Today I visited a Hindu Temple in Riverside. This experience really opened my eyes to the reality of people's devotion and practice. Today's experience was the first time I have been to any kind of religious congregation or prayer. First of all I have to say that I felt bad for being there, the whole time I found that I was just analyzing what they were doing and trying to understand why? These people really believe that if they throw flowers at a little statue, "wash" it, "cloth" it, and "feed" it that the spirit will come and bless them with its presence? That the gods will answer their prayers or bless them because they go through these motion? I felt bad because it just seemed like an idea that started out with good intention and most likely a very scared ceremony, but as preformed today I think that nothing was accomplished. Basically I blame the priest.
This priest was a man that I don't think I could ever show respect for and therefore it was hard to try to focus on his teachings. Personally when I'm really trying to learn I like to be talked to as a person with a decent understanding of the world. This guy even said that he was teaching 2nd grade basics of Hinduism... and then proceeded to speak as if he were talking to a group of 2nd graders. I think I completely discredited him once he started making gestures of a blow fish face with a huge round belly, showing a pregnant woman. How do you show respect for a man like this, especially for someone that is suppose to give you spiritual guidance. The funny part was that he was speaking as if focused towards the children yet he emphasized the fact that they had a library to put the children during this part of the meeting. Maybe he just assumed that we Redlands students had the same intelligence as 2nd graders since we were not well known in the practices of Hinduism. I truly felt bad for the people who came and look at this guy as a way to learn more about their religion, not saying that he doesn't know a lot but just the fact that he's not intellectual about the way he goes about his teachings. I was really looking forward to listening to how they view life and interpret ideas and opinions but instead it seemed more like 'story time' in grade school.
Overall i felt very welcomed and included in the whole ceremony. The priest did a good job of helping us understand what they were saying and why. For awhile I watched people walk around to the various shrines and give a prayer or offering. Being the terrible person that I am all I could think of was that who was going around after everyone left and collecting these gifts. Which is one of my problems with organized religions. I don't think people should benefit off of others worship. But I guess the church or temple needs to stay in business somehow.
Anyways what I was trying to say is that the whole experience just was hard for me to take in. I have a hard time reasoning the same way that these people do, but I felt no need to ridicule them for it. I'm very thankful that everyone has their own ideas and beliefs, in which the rest of us are able to learn from. The lesson I learned today was that even if an action makes no sense, if it helps a person in their troubles then it should be done.
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I am sorry that the priest in his talk was quite a bit condescending. I was hoping you caught on to that, although it would be difficult not to.
For me there were many things which were quite disturbing which I would rather not get into. This is only out of respect for the the practitioners of the temple. I mean it's possible that they too feel the same way as you do, but it may be all that they have. It could also be, however, that they go through it because they feel it is for the benefit of their children and they are in a cultural element that is not the same as a purely Hindu cultural element. You have to give the priest credit though. Even though he is condescending and puts everyone on a second grade level, he does know Sanskrit and seemingly many of the other languages and sub-languages (dialects?) of India. Although I wish the context would have been more inviting to an intellectual discussion, but I think that that was not the point or the place for such discussion. I think that what he did had more to do with something akin to giving a sermon (albeit, not a very good one, at least not for adults anyway).
I was hoping, however, that what you did take away from this experience was a sense of a measure of importance with regards to what the people were doing in their worship. I don't think that the people actually thought that the coconut was a god (Ganeshdi); although, for some, it might have been. This latter view I would say is confused. But I think that for others, the coconut became something sacred to the point that if one were to have taken it up, cracked it open, and eaten it, it would've been looked down upon (maybe even viewed as blasphemous). I guess what I'm talking about is seeing a fine line between seeing something as a God as an actual physical object in distinction to a representation in a "religious" sense. It's the "religious" sense that is important to be clear about and that makes the two senses different but no less valid with respect to each other. The religious sense also shouldn't be confused with 'wishful thinking'. What I would say wishful thinking is is 'wishful thinking'; and religious is religious; and scientific is scientific.
But if I may say so, I agree with you completely with respect to your comments about the priest. What I was most impressed with was the fact that every Sunday, it seems, another family hosts the puja. I think that is incredibly gracious. I wonder if that's what it was like in early Christianity? Anyway, thanks you very much for coming.
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