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.
As I have mentioned in the above paragraph that I always had a dream to go visit the Hindu temple, so I decided to visit Hindu temple for my experience project. It is way that is giving me an opportunity to learn and find out interesting things about the Hindu practices. By just visiting to this temple I can find out many differences in between mine and Hindu culture. I have watc...
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...re somehow representing Hindus culture and tradition. Even the architecture was telling something about the historical stories on Hinduism. Specific location of the deities in the Durga temple has provided the god and goddesses a higher level of respect and honor. I tried my best to take as many pictures as I can but unfortunately I was not able to. After seeing everything in the temple I can definitely say that all the Hindus take care of all the things that are close to them. They show and have same amount of respect for all the god and goddesses. In the end, I would just say that my visit to Durga temple was outstanding, and really enjoyed it. I have learned many new things about the Hindus that I was familiar with before. I will definitely go again if I ever get a chance. I am now more curious about finding out some more interesting facts about the Hinduism.
...eautiful scenes within the temple. It was very interesting to learn about specific interactions and lifestyles many Buddhists go through when at the temple and their perspectives on life. The location of the temple was one that really provided an atmosphere that was heavenly. The architecture and the buildings were meticulously built. The landscape was very beautiful and the atmosphere was very relaxing. I felt at peace and calm when I was at the temple. I also feel a step closer to understanding my culture.
Samuel Seium. I attended a Sikh temple that is located outside of Baltimore, Maryland with a friend who is Sikh and commonly attends the services. The temple was the size of a regular sized church and appeared to have a common Sikh temple design. Before entering the temple, it is customary to take off your shoes. My friend and I attended this event on a Sundays. Although the temple is open seven days a week, in America it is common for Sunday to be the busiest day at the temple because that is when the major religious group in this country attends their services so the Sikhs at this temple do the same. In the prayer room, we sat on the floor and crossed our legs. There was a person in the front of the room that was leading prayers. However,
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.
The statement "everyone is a Hindu" is an extremely broad one that is open to much interpretation. This owes partly to the fact that Hinduism itself is a broad and vast religion with many ways of following. In this paper I seek to explain that the statement "everyone is a Hindu" is a worthy one because Hindus have a sense of interconnectedness in all organisms and life on earth, and that the ultimate goal of a person is to join the rest of the universe in "moksha." Additionally, the attribute of the Hinduism that lends well to the statement is that Hinduism is a very hospitable religion that not only requires no specific adherence or conversion, it stresses the understanding of other religions as well.
I think that everybody should go to Nathdwara and visit this holy place and the home of Lord Krishna. It is an exciting experience and one of the most worth seeing place in India. If you are from outside India then you should come to this place and the culture that how diverse India is and how people live together coming from different background.
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.
In the place of worshipping there are the murtis of many different Hindu gods. On the outside there are also some carved statues attached to it. All mandirs are special, even if they are not the traditional types. At the front, on the outside, there are great steps leading towards the part of the mandir where the worshipping takes place, which are only used sometimes.
For my site visit reflection paper, I decided to visit the Thai Buddhist Temple in Homestead. The reason this particular site was my choice was because information acquired from the videos in lecture about tradition and Confucianism in Asia made me curious to learn more about the Buddhist way of life. Because so many South Eastern countries instantaneously adopted Buddhism from India and then China with open arms, I decided to make the visit in the morning to learn the reasons for the international success of this way of life. This would give me a more interactive comprehension of Buddhism.
The Hare Krishna Cultural Center is a Hindu temple in Miami. The Hare Krishna Movement members follow the ancient scriptures of India, which are based principally on Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. These scripts have more than 5000 years and they are practiced by over 900 millions people at the present time. In July 2011, I attended to the Hare Krishna Cultural Center Hindu temple. The only information I knew previous this experience was just some essential understanding of Hinduism, but not sufficient to know what to expect in my first visit to a Hindu temple.
...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.
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.
Appearing in later Vedic literature of the Hindu religion are two goddesses, Durga and Kali. These goddesses have many similarities and differences. Kali and Durga are different in three ways. 1) Durga is a radiant warrior goddess and Kali is a bloodthirsty monster goddess. 2) Durga and Kali are both associated with the Hindu god Shiva. The two goddesses play different roles when they are with Shiva and affect him in different ways. 3) Durga maintains the balance of the cosmos while Kali destroys the balance. Durga and Kali are alike in three ways. 1) Neither of the goddesses fit into the normal social position for Hindu women. 2) Kali and Durga are one in the same. 3) Both goddesses are worshipped by blood sacrifice.
Hinduism is considered as the oldest and world’s third largest religion. It is a monotheistic religion. The name Hinduism has originated from a Persian word which connects with the sindhu or Indus River in northwest India. Muslim invaders, such as Persians, Arabs, and Afghans from the west started to use the word Hindu for the first time in fourteenth century. Hinduism refers to the people and culture of India as Hindu. Adding of “ism” designates the beliefs and practices of the people called Hindu. The other name which is used for Hinduism include “Santana dharma” basically means everlasting law and Vaidika dharma mean religion of Vedas. Hinduism is extreme in most part of India. This religion does not have a founder or date of origin like other religions do. They have 330 gods but they believe that their god is Brahman and these 330 gods are the representation of Brahman in different ways so, it is not considered as a polytheist religion. This religion is also called as the religion of freedom due to the widest freedom in faith and worship and they do not have to focus on any sets of doctrines. The various aspects of Hinduism can be further discussed through the history, background, setting, beliefs, contributions that Hindus gave and relation of Hinduism to the western civilization.
Hindu mythology has interesting theories on how the Earth was created and the reincarnation of people, Hinduism is very different to many other mythologies and has some unique key features that make it stand out from the rest. History tells that there are over 330 million gods in Hindu mythology. There are six main gods in Hinduism. Hindu’s have an interesting belief of what happens to them after death, the afterlife Hindus believe in must be met by accomplishing a goal. Hinduism is a unique belief in many gods, the life cycle and reincarnation of its people.
In Hinduism some of the things I found most fascinating is that the idea of God in Hindu is compounded and how they worship. There is one Supreme God and his form is unlimited. The Supreme God’s qualities and forms are represented by the numerous deities that stem from him. The deities God can form can be either male or female, allowing Hindus to pray to a god or goddess.