Hindu Temple Excursion

Meagan, her friend Netta and I went to the Hindu Temple in South Jordan yesterday. Their worship service/prayer started at 5:00 pm. We left right after the last session of General Conference and had enough time pick up Netta and make it to the temple about 20 minutes early. The Hindu Temple is tucked away on a dead end of a little back street. If you didn't have directions, you would never find it. It is interesting that you can see the steeple of the LDS Jordan River Temple from the Hindu Temple's parking lot. Wonder which was built first?

After trying to decide if we should go in 20 minutes early or not, we finally decided to go in at about 10 to, so the Hindu worshippers would not wonder why three white women were loitering in their parking lot. Meagan did call ahead, but did not tell the nice woman on the phone exactly which service we would be going to. Apparently they have worship services seven days a week.

We had to take our shoes off just outside the temple, so I was glad I wore slip-on shoes. There were sure a lot of shoes scattered outside the entryway. We tucked ours in a corner by a bench to make sure we'd be able to find them again. Everyone there except us looked like they were directly from India, which, I guess, is what you would expect. Most of the women wore beautiful elaborately decorated dresses. Other than the priests, most of the men wore slacks or levi's. The people who did talk to us were very nice and no one really stared at us or seemed to wonder too much who we were or why we where there. BTW, we were there because Meagan and Netta are taking a Concurrent Enrollment Humanities class through SLCC. They get college credit for it even though they are still in high school. Cool, huh?

The man we talked to just inside the entryway told us to go in and look around. They had a few little rooms (kitchen, etc) just off the entryway and one big room at the back with several shrines and a big open area with several large rugs on the floor. The temple is a Sri Ganesha Temple, so the main shrine is of Ganesh (the god with the elephant head). We looked around at all the shrines and the pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses on the back wall. Colorful flowers and lights and little oil lamps surrounded the shrines.

As we made our way around the Ganesh Shrine, we met a very friendly woman who explained what the symbols meant. There was a big mandala on the floor that looked like a sand drawing and had several unlit oil lamps on it. In the middle of the mandala was a big red circle with 9 white triangles inside it. It was actually an eight petaled lotus which was on top of a 32 petaled lotus. There were apples and bananas laid at the corners. Apparently food offerings?

The woman who was telling us about the symbols said that right now they are in the midst of a 9 day celebration honoring the mother goddess. I can't remember the name of the mother goddess, but she is the wife of Shiva and the mother of Ganesh (and all of us, according to their beliefs). Something about using 108 types flowers (or as many as they could find) to honor her. They did bless and toss a lot of flower petals while we were there.

At 5:00 they started what our guide said would be an hour long prayer. The prayer was in Sanskrit, so we could not understand a word they were saying. Two priests, one in red robes and one in white robes, chanted/sang the prayer. They had very good voices and it was quite soothing when they were singing. Some of the piped in music was not quite so soothing - drums and I don't know what other instruments.

Every once in a while the worshippers would join in or repeat what the priest in white robes was saying. People would come and go at random and some stayed the whole time. It was almost like an open house. Near the end of the prayer, which actually lasted an hour and a half, they lit a bunch of incense. They also lit a bunch of candles and all the oil lamps that were in and around the mandala. Meagan leaned over to me and said something about a fire hazard. We found out that the big black square coming from the ceiling we were sitting under was a big vent. I'm not sure if it was good or bad that we sat by it, but it was rather smokey.

I did find out they really do use yoga's prayer pose when they pray (at times) and some of the kneeling and bowing they did near the end reminded me of bits of the sun salutation. They used bells off and on - one hand held bell the priests used and a bigger bell that hung from the ceiling and had a long rope.

I could say a lot more, but I'm running out of time. I have never been to a non-Christian worship service before and it was totally different from what I am used to. I told Meagan it was interesting to go to, but I would probably not go back because the incense and repetitive chanting gave me a headache. I guess it's what you're used to, huh? I'm glad we live in a country where everyone can worship in the way that suits them best. Thank goodness for the Bill of Rights.

I had dreams about Hindu worship most of last night. Hmmm...