HINDU WORSHIP

Hindus offer daily worship to family deities at the household shrine. They celebrate annual festivals dedicated to different deities and they go on pilgrimages to distant shrines dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva, or the goddess Shakti. Hindu worship takes different forms.  Ways of worshiping include offering water to the rising sun or a river deity; sitting cross-legged in front of an image in a temple and saying the name of the deity; walking around the shrine of a deity in a clockwise direction;  or singing hymns in a temple.  The most common worship is called ‘Puja’.  People make offerings of red ‘kum-kum’ and yellow turmeric powders, rice grains, sandlewood paste, flowers, fruit, incense, and light to an image, either at the home-shrine or at a temple.  ‘Puja” is offered to the family dieties each morning after bathing. A more elaborate ‘Puja’ is performed at times of festivals. Food and fruits are offered to the deity at ‘Puja’ and received back after they are blessed. This blessed offering is called ‘prasad’. Daily ‘Puja’ in a Hindu temple is conducted by the chief priest and his helpers.  After the morning and evening ‘Puja’ the sacred light called the ‘Arti’ is brought into the hall of the temple. Worshipers receive the light and place offerings of money in the arti tray.

Pilgrimages:  Hindus go on pilgrimages to distant temples to view the image of God and to offer worship, or to fulfill a vow.  There are many Centres of pilgrimage throughout India dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva, or the Mother Goddess.  Important places of pilgrimage for Hindus are Badrinath in the Himalayas,  Mathura  on the river Jumna,  Varanasi on the river Ganges,  Jagannath Puri in Orissa,  Tirupathi and Kanchipuram near Chennai,  Madurai in Tamil Nadu,  and Rameshwaram and Kanya Kumari at the southern tip of India.

Festivals:  Hindu festivals are colourful, joyous occasions.  They are celebrated either as private worship at a household shrine or as public neighbourhood festivals.  Some festivals such as Raksha-Bandhan,  Diwali,  Navaratri,  Dusserah, and Holi attract large crowds all over India.  Other festivals such as Durga-Puja,  Saraswati-Puja,  Naga-Panchami,  and Ganesha are more regional in their popularity.

Navaratri is the Nine Nights festival dedicated to the goddess Shakti.  On the eight night,  Durga-Puja is celebrated as a public festival in Bengal.  On the day after Navaratri is Dusserah,  the climax of the Rama-Leela festival in North india.  It commemorates the exploits of Prince Rama, as described in the epic ‘Ramayana’.  Twenty days after Dusserah, usually in October or November, comes the festival of Diwali, dedicated to Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi.  On the Raksha-Bandhan day, in August, women tie a silk thread round the wrist of their brothers to renew ties of affection.  Holi is celebrated towards the end of the Hindu calendar year, with a bonfire and merry-making.  People worship Saraswati in a public Bengal.  In August in Western India,  Hindus in rural areas worship live snakes on the day of Naga-Panchami.

In Maharashtra in Western India,  the Ganesha (or Ganapati) festival is celebrated for ten days in many towns and cities.  A large clay image of the deity is installed in a temporary pavilion, and puja is offered morning and evening.  On the last day, images from the different localities are taken in procession to the local river, and immersed in the water.