Religion

Shrija Srivastava

Shrija Srivastava

Religious experiences: Topic two

999854368

Religious experiences: Topic two

999854368

One of the prominent features about what makes Canada so unique is its diversity. Canada is known today as a country which supports and encourages the development of all cultures and one of the religions which has emerged and spread throughout many parts of Canada is Hinduism. Today there are approximately 297,000 Hindus who are settled in Canada and there are about 70 temples. Hindu temples can be intimidating for many because there are so many rituals and practices taking place simultaneously. One often wonders what the importance of temples is. What is the priest chanting? What is the significance of all the rituals? Being raised in Canada, I also used to encounter such thoughts.

Once I grew older, however, and started visiting Hindu temples more often, all my questions were answered. Visiting a Hindu temple in Canada was extravagant because I had never seen such architecture and practices anywhere else. After making a few visits to India and experiencing the rituals there, I noticed that while there were many similarities between Hindu practices in India versus the ones in Canada there were also many prominent differences and because of these discrepancies I started to spend more time experiencing Hindu temples, practices and rituals both in Canada and in India to further develop my understanding of these rituals.

Most Hindu temples predominantly focus on worship ritual also known as Puja. I was lucky enough to experience this first hand when I visited a Hindu temple called Vishnu Mandir. Puja, which is the Hindu word for worship and literally means “adoration”, is usually the central activity that takes place in temples (www.hinduismtoday.com). I noticed that puja is usually conducted by the priest and it’s similar to a grand reception for a king. An interesting fact about pujas is that it takes around 10...