Tag: Hindu

Team

This post is in response to Discover Prompts, Day 27: Team  by  Ben Huberman

Teamwork

Team-work, simply stated,it’s less me and more We 

In the above photograph,what these people are up to ?

No no no,they are not into headbutting !

And we see all the heads coming together as a Team in unity.

This click is taken from a high position.

These people are Hindu priests. ( students ).

After the Prayer is completed,these young priests are busy picking up and distributing the sacred  ‘Akshata’ among themselves.

What is Akshata/Akshat ?

Akshata consists of uncooked unbroken raw rice mixed with turmeric powder or vermilion.

Akshata

How Akshata is Used ?

In Hinduism,rice holds spiritual and ritual significance and rice is revered as a symbol of sustainability,prosperity & good health.

Preparing ‘Akshat’ represents one of the services of PUJA (Ritualistic worship of a deity). After Prayers Akshata is sprinkled on the heads of those attending / performing the Puja.

In Hinduism sprinkling,sipping & bathing are symbolic of purification.

On the festive occasions, Akshat is thrown over the  heads,stuck on the forehead of idols and also sent along with the invitations during marriage occasions.

Akshat is offered to the elderly by the younger,to be sprinkled on the heads of the young symbolizing the ‘Blessings’ for long & healthy life.

Significance of Akshata in Hindu Rituals

Thank you. Namaste  🙏🙏🙏

Philosophy Through Photography

Image by © PTP-2020 All Rights Reserved

 

Bangles

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Bangles,Indian women,OrnamentAlthough Bangles are worn for style all over the world,the

ornament hold special significance in Hinduism.

It is almost similar to the ‘Wedding Ring” in the Western

Culture.

For Hindu Women Bangles are of Sentimental value,symbol of good

luck.

A Hindu Woman is deemed incomplete without this,so much so even

the poorest of the poor wear some form of Bangles.

Thus Bangle Industry is making a kill with Designer Wear etc.

If bangle breaks it is considered as bad omen.

Hindu Festival is incomplete without women wearing the bangles.

The only time married women remove bangle is either at labor or

when she is widowed.

 

IS Narasimhar1906 pixabay

Life is too short to have a boring hair….

wp-1536995696955..jpgsikhas

Hair-Style-Hindu traditional way

The tuft of Hair known in India as sikha is a long tuft, or lock of hair left on top or on the back of the shaven head of a male Orthodox Hindu.

Though traditionally all Hindus were required to wear a śikhā, today it is seen mainly among Brahmachari, ‘celibate monks’ and temple priests

The śikhā is tied back or knotted to perform religious rites. Only funerals and death anniversaries are performed with the śikhā untied or with disheveled hair. Disheveled hair is considered inauspicious, and represents times of great sorrow or calamity.

Father of my nation, Mahatma Gandhi felt ashamed to wear the Sikha when he was in England & South Africa,since he could become laughing stock for the funny appearance.

In his autobiography, Mohandas K. Gandhi  writes about his encounter with an orthodox Hindu: In his words…

“He was pained to miss the shikha (tuft of hair) on my head and the sacred thread about my neck and said: ‘It pains me to see you, a believing Hindu, going without a sacred thread and the shikha.

These are the two external symbols of Hinduism and every Hindu ought to wear them.’ … [T]he shikha was considered obligatory by elders. On the eve of my going to England, however, I got rid of the shikha, lest when I was bareheaded it should expose me to ridicule and make me look, as I then thought, a barbarian in the eyes of the Englishmen.

In fact this cowardly feeling carried me so far that in South Africa I got my cousin Chhaganlal Gandhi, who was religiously wearing the shikha, to do away with it. I feared that it might come in the way of his public work and so, even at the risk of paining him, I made him get rid of it”.

The śikhā was one of the few symbols of Hindus that transcended caste, language or regional barriers. Although there were variations of the style of sikha amongst communities, it was obligatory for all males.

Information Courtesy- WIKIPEDIA

I have seen similar but slightly different hairstyles ,Chinese having in some of the Chinese Movies.

History of the Hairs World

In India I have come across Westerners who are followers of ‘ISKCON’ 

(International Society For Krishna Consciousness),having ‘tuft of hair

Why a devotee has a Sikha ?

Any thoughts on Men’s hairstyle in other religions ? Enlighten me further.

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