Hindu Temple Observation

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Observations at the Temple

I arrived at the Hindu Temple of San Antonio (HTSA) before the ceremonies in the main hall typically begin, so I had the chance to walk around the temple prior to the arrival of the devotees. I was hesitant at first when approaching the temple because I was not very familiar with Hindu worship services. However, my experiences visiting Radha Madhav Dham in Austin, in order to celebrate Holi with some of my close Hindu friends, gave me an idea of what customs I should follow. This included taking off my shoes before entering, and sitting on the floor in the main part of the temple to wait for the service to begin.

As I entered the temple, the seven statues at the front immediately caught my attention. All but one …show more content…

As the family of devotees around us explained, the priest began by focusing on the statue of Ganesha because he is believed to have the ability to remove all obstacles. During the puja, the priest invited and welcomed Ganesha and proceeded to wash the statue with various types of liquids and spices, including water, milk, coconut water, honey and turmeric. The priest repeated this process of bathing the statue several times, and ended by placing sacred ash on the statue and surrounding it with flowers and fruits. Throughout the first part of the puja, the priest continued to chant while devotees walked in and out of the room, making the overall atmosphere feel very …show more content…

The first thing I noticed were boxes at the front of the room into which people would place money. This reminded me of the offering plates that are passed around during the church service that I attend at home. Besides this, much of what I recognized was due to our discussion of Hinduism in class. For example, every so often when the priest was reciting prayers, he would end a phrase with Om. In class we learned that when a Hindu practitioner meditates on this sound, they are in essence vocalizing all the sounds of the universe. I was also able to recognize many of the names of the gods that were represented by the statues at the front of the temple, including Ganesha, Vishnu, Brahma, and

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