Confronting the boredom: pujas, ceremonies & rituals for the next generation
One of the most boring times I can recall from my childhood is when I had to sit through lengthy pujas, ceremonies and kathas. This is not at all to say that I had no faith in my religion. Far from it, I have always been a devout Hindu in my own way. The boredom from lengthy religious ceremonies is inevitable, and virtually every young Hindu I have known, has felt the same way.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Oh man.. not only the children are bored, sometimes as an adult I dread when the priest is about to start his discourse.. long after the havan and the mantras and bhajans are done.. some of the priests in Guyana have learnt from the Christian evangelicals, intersperse the discourse with nice chanting and loud music to ensure that everyone is still awake.
The solution is to involve everyone in the worship, and to have the translations available to explain what is happening. We hold pride that we retain the original language in our worship..
April 30th, 2007 at 2:04 am
I COULD NOT AGREE WITH THE WRITER MORE. EVEN FOR ME AT AGE 70, BORN AND BROUGHT UP IN AN ORTHODOX HINDU BRAHMIN FAMILY IN INDIA, I FIND IT DIFFICULT TO SIT THRU THE LONG PUJAS WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE INNER MEANING OF THE CHANTINGS WHICH ARE MOSTLY IN SANSKRIT, A LANGUAGE WHICH HAS BEEN DUBBED AS “MRITHA BHASHA” (LIKE THE LATIN).
SANSKRIT IS CLAIMED TO BE THEIR MOTHER TOUNGUE BY ONLY ABOUT 1000 PEOPLE OUT OF A BILLION CITIZENS LIVING IN REMOTE VILLAGES, AS PER THE CENSUS CONDUCTED BY THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA.
HINDUISM HAS NO POPE EQUIVALENT AND THE SO CALLED FOUR SANKARACHARYAS, CAN NOT EVEN COMMUNICATE IN THE SAME LANGUAGE ON A COMMON PLATFORM. HOW CAN OTHER MORTALS LIKE US CAN CHAMPION THE CAUSE OF HINDUS IF THE LEADERSHIP ITSELF IS SO DIVIDED.
TO BE HONEST, I AM ASHAMED TO SAY THAT HINDUS IN GENERAL ARE A CONFUSED LOT NOT KNOWING WHO TO BELIEVE AND WHO NOT TO BELIEVE , WHEN SO MANY SWAMIJIS AND GURUS ARE SWAMPING THE WEST WITH THEIR OWN INTERPRETATIONS OF THE RELIGION ?
EVERYBODY QUOTES HINDUISM “A WAY OF LIFE”, BUT DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHAT HINDUISM AS A RELIGION REALLY IS?
IN ANY SOCIETY RELIGION IS BIG BUSINESS. SO MANY SWAMIJIS AND GURUS ARE COMING TO THE WEST IN PERSUIT OF DOLLARS AND POUNDS WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH WORK THAT CAN BE DONE BACK HOME IN INDIA.
BLIND FAITH ALONE WILL NOT SUSTAIN HINDU RELIGION FOR LONG EVEN IN INDIA, PARTICULARLY WHEN YOUNGER GENERATIONS ARE BEING SWEPT OFF THEIR FEET BY WESTERN MEDIA UNLESS THE SO CALLED HINDU LEADERSHIP IN INDIA WAKE UP TO THE REALITY AND MODERNIZE HINDU RELIGION TO ADOPTABLE TO MODERN TIMES.
IT IS NOT A ROCKET SCIENCE TO UNDERSTAND WHY INDIA IS A FERTILE GROUND FOR INVADING MISSIONARIES AND NO GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION CAN STOP CONVERSIONS UNTIL THE SO CALLED HINDU RELIGIOUS LEADERS THEMSEVES UNITE FIRST AND ADDRESS TO THE CORE SOCIAL PROBLEMS SUCH AS THE CASTE SYSTEM.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Any Hindu Religious activity has three aspects
1. Needs the transalation of Mantras - Translation
2. Needs inner meaning of Mantras — ie bhashya
3. Needs to understand the science behind it.
It is difficult to get all three things from one person hence people (especially younger generation) donot like to practice, understand
April 30th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I do 100% agree with uour experience. Wesaw through this problem years agoand on every Sunday After havan n Bhajans; there is 15muinutes discourse in English for the benefit of our younger generationn then 15 minutes discourse by the Rev Achrya Dr Umesh Yadav ji in Hindi for the older generation. Each talk is based on either a Mantra, Current topic or the Q raised by someone in the Congregation the previous week.
Achrya ji is well versed in English n does translate the importance of each ritual along with during the Havan/ceremonieas too.
Arya Samaj West Midlans brings out a monthly bulletin “ARYAN VOICE” explaining Diff. Mantras n Rituals each month and also really putting the meaning in the saying ‘HINduism is a WAY of Life”
So Like Mr Milan there are people contributing in their own humble way to involve youngesters and also to make it moreunderstandable and digestable to everyone.
My humble but persistant request would be-Don’t be confused, Try to undersatnd and grasp this very practical philosophy in your life. May God give us all SADBUDDHI.
THNKS AND NAMASTE’
Cordially Vibha Cale
April 30th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I thin that the article and the comments sum it all up and yes we do need to involeve the youngsters but the other side is are they willng to get involved? Some of the youngsters bought up in Uk dont know basic gujrati or dont speka it to try and sometimes follow and catch the basic steps or meanings.
However i would support this initiative and also learn from Milan’s example, if we were yto take something experience it and practise it we can help each other
April 30th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
All i remember from my youth going to the mundhir is playing football in the car park with all the other kids my age. I think that says it all.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Jai Sri Krishna
Well i was sitting at my local temple at Ram Navmi this year and the exact thoughts were going through my head!!!!!! As per the tradition in most North Indian temples the Ramacharitmanas was ‘recited’ for 9 days and up to the birth of Rama. So in this temple everyday there was a RamKatha and the audience just sat and recited the katha from a copy of the sripture everyone was given. Now not only was the priest trying to lead the audience at high speed recitals where most couldnt keep up, there was also no explainations of katha. I was board out of my brains and left the temple room to the kitchen to do some seva!!!!
Now personaly i like all the long winded rituals, i know what they mean, i know a few sanskrit verses and can understand Hindi/Gujarati, but even then i still find many temple services a bore and fail to evoke the devotional and spiritual feelings they are meant to serve.
We must bear in mind that Pujas were initialy intended to make worship exciting and hence these use of colour, music, chanting etc…So essetialy putting on a temple service should be like a good theatrical show
Having been to numerous pujas (good and bad) and been familiar with the ways of several temples and priests, i feel that there are a few things that need to be done to make our temples rituals more engaging.
1) Music, Music and good Music- According to Vaishnava Scriptures the best process for spiritual advancement in the kaliyuga is chanting the holy names with singing and dancing. Hare Krishna temples emphasise this and hence why i luv their puja’s. Also we have to many elders in our community who can not sing to save their own life but insist on dominating bhajans and not giving others a chance!! With good singers/musicians Pujas can be full of bhakti and love!
2) Priests with skills in good public speaking- this implies firstly an ability to keep the crowds quiet and entertained, so many pujas involve the audience chatting away the priest not being bothered to keep everyone silent. Also all priests who work here should speak english. Mother langauge is important, bla bla bla but us younger Hindus can express ourselves way better in english
3) Breaking rituals down to involve as much of the crowd as possible. Often the only people who are physicaly active in the pujas are the ‘yajmans’ who sponsor the puja and they sit and the front and seem to be the only onces interested. Temple management need to turn their focus away from how much money the puja can bring and try to minimise this ’sponsors only’ attitude, and create a satsang attitude of equality. So some of the ways people can get more involved is giving people copies (in all languages) of the various mantras and slokas chanted during crucial parts of the pujas (such as Abhisheka and Ashtotara Archana). Also giving explainations pn specific parts of the pujas and also ritauls like the Abhisheka (ritual bathing) getting the whole audience to cue in front of shrine and offer little cups of Milk.
4) Sacrificing excessive ritual for more explaination- as with my example above many priests often plan long rituals/kathas and find themselves rushing through them just to get them done in two hours. So in my local temple it would have been better if the priest selected a few episodes from the ramayana and explained the verses each day instead of a frantic cover to cover- high speed recital. I think God would prefer cutting the rituals down to make way for more understanding and engement.
5) De-comercialisng pujas. To many temples and too many priests are worried about money, puja fees and sponsors. I attended the opening of the new Balaji temple where there were many people who donated thousands for the puja, and they got the front place seats, first chance for dharshan etc… being a volunteer i found that this caused a lot of bad feeling in the non-paying sections of the crowd and caused elitism and ruined the devotional atmosphere. essentilaly i felt that the issue was due to temple management being more worried about raising money that creating a devotional atmosphere!!
May 1st, 2007 at 2:11 am
Namaskara
As many of us have had similar experiences and to understand hindism better, I am researching & developing a media programme for children to address various issues amongst which are some in the article.
I would like to interact with Dr Milan Shah and will appreciate if I can get his contact details.
May 1st, 2007 at 12:00 pm
In Hinduism, there is also only one God. Call him Brahm, or Om. and that God also resides in our hearts as Prana. This is as simple as it can get.
Nowadays, we are more interested in the show of Poojas, ceremonies etc instead of the substance. We are now making up new traditions for the benefit of videos and photographers. In the olden days there was no compulsion to listen to the ceremonies - children were allowed to sprawl out and sleep to the mantras. You just allow the chants to wash over yourselves. lives were simple and people were simple. We are not all brahmins that we have to understand what is going on in the ceremony. That is the priest’s job. Our job is to follow what he says and do as he says. That is it. Now you have to listen to double the ceremony - one in sanskrit and one in English for the benefit of, wait for it - not our children - but for the non Indian guests. There are those who are only interested in the razzamatazz of Bollywood style weddings.
I would say just do the ceremony in our language and forget about translations. It did not do any harm to our generation. We all eventually learn what we need to.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
ritual is superstition without understanding. A mantra may be powerful on its own but it gains power when uttered by one who understands, believes, and lives the mantra. Indeed most of life is spent on SoHam (I am) only hopefully with life experience to transcend to tat tvam asi (that I am) to Om Tat Sat (OM, That Is).
Otherwise I also remember being very bored at ceremonies even recently.
hariaum
May 10th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Tat tvam asi = That you are, not That I am.
May 10th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
sorry for the poetic liberty. hariaum
May 13th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Rather than feeling bored and alone during Puja’s you do not understand why do people not chant in their own minds whilst looking at the diety of their choice, this would be benficial to yourself as you are forging a link with the Supreme Lord.