style of clothing

September 17, 2004

Is there an importance to the general style of clothing of a hindu female and

does it aid in the worship of the devine female manifestion?

September 17, 2004

In a message dated 9/17/2004 2:15:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

ashwini_puralasamy writes:

In certain Shakti temple like one here in KL [ Nageshwari Temple ]

what is KL???

Kuala Lumpur???

[sWASTIK ... yup ;-) DB]

September 17, 2004

josie15201 wrote : Is there an importance to the general style of

clothing of a hindu female and does it aid in the worship of the

devine female manifestion?

In my own personal opinion what you wear is not important actually

as long as you wear decently. But what is decent? I know of many

temples would insist that female devotees wear saree when they

perform ritual. So for some its more eventually they becomes more

worried about the Saree not falling off instead of worshipping. Is

this the case to be?

In certain Shakti temple like one here in KL [ Nageshwari Temple ]

they insist that devotees wear RED Sarees or chudidar when

participating in ritual. To think of it, is it really important?

Even for my own daughter and myself, when we go to temple, I would

either wear a saree or chudidar. Its not that we do not have other

cloth to put on but we just feel that these are traditional

clothings that represent our identity and temple too is a place

where we go to reinforce our identity and faith. So to us its just

right, but personally I would not insist on others to do the same.

What I do is for my own personal reason and other should do what

they think is right for themselves.

September 17, 2004

I agree with Nora. With clothing, as with, say, vegetarianism, any

overemphasis on the outward symbols of one's spiritual path may end

up being little more than a material distraction from serious

spiritual practice.

So it is an individual choice. If the routine of changing into

traditional Hindu clothing helps one to shift into a mindset more

conducive to worship, than it is obviously a good thing for you. If

on the other hand it feels odd or makes you self-conscious, then it

is probably not a good thing for you.

I would add that when gurus, temples, etc., require devotees to wear

traditional Hindu clothing for worship (or for life in general),

they are probably most interested in helping to foster that mindset

conducive to worship.

Since some of you reading this post might be interested, here is an

interesting (and recent; c. 2001) example of a dress directive,

drafted for devotees of the late Sri Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami:

Sutra 84: Wearing traditional clothing. Siva's men devotees dress,

whenever appropriate, in impeccable traditional Hindu attire, always

at home, in the temple and at religious/cultural events. Their outer

elegance is equaled only by their inner dignity. Aum.

Sutra 91: Women's attire. Siva's women devotees wear, whenever

appropriate, traditional Hindu attire, always at home and in the

temple, adding rich jewelry for cultural events. Ever modest and

elegant, they never expose breasts or thighs. Aum.

So if you are a follower of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, those

are your instructions. If your guru is someone else, then let that

great soul guide you. If you have no guru, use your own instinct, as

noted above.

For what it's worth, I asked our own Sri Bhasurananda Natha about

all this and he unceremoniously dismissed the whole thing in these

plain words: "It's all bull. My family temple insists that they do

not even allow women to wear the chudidar [i.e. salwar kameez; an

Indian pantsuit] instead of a sari -- but then they are ultra

conservative. They even refused entry to one head of family because

the marriage was within the prohibited degree -- but when he became

India's foreign minister they conveniently forgot! What I'm saying

is that these things are silly. What you wear is unimportant."

And there you have it. I think?

DB

, "N. Madasamy"

<ashwini_puralasamy> wrote:

> josie15201 wrote : Is there an importance to the general style of

> clothing of a hindu female and does it aid in the worship of the

> devine female manifestion?

>

> In my own personal opinion what you wear is not important actually

> as long as you wear decently. But what is decent? I know of many

> temples would insist that female devotees wear saree when they

> perform ritual. So for some its more eventually they becomes more

> worried about the Saree not falling off instead of worshipping. Is

> this the case to be?

>

> In certain Shakti temple like one here in KL [ Nageshwari Temple ]

> they insist that devotees wear RED Sarees or chudidar when

> participating in ritual. To think of it, is it really important?

>

> Even for my own daughter and myself, when we go to temple, I would

> either wear a saree or chudidar. Its not that we do not have other

> cloth to put on but we just feel that these are traditional

> clothings that represent our identity and temple too is a place

> where we go to reinforce our identity and faith. So to us its just

> right, but personally I would not insist on others to do the same.

> What I do is for my own personal reason and other should do what

> they think is right for themselves.

September 17, 2004

"Is there an importance to the general style of clothing of a hindu

female and does it aid in the worship of the devine female

manifestion?"

I like to refer back to Paula initial question. I think I have miss

the point altogether. I talk almost about going to temple but forgot

that for Shaktas, most rituals are better perform at home. What

about our own ritual at home. Is there the need to dress up properly

before we embarked on worship at home?

I am being told once that when we do our worship it is like inviting

the Divine to our home. THEY are like our guest. How do we greet our

guest especially a special guest. I am not familiar with western

tradition but from where I'm brought up, we dress appropriately

to

welcome our guest into the house. So it then boils down to the

culture we are brought up to. What is appropriate to one might not

be for another. But as long as you are comfortable and does not

distract your focus when you are doing your pooja at home.

Long time ago, my husband use to do his pooja in short and bare

bodied. To him that is comfortable and appropriate at that period of

time. Then one day I had a dream. To make it short, in the dream,

Devi standing behind us, giving us instruction on what to do and SHE

said in a gently soothing voice to us : if you want to do something,

make it appropriate and presentable. This gives us something to

think about. Why did SHE say that? We began to reflect back on

our "presentation" only then we realize that perhaps wearing

shorts

is not appropriate. Not sure but that is what we feel the message is

because we went back to the basic message impart to us by our

parent : The divine is like our guest. Would you greet your VIP

guest in shorts? Is it in our culture? And thereafter we make the

necessary adjustment. For others the message might mean another.

September 18, 2004

Hello Nora

it was interesting to read your post on proper clothing

when performing any rituals at home.What you say perfectly

makes sense about dressing appropriately for the occassion.

This reminded me of how the priests in my native Bengal

dress when they are performing any pujas.Ofcourse as you are

well aware of to be a priest on has to be a brahmin;and I remember

even to this day a priest wears a "dhoti" and drapes the end part

of the "dhoti"on his upper body,other than that he is bare chested.

This goes in the temple or at home,and then ofcourse he has this

thread that he wears around the upper body.This thread is worn by any

male Brahmin and in bengali is called"poite".I dont know how it is

reffered to in other parts of India.I should mention that this

dressing remains the same come winter or summer.

Warm regards

Chumki.

, "N. Madasamy"

<ashwini_puralasamy> wrote:

> "Is there an importance to the general style of clothing of a hindu

> female and does it aid in the worship of the devine female

> manifestion?"

>

> I like to refer back to Paula initial question. I think I have miss

> the point altogether. I talk almost about going to temple but forgot

> that for Shaktas, most rituals are better perform at home. What

> about our own ritual at home. Is there the need to dress up properly

> before we embarked on worship at home?

>

> I am being told once that when we do our worship it is like inviting

> the Divine to our home. THEY are like our guest. How do we greet our

> guest especially a special guest. I am not familiar with western

> tradition but from where I'm brought up, we dress appropriately

> to

> welcome our guest into the house. So it then boils down to the

> culture we are brought up to. What is appropriate to one might not

> be for another. But as long as you are comfortable and does not

> distract your focus when you are doing your pooja at home.

>

> Long time ago, my husband use to do his pooja in short and bare

> bodied. To him that is comfortable and appropriate at that period of

> time. Then one day I had a dream. To make it short, in the dream,

> Devi standing behind us, giving us instruction on what to do and SHE

> said in a gently soothing voice to us : if you want to do something,

> make it appropriate and presentable. This gives us something to

> think about. Why did SHE say that? We began to reflect back on

> our "presentation" only then we realize that perhaps wearing

> shorts

> is not appropriate. Not sure but that is what we feel the message is

> because we went back to the basic message impart to us by our

> parent : The divine is like our guest. Would you greet your VIP

> guest in shorts? Is it in our culture? And thereafter we make the

> necessary adjustment. For others the message might mean another.

September 18, 2004

In places of high humidity bare upper torso is hygenic.

In my part of India even women used to be bare upper body till about 75 years

ago. very hygenic. Victorian mores changes all that.

Chumki Basu <blueblackeyes wrote:

Hello Nora

it was interesting to read your post on proper clothing

when performing any rituals at home.What you say perfectly makes sense about

dressing appropriately for the occassion.

This reminded me of how the priests in my native Bengal

dress when they are performing any pujas.Ofcourse as you are well aware of to be

a priest on has to be a brahmin;and I remember even to this day a priest wears a

"dhoti" and drapes the end part of the "dhoti"on his upper body,other than that

he is bare chested.

This goes in the temple or at home,and then ofcourse he has this thread that he

wears around the upper body.This thread is worn by any male Brahmin and in

bengali is called"poite".I dont know how it is reffered to in other parts of

India.I should mention that this dressing remains the same come winter or

summer.