The trip to the Hindu temple was our longest of the class. It was about a 3 hours drive one way, however; I still enjoyed this field trip a lot. The extra time allowed for our class to bond more and we were able to hear some more personal stories from the professor. Overall the ride in the van was fun but I can’t forget about the actual time spent at the temple because it was fun as well.
The first thing I noticed about the temple was the size and beauty of it. From an outward appearance this building stands out more than any of the other sacred spaces we have visited as a class. It looks like the largest place we have been to and it has detailed sculptures which rise up in mountain shape structures on the roof. The beauty of this building can be seen from far away and because of this it easily draws people’s curiosity.
When we went inside the temple I noticed how similar it was to the mosque and synagogue in that it is a community space. By this I mean there is a cafeteria and a place to watch concerts and socialize. Both the mosque and synagogue have areas like this that are open to the public as well. For these three religions the socialization and worship spaces are created separately, while for Christians the socialization takes place in the worship space. This socialization aspect of the temple made sense to me because my friend goes to a temple and he will often spend several hours there. Our guide even mentioned to us that families with make a trip to the temple an all day outing by eating, socializing, and worshiping throughout the day. It is not a type of sacred space I am used to but it seems like a fun one.
After we saw the social space downstairs we headed upstairs to the worship space. Upon seeing this space I had to stop and regroup for a second because there were many statues of Gods that were worshiped and I had never seen anything like that before. I was especially surprised because I thought that Hinduism was really only concerned with the gods Brahman, Vishnu, and Shiva, but there were many more Gods than that. Not only are there many statues of God that are praised, but Hindus believe in one higher power. Needless to say I struggled between the practices of polytheism and the belief of monotheism, but I don’t expect to fully understand after one visit to a temple. Hopefully I can grow in my understanding of the faith as I continue to study.
I had the awesome experience of participating in a short worship process that Hindus do. It includes covering your eyes with incense, drinking holy water, receiving a blessing from Vishnu and receiving almonds. Unfortunately I don’t know what everything means but I still found it to be inspiring. I was impressed as to how open they are to letting people of other faiths participate with them. I really enjoyed the temple; I felt welcomed in and I plan to go back in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Neil
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you found good things about both visits, the mosque and the temple. I was disappointed by the mosque, but mostly because we had to hear so much information repeated from class. The temple, on the other hand, illustrated much of what we had discussed. From the hospitality, which reminded me of the point that Hinduism sees the divine in everyone, to the multiplicity of gods that you talked about here. I also was struck (again) by how much physical attn is paid to the gods--bathing, food, etc. That reminds me a lot of Catholic Christianity--some of what we do that has led many protestants to think of Catholics as idol worshippers. jw