temple or any religious place but rather it is a bathroom and the ritual performed in the shrine are the daily activities that we do in the bathroom. The author has focused on the chest or a box that is built in the wall of the shrine. It refers to the cabinet and the charms and the magical potions in the chest are the medicines. The medicine men and the herbalist, by this, the author means the pharmacists who can understand the labels written outside the medicine bottles. The font under the charm box is the sink where we wash our hands and face with the water from the tap. The water temple of the community is the water tank from where the water is distributed in different houses.
One of the most striking was my grandfather’s temple in the small town of Mahoba where my father grew up. I spent a great deal of my childhood here, thus the pastel pink walls, intricate flower designs, and open layout immediately sparked flashbacks. I remembered the lenghas, traditional dresses, I would pick out to wear even though they were much more formal than the usual attire. I remembered waiting until no one was looking to sneak over to where everyone removed their shoes to try on my mom’s high heeled sandals. I remembered seeing my Dada, grandfather, leading the poojas, religious services, and feeling proud seeing how respected and genuine he was.
In the historical documentary of the film “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples’ temple”. It featured the footage of the group named peoples’ temple. They were lead by a preacher named Jim Jones. He led a group of 900 members and had a mass suicide of the peoples’ temple. When watching the film they will be interviews with former temple members . Being the Jonestown survivors and people who knew Jones. The preacher Jim Jones had a vision of changing their world. He would tell them about the promise land, and the members all of them wanted to go. For them they truly thought there was a potential, something big, powerful and great within what Jim Jones was preaching to the people.
In fact, like many Hindu families, we have a small shrine in our house to perform important ceremonies. Also, I have been going to the temple every Sunday for as long as I can remember, and I have been attending the BalaVihar program, which teaches young Hindus all about our beloved culture.
The first omen was a sort of fiery signal or shape that shone in the night sky and appeared to have sparks of fire that fell dripped from it like blood or rain. This fire-like phenomena that appeared at midnight at disappeared at sunrise was wide at the base and narrow at the top like a pyramid. The second omen was that the temple of Huitzilopochtli caught fire without any apparent reason, and when the Mexicanos ran to put it out with water, the flames only rose higher until the temple was completely reduced to ash. The third omen was that the straw temple of Xiuhtecuhtli was struck by lightening and burned down despite there not being but a light rain fall. The fourth omen was a series of comets that flew across the sky from the west to the
In the PBS film, “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples’ Temple”, it illustrates an extreme example of one radical religious leader's control over hundreds of people to the extent of convincing them to voluntarily commit a "revolutionary suicide" in their attempted utopian settlement in Guyana. In the 1970's various changes were being made and through social and cultural movements, including political and religious, people wanted something to believe in. They wanted to fight for a cause that would change the world. Jim Jones preyed on the members of the Peoples' Temple and gained his ultimate control through promoting activism, managing all the finances of each member while providing them with benefits, and through creating a sense of
As anyone that joins the temple, I consider it as my home. This temple allows its member to flourish into a more mature and spiritually advanced person. When a person first joins the temple they are welcomed with open arms into our regular routines. Then they are included in our new and innovative way to pray, Rock Shabbat. I am proud to be able to regularly attend Rock Shabbat. Being part of this temple means that I am able to become more spiritually advanced, which I can hope to be for the rest of my life. I have grown so much since I joined the temple, and not just physically. I now am a more mature woman of the Jewish people. I now understand the necessity for tzedakah and performing mizvot in everyday life. The teachers and the fellow
: The structures that make up the Temple of Heaven are meant to signify the relationship between heaven and earth, more importantly the connection between the emperors and God. The through in It was believed that offerings made by the emperor to the Gods, would bring a flourishing harvests, as he was believed to be the closest being to god. The structure itself was built so majestically to represent it descending into heaven. The main ceremonies that were held within the hall were all on the basis of worshipping heaven and so it was believed by doing so, it would be seen as favorable to the gods, enough to be blessed with an abundance supply of harvests such as grain. The ceremonial interior of the hall was built in such a way as to emphasize
The Horyu-Ji temple was built for the Buddhist people to have a worship place of commerce in which they could be one with nature and their surroundings. Consisting of three main buildings, this complex was designed to house a large group of people for centuries to come. The Pagoda (main temple) in the center of the corridors is believed to be the oldest wooden building in the world, and now is used to inspire people with it's external architecture. The Kondo, or the largest, is a two-story building with curved roofs and a double roof on the first floor, which is unique to itself with hints of culture from the Asuka period. Built in 739 BC, the Yumedono was built to honor Prince Shotoku -- who was believed to be Buddha -- after his death, and
On November 18, 1978 more than nine hundred people died in one of the largest mass murder/suicides in history. The man that implemented and carried out that atrocity was James Warren Jones, otherwise known as Jim Jones, a self proclaimed Second Coming (God). His exposure to an intensely emotional Pentecostal church service influenced and shaped his future beliefs and actions. In 1960, despite his lack of theological training, Jim Jones became an ordained minister. He made racial equality one of goals. Jim Jones also used fear arousal to recruit his followers by Genocide and thermonuclear war.
Hinduism is one among the many world religions with followers spread across the globe. I got an opportunity to visit Malibu Hindu Temple which is located in the city of Calabasas near Malibu, California in the Santa Monica Mountains. I came to note that Malibu Hindu Temple which is the temple of the Hindu god Venkateswara was built in the year 1981 and its owners and operators are the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California. Just like other Hindu Temples, Malibu Hindu Temple its style is that of traditional, thus most of those who visit this temple are followers of Hinduism living in Southern California. At the upper complex of Malibu Hindu Temple is Lord Venkateswara who is the presiding deity, while on at the lower complex is Lord Shiva
For example, Christians retreat to Churches, Muslims worship in mosques, Jews pray in temples, etc. But the significance of Hindu temples is the fact that there are only four “holy places”: “…[they] correspond to the four points of the compass and near which…Shankara established his four main centers” (Holy Places).
To experience a new religion is to open one's mind to an entirely new world. For my World Religions course, I was asked to visit a place of worship for a religion other than what I was most used to. Upon considering being raised as a Pentacostal Christian, the first idea that came to me after hearing this was for Billy and I to go with our friend Arjun's family to a Hindu temple—since Arjun had moved away recently to go to college however, he was unable to attend.
The Mandir (temple) was constructed with Italian marble, Indian pink sandstone, and Turkish limestone. The walls were all carved with delicate carvings of Gods that were carefully shipped all the way from India. The Hindus had very strict rules that had to be followed, such as: no smoking, drinking or eating inside, cell phones had to be turned off, and we had to be silent. We also had to take our shoes off before entering the temple out of respect for the deities and to keep the floors clean.