Hinduism's Booming Worldwide Web of Worship

March 15, 2007

TIRUCHIRAPALLI, India (March 14, 2007): Balaji, a Hindu priest,

stood before the reclining god and offered a plate of coconut and

bananas. His chest bare and his face adorned with red and yellow

sacred paste, he set the food at the foot of a statue that Hindus

regard as an embodiment of the powerful god Vishnu.

Following ancient tradition deep inside one of India's oldest and

holiest temples, he chanted Vishnu's names 108 times to beseech

health, wealth and good fortune -- not for himself, but for an

Indian emigrant living in London who had purchased the prayer with

her credit card on a Hindu Web site.

" If you wish to make an offering, the god will accept it -- even if

it's on the Internet, " said Balaji, standing barefoot in the hot

sand of the South Indian temple compound.

The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of

people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews,

Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web

sites to pray, meditate and gather in " virtual " houses of worship

graphically designed to look like the real thing. Some sites offer

rites from baptism to confession to conversion to Judaism.

For many cyber-worshipers, online religious life conducted at home

or in an Internet cafe has replaced attendance at traditional

churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. Some are coming to

religion for the first time, in a setting they find as comfortable

as their grandparents found a church pew, while millions of people

reared on churchgoing are discovering new ways to worship.

" The first wave of religion online, in the 1990s, was mainly for

nerds and young people and techies, " said Morten Hojsgaard, a Danish

author who has written extensively about online religion. " But now

it really is a mirror of society at large. This is providing a new

forum for religious seekers. "

Hojsgaard said the number of Web pages dealing with God, religion

and churches increased from 14 million in 1999 to 200 million in

2004. Religion now nearly rivals sex as a topic on the Internet: A

search for " sex " on Google returns about 408 million hits, while a

search for " God " yields 396 million.

The boom in online religion comes at a time when people, especially

the young, are questioning traditional institutions, Hojsgaard said.

Many are interested in religion, but they want the freedom to

fashion a personalized style of worship. " Old mechanisms of

religious authority are changing, " Hojsgaard said. " There is more

emphasis on individualism. We want to decide for ourselves. "

India, with more than 1.1 billion people and a passion for

technology, has become a leader in the practice of religion online,

through a very large number of often very small Web sites, a pattern

that reflects the decentralization of much of religious life here.

Hindus sitting in the United States or Europe watch streaming live

video of morning prayers from temples in their home towns. Sikhs

listen to podcasts of prayers from Kashmir. Muslims download

schedules of prayer times and recordings of sung verses from the

Koran.

Members of India's fast-growing middle class have embraced the

Internet in ways that startle their parents, many of whom were

raised in villages that still barely have telephone service. At many

Hindu temples, a priest's typical day includes pre-dawn prayers for

a sacred cow or elephant, and time set aside to read e-mails asking

for blessings.

SHOPPING FOR PRAYERS

On a cold and rainy January day, Kumudini Kumararajah logged on to

her computer in London and started shopping for prayers.

Kumararajah, 36, is a Hindu who moved to London from India eight

years ago. She prays every day, she said, at home and in a small

temple in Tooting, a south London neighborhood popular with Indian

expatriates. Every morning and evening she performs a puja, an

offering to a god, seeking a blessing of health and happiness. But

she said performing pujas in London was never as meaningful to her

as doing them in the ancient temples of India, where Hinduism was

born.

" The gods there are very powerful, " said Kumararajah, sitting in the

storefront of her family's software company. " I always want to pray

there, but it is not possible for me because I live in London. "

Then she heard about Saranam.com, a Web site based in Chennai, in

southern India, that sells " Hindu rituals and products, " whether

they are prayers or auspicious names for a baby.

Clicking her way to Saranam.com, Kumararajah recalled, she arrived

at a site that looked like the home page of bookseller Amazon.com,

with colorful graphics and a slick menu of products and services --

and a link to check on " my stuff. "

She clicked on the " pujas " tab, which brought her to a page where

she could choose from a menu including " pujas for health " and " pujas

for children. " She chose a puja for wealth, health and happiness --

asking for help in finding a husband and having a family, and for

the family software business to prosper.

Then she clicked on the " temples " tab and chose Sri Rangam, a

thousand-year-old complex near Tiruchirapalli, about 200 miles south

of Chennai near the southern tip of India. She had grown up in

Chennai but had never visited the temple, one of India's most

venerated religious sites. The centerpiece of the temple is a

reclining image of Vishnu, which draws Hindus from across the world.

Kumararajah was thrilled to find it on the Web site's list of

temples available for pujas.

She clicked again and put her puja in her " shopping cart, " then

hit " proceed to checkout, " filled in her billing address and paid

with her Visa card over a secure server.

She chose a package of 12 pujas, one a month for a year, to be

performed each month on her " star day " according to Hindu astrology.

She also chose a second puja to be performed each month to a goddess

at the temple. Total price for her personalized package of worship:

about $140, or about $6 per puja.

" I could never do this before, " she said, her chestnut eyes

beaming. " The gods are happy when we perform pujas. "

Saranam.com was founded by Mahesh Mohanan and Mervyn Jose, a pair of

young computer software engineers in Chennai, the steamy port city

formerly known as Madras. It is home both to some of India's most

magnificent old temples and to some of its most cutting-edge

technology firms.

Mohanan said he hit on the idea shortly after his marriage in 1999,

when his new mother-in-law insisted that he and his new bride visit

15 Hindu temples over three days to seek blessings. " It was

exhausting, " Mohanan said. " I thought it would be so much easier if

I could just do it on the Internet. "

With financial backing from a local businessman, Saranam.com was up

and running within weeks as a for-profit company.

The site now gets about 100,000 visits a year and about 200 orders

each month, the company says. Most customers buy pujas to pray for

sick relatives, to ease marital or financial problems -- or even, in

the case of some Indians living in the United States, to help get a

green card.

According to Mohanan and Jose, Saranam limits its advertising and

marketing to avoid offending users who visit the site for serious

religious purposes. " We can't say 'Winter Sale!' or things like

that, because it would damage our credibility, " Jose said. But it

does use a time-honored promotional technique of posting articles

written about it, including a news service account that appeared in

The Washington Post.

At first, most of the customers came from the 20 million or so

Indians who live overseas. But now most are Americans, Europeans and

people from the Middle East who have become interested in Hinduism,

at least in part because of information available on the Internet.

Shaunaka Rishi Das, director of the Center for Hindu Studies at

Oxford University, said Hindus traditionally give little formal

religious instruction to children, who learn largely from family

tradition.

Now the Internet is allowing many Hindus to learn about their

religion in depth for the first time.

" Hindus have jumped on this technology, " he said.

FILLING THE ORDER

A few weeks after Kumararajah ordered her puja in London, 5,000

miles away in the 92-degree southern Indian sun, T.K. Jayaraaman

walked barefoot into Sri Rangam, a 156-acre complex of 21 towers

decorated with colorful and ornate carvings.

The retired schoolteacher, 65, is the local contact for Saranam.com.

When someone orders a puja at a temple here in Trichy, as this city

is known, the people at Saranam call him and ask him to arrange it;

he has handled scores of orders in the past couple of years. Now he

was here to take care of Kumararajah's, on her star date, Feb. 27.

Jayaraaman walked past a buzzing hive of vendors near the temple

gate, where ancient meets modern: Three-wheeled motorized rickshaws

compete for space with Mercedes buses full of tourists; an elderly

woman weaves traditional Hindu floral garlands from sweet-smelling

jasmine, while a more tech-savvy hawker approaches tourists,

saying, " Mister -- digital camera memory stick? "

Wearing a sarong-like garment wrapped around his waist, Jayaraaman

walked through the main gate of the temple, a 236-foot-high

structure with ornate carvings in soft pastel blues, pinks and

greens. He moved through the dark, shady places where scores of

pilgrims were escaping the broiling midday sun by lying on the cool

stone worn smooth by a millennium of use, and approached a line of

fruit vendors.

He bought a small basket with a coconut, two bananas, a few sprigs

of basil and some flowers for the equivalent of about 50 cents. He

carried the plate of fruit to a barefoot priest, who cracked the

coconut open for him -- opening it loudly in the presence of the

reclining god is considered rude.

From another vendor, he bought a small packet of red and yellow

powder, made from vermilion, sandalwood and turmeric, and placed it

in his basket.

Jayaraaman walked deeper into the temple complex, arriving at a door

that only Hindus may pass through. Inside, he said, he stood before

the reclining god, bowed his head and handed the offering basket to

Balaji, the priest. Balaji tossed flower petals and basil sprigs

onto the statue and called the god's names 108 times. Jayaraaman

told him the customer's name -- Kumararajah -- and the priest

chanted it loudly, praising Vishnu in her name: " You are great! You

are good! Bring her good health, good fortune, a good life! "

Balaji blessed the powder, tucked it into a folded bit of white

paper and handed it back to Jayaraaman. Eventually the packet would

be mailed to Kumararajah in London, along with a letter certifying

that her order with Saranam.com had been filled.

For his efforts, Jayaraaman earned about 75 cents.

" I don't know anything about these people -- except their name and

star date, " he said. " But it makes me very proud to send them God's

grace. "

Outside the temple later, Balaji said he liked the temple's mix of

old and new. Many people live far away and cannot travel here, he

pointed out, so Saranam.com and other Internet-based services are

bringing a new wave of worshipers to his ancient temple in spirit, a

phenomenon the temple encourages.

" Of course, " he said, " we have a Web site, too. "

Back in chilly London, Kumararajah awaited her shipment in the

offices of the family software company; her mother and sister also

purchase pujas regularly from Saranam.com. Dressed in a flowing pink

sari, Kumararajah said she couldn't wait to get the red and yellow

paste, blessed at a temple she dreams of visiting someday.

When it arrives, she said, she will mix it with a few drops of water

and wear it on her forehead, in the traditional Hindu style

indicating the presence of God.

" I will put it on every day, " she said. " It will give me peace of

mind. "

SOURCE: The Washington Post, Washington, D.C. Linking Ancient and

Modern, A Worldwide Web of Worship. By Kevin Sullivan. Washington

Post Foreign Service. Wednesday, March 14, 2007; A01.

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301840.html

TINY URL: http://tinyurl.com/2opkls

March 15, 2007

I just wanted to point out two things about this really excellent

article:

(1) This huge feature somehow made the FRONT PAGE, A-1!, of the

Washington Post yesterday! Go figure! As Kochu pertinently

mused, " Wow, is that so???? Interesting!! What's happening?? "

(2) The article gives an excellent " behind-the-scenes " look at how

the online puja services like Saranam.com actually work. As long-

time members know, the topic of whether online pujas are efficacious

is one that comes up every now and then at SS.

Over the past five years, I have used Saranam to do some stuff at

Madurai on a few special occasions, and I have been consistently

impressed -- they do send the prasad -- ashes, kumkum, tickets,

prayer cards, and in some cases a DVD recording of the ceremony; you

can actually verify that your name and specific instructions are

carried out.

But is it worth anything or is it a racket? As is so often the

answer in matters like this, I think it is largely a matter of

belief and intent. If you remember when and what is being done, you

can coordinate your own observances, and create -- across the miles -

- a kind of spiritual equivalent of the Very Large Array (or VLA;

look it up *lol*) ...

That's all for now ...

DB

, " Devi Bhakta "

<devi_bhakta wrote:

>

> TIRUCHIRAPALLI, India (March 14, 2007): Balaji, a Hindu priest,

> stood before the reclining god and offered a plate of coconut and

> bananas. His chest bare and his face adorned with red and yellow

> sacred paste, he set the food at the foot of a statue that Hindus

> regard as an embodiment of the powerful god Vishnu.

>

> Following ancient tradition deep inside one of India's oldest and

> holiest temples, he chanted Vishnu's names 108 times to beseech

> health, wealth and good fortune -- not for himself, but for an

> Indian emigrant living in London who had purchased the prayer with

> her credit card on a Hindu Web site.

March 15, 2007

interesting article and on Washinton post to boot!! know at least one person

who had his Karmas erased by recorse to this site.

Devi Bhakta <devi_bhakta wrote: TIRUCHIRAPALLI, India (March

14, 2007): Balaji, a Hindu priest,