Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Project # 1
COMM-2150-400
Overview
The culture that I chose to discover was Hinduism. To pursue this discovery, I
visited the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple in South Jordan and had an amazing
experience. I spoke to Priest Satish Kumar and he was really helpful and
informative. I started off by asking Priest Kumar to tell me a little bit about
the history of the temple. After the history, I asked the Priest if he could tell
me ways to do arathi, as well as name all the different Deities (Gods)
present in the temple. Out of the 14 Deities, I only knew a little bit about 2 of
the Deities. Priest Satish Kumar was really nice about me visiting the temple
and since it was my very first time at a Hindu Temple, he guided me through
and showed me how to give my prayers to the God. I chose to compare my
experiences to the Value Orientation Theory that was developed by
Kluckholm and Strodtbeck. After my experience at the temple, I can say that
the beliefs Priest Satish Kumar believes in would relate to the beliefs my
family and I would also relate to and believe in. My experience from the
temple has gotten me even more interested in Hinduism.
Religion
Hinduism has been a culture that I have been interested in learning because
I have always noticed some similarities in language and greetings after
watching Hindi movies. To me, its amazing how Punjabi people and Hindi
people both greet people with their hands folded together. The differences in
our greetings would be what we say when we actually greet people. We,
Punjabis say Sat-Sri-Akal, while Hindu people say Namaste. Hinduism
has said to be formed around 2000 BC with neither a specific moment of
origin nor a specific origin. Hinduism has said to be a collection of sacred
texts known as Sanatana Dharma which translates to The Eternal
Teachings. The Hindu Worldview is based on the doctrines of samsara or
the cycle of rebirth and karma which are the universal laws of cause and
effect. They also believe that ones own actions determine ones life, both
current and future. Hinduism is divided into 4 major sects: Shaiva who are
devotees of the God Shiva, Vaishnava who devotees of the God Vishnu,
Shakta who are devotees of the goddess, and Smarta who are Brahmins.
The 4 sacred texts are called Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and
Epics. Out of all of these sacred texts, the only one that I have heard of is
the Bhagavad Gita due to watching a lot of Hindi Movies. In Hinduism, there
are certain times and days to hold important events. The times and days are
determined by careful consultation of the calendars by the priests. The most
common religious act in Hinduism is termed puja which translates into
worship. Puja is done to honor and entertain the deity. This can be done in
several ways but there are certain steps that have to be followed to do the
puja. Hinduism society is based on caste systems. There are 4 different
castes. Starting from the top are the Brahmins, or the priestly caste. Next
are the Kshatriya who are a traditionally warrior caste. Then are the
Vaishya who are a caste of merchants and farmers. At the bottom of the list
are the Shudra who are manual laborers. I had heard about this caste
system but never knew the differences between each caste until now.
Analysis
My analysis would go along with Kluckholm and Strodtbecks Value
Orientation Theory answering the question, What is human nature? When I
was talking to Priest Kumar, I asked about the significance about tilak that
is applied before you start praying. A tilak is a red colored powder applied to
your forehead before praying and red is considered a sacred color. Priest
Kumar said that this sacred color, once applied to your forehead, will guide
you towards the right direction. God will show you light and make you either
go the right path or wrong path. I think this statement can fall underneath
the mixture of good and evil response that could be one of the answers to
the question on human nature. Once in the temple, you can either make your
thoughts go towards the right direction or you can go the wrong direction
which falls under evil.
Reflection
This experience has been an amazing experience. I had always wanted to
visit a Hindu Temple and due to this project, I ended up actually visiting one.
I was a little nervous before going to the temple but after I left, I was really
happy and honored due to all the respect I got while going to the temple.
While visiting the temple, I got to find out a little bit about all the Deities that
were present at the temple. One of the Deities named Navgra represents the
9 planets. Outside the temple is a Snake Temple. I have heard about Nag
Devta (name of Snake God) before and how powerful this God is but never
imagined that I would have the opportunity to actually see one. That was a
great experience. The theory did help me better understand this culture
because it allowed me to critically think about the human nature and how I
could relate it to my visit. I would definitely say that his experience boosted
my intercultural communication. I dont talk much Hindi because I dont
belong to that culture but finally I had an experience to talk Hindi with
someone one-on-one. I have always been really interested in different
cultures and backgrounds and after my experience here, I think I would
definitely want to visit more cultural events in different cultures.
References
Kumar, Satish. (2017, February 15). Visit to Sri Ganesh Hindu Temple.
(Amanpreet Atwal, Interviewer)
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in
Contexts, Sixth Edition, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Hinduism origins, Hinduism history, Hinduism beliefs. Retrieved from
February 17, 2017, from Religion Library: Hinduism,
http://www.patheos.com/Library/Hinduism.