saints and goddesses

[Guest guest]

> Usually in India, Hanuman,and in particular the Hanuman chalisa (the

> 40 verses of Hanuman) is chanted by bachelors. But when I came to

> find Hanuman some years ago, I did not know about this, I was just

> greatly awed by his devotion detailed in Ramayana. I have been

> taking up learning Hanuman chalisa and reading a lot about Hanuman,

> then I realized it is ok that I am not a 'bachelor' or a 'man' as

> many other told me, because the whole idea of Hanuman to me is

> devotion. It is a high ideal, but I think you are right if you keep

> company with such saints and gods and even people on earth who are

>on this track or going to be etc then it is 'easier' to reach.

 

I think it is neat how we are all related.

 

> Usually each God or Goddess In India has a reason to be prayed to so

> to speak, like Hanuman for bachelors, Saraswathi for learning

> (saraswathi puja is coming next month), ganesha for obstacles, etc.

 

This is just like Catholic holy people who we pray to for different

things. We do not view the 'saints' as gods, but as those who have

attained a perfect union with God and whose thoughts and desires and

prayers are one with God's. And God sends unique blessings through

certain special saints, just like what you were saying about

Saraswathi, etc. Oh, by the way, I thought that next month there was

special time for Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswathi together. Am I right?

I'll have to put some things up at work to remind people. Jennifer,

thanks again, for all your great responses to my posts.

 

Peace, Bill

[Guest guest]

Bill

Thanks for telling about the saints in the Catholic faith. I don't

know much about that. Could you give a few examples?

You asked about the puja, yes, at the last two weeks of October (not

sure exact start date) is the festival of Navarathri which means nine

(nav) nights (rathri). During these days, it is considered puja for

Lakshmi. Also girls and women keep golu or steps with dolls on them.

Dolls is not in the sense of dolls kids play with, but dolls in the

sense of religious dolls (statues). Hindus keep this with all the

different dolls from all religions. For Hinduism, they keep all the

different types of Hindu gods, etc, for Christianity, they keep

Christ or baby Jesus with Joseph and Mary, Buddhism- Gautama Buddha,

and for Muslim faith they keep a mosque or a statue of the moon and

star. It is very nice. They do this to get the blessings of 'all the

gods' as they say. Usually only girls and women do this. IF there

are sons in the house, and no daughters, they usually don't do this.

But some people really go all out in this, and prepare for months

ahead of time. Last year, in Chennai, I saw a room about 15 ft x

20ft.. it had steps all along one end and on the other, tables with

small idols and candles, they stitched a cloth border, like the ones

you see for weddings, all along the top part of where the wall meets

the celling, they hung some different types of fabrics on the wall

and drew intricrate kolum (rangoli) on the floor. They said they

prepared for 2 months! They even had a 'disco' ball on the celing!

At the last day of this festival there is a Saraswati puja. For this

puja all the books in the house are put out and prayed to. Kids

really like this holiday cause they don't have to study!

Then the day after is Vijaya Dasami or the day to worship implements.

Mostly do pujas to cars, vehicles and household appliances. This is

my favorite puja of all. It is just so much fun.

I think that different people celebrate the pujas on different days

within the navarathri time period, But this is how they were perfomed

in my friends houses.

Jennifer

 

 

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