Hindu Observation Essay

On Saturday January 28th, I went to observe a Hindu service. In the Hindu religion, the most important sense is seeing or Darsan, though the other senses are also fundamental throughout worship. Through the seeing of their deity in the form of an image, the deity also sees or knows them and in turn bestows blessings upon the viewer (Eck, 1). This is one of the many things I learned about Hindu religion while visiting a Hindu temple in Cherry Hill.

When our group first walked into the worship room, we noticed three people: a man repeatedly bowing down and singing along with the music, a priest who was doing the same, and a woman sitting to the side also kneeling in worship. I found it peculiar that there were only three individuals present, but I suppose most prefer coming at six o’clock pm rather than waking up at seven in the morning. In front of us, there were several gods and goddesses adorned in rich clothing, surrounded by flowers and golden decorations, including one appearing like a temple globe, above their heads, and finally, a golden barrier to separate that which is holy from that which is not. Shortly, the

Through his description, I gathered that they worship one god, who is said to be formless or “emit all things” (Mahoney, 1). In other words, their god is everything and everything is also its creation. Their lives are dedicated to spreading Hindu beliefs by the “Baba Gita” which are the messages or scriptures of god. The main theme of this text calls Hindus to love and respect others, maintain faith, and develop patience. Hating one another is said to be a sin, because if one zooms out on the earth, we are all one people. At the end of our lives, we do not die, we simply continue through several lives until we reach “perfection”. Essentially, the destination is the same, but we all take alternate