ethnographic paper

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I am very religious and a huge believer in God, since childhood. My grandma has played a big role making me religious person. I remember in my childhood my grandma used to take me to the temple with her every day. From that time, I am attached very strongly toward the god. There was temple close to my house in India. I used to go to temple with my grandma two times a day morning and evening. These two times in temple saints (Hindu monks) do the “Aarti” (Aarti is waving lighted wicks before the sacred images to infuse the flames with the Deities’ love, energy, and blessings). “Aarti” means get rid of the darkness from life.
My ethnographic research is on the Hindu saint community. “Saint” is the word many people don’t know about it. However, before I tell anything about saint it is very important to describe what is a temple? Why saint lives there? Why need saint in the temple?
The Temple is the place where can find a statue of Hindu God and people go there to worship the God. For any Hindu temple in the world there has to be saints to take care the temple, offer aarti, worship god, and do “Satsang” (which refers to an environment, which is conducive for experiencing the presence of God).
The location I have chosen for my research paper is located 4N739 IL Route 59, Bartlett, IL 60103. For my research, I had to take permission from the temple authorities. I called in the temple, told them about my project, and ask for the permission to spend 3 to 4 hours at the temple observing the temple and especially the saints. They said I can go to the temple and I can do my research paper but they restrict to take any video in the temple. Authorities said I could take the notes but no picture or video inside the temple.
I choose Friday to...

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...ground. There were many stone pillars in the temple and every pillar was crafted with amazing design. As I noticed, every design was representation of Indian culture. The design of different gods and all the famous characters from India was beautiful. The ceiling, every corner, and every part inside the temple was crafted. There was detail written about the craftwork of the temple. The stones were hand carved by more than 2000 craftsman over a period of 22 months. The lord Swaminarayan statue was in middle of the temple. The statue was so alive felt like Lord Swaminarayan is actually there in the temple. The ornaments and cloths of god were beautiful. There were lots of Indian food were offered to the god. The whole temple decorated with flowers and different color lights. The place was truly devoted to the god and best place to go find peace and worship the god.

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