Pale_Desi contributes her story of the first proper Hindu ceremony she saw.
Recently, friends of mine who are a married Indian couple invited me to a Vastu Puja in their new home. Vastu Puja is the ceremony they chose to “bless” their new home. This was my first time at any Hindu ceremony so I didn’t know what I would understand or what I should do. I didn’t even know if I would get bored with everything being Sanskrit or Hindi. I dressed up in my finest (ok…only) Salwar Kameez hoping to blend into the crowd. On my way to their house I drove with Indian friend and another Indian couple. They mentioned that the priest/pundit for the ceremony was American. I wasn’t sure what to think but I definitely was intrigued.
When we arrived sure enough there was the American Caucasian priest sitting in the prayer room with all of the necessary elements for the puja. He was surrounded by items which included Ghee, rice, flower petals, sweets, metal containers for fire, and various other things unknown to me. As the puja started I had no idea what to expect… I didn’t know what was traditional and what was not. This priest thoroughly explained everything that was going on and why it was being done in English before he went through the different prayers in Hindi/Sanskrit. I’m not sure if the pundit usually takes the time to explain everything in such detail or if they usually just go with the flow of the ceremony fully expecting that everyone knows whats going on. Maybe he was explaining it for the sake of me and 5 other “goras” in the room amongst 20 Indians… It was interesting to hear the significance of each item in the puja and why prayers were being said to which gods/goddesses. At one point when he was starting the fire he put something on the fire that looked like a brown brick like thing…I whispered to one of my Indian friends to ask what it was. Immediately the priest turned around to me and handed me a block of the unknown stuff. He asked me if I had any idea what it was with a big grin on his face. Of course I had no idea. Then everyone smiled (and giggled) and revealed to me that was cow dung that I was holding. Hehehe I felt a bit silly but its better to be silly now than in front of my boyfriends parents ( in the future). The “audience” involvement did not stop there. Everyone was asked to through rice repeatedly into the fire when a certain mantra was repeated to help bless the home.
The ceremony ended with lots of NOISE outside! The man of the house cracked a coconut on the ground outside of the house. This is done so that if anything bad should happen to the house it should happen to the coconut instead (I think). Then the couple entered the house with the priest , a conch player and a gong player (both unsuspecting gora volunteers). Then everyone paraded around the house following the couple in and out of each room. After that we all had a nice Indian lunch… apparently made without any onions or garlic ordered from the temple. I didn’t quite get the reasoning on this… something to do with onions and garlic being inauspicious.
This was quite an experience for me. I was glad that my first Hindu ceremony/puja was done with lots of explanation throughout (without me having to ask). It was a great learning experience. After I left I wondered if every Hindu priest goes through so much explanation in each ceremony? I think having a priest (Caucasian or not) that is willing to explain everything in detail like that for an Indian/American wedding ceremony or any Hindu ceremony would be great.
I would love to hear YOUR experiences with Hindu ceremonies. Please Share. 
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September 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Interesting!
My first puja was part of our wedding rituals in India. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was basically my husband’s family and him, and we did it inside the house as a way of allowing the spirits to enjoy their own ceremony so they didn’t crash ours the following day (that is how it was explained to me by the relatives).
I remember two things surprising me: First, that there was a FIRE inside the apartment and we were all choking on smoke as it filled the halls. Secondly, that it was so informal. I’m used to church ceremonies where they won’t even let you take photos during baptism, etc. Here, the priest was actually stopping as he did rituals and pointing at me (bc I had the camera) and saying “This would be a good photo! Take a picture!”
I also have a somewhat unrelated broken-coconut story. My husband says they break coconuts on auspicious occasions, for good luck. So, last week when Obama gave his acceptance speech, he actually showed up at home with a coconut from the Asian grocery store and, unbeknownst to me, started cracking at it with a hammer in the kitchen, then passed it to me so we could drink the juice. I kept thinking, “Hmm.. I bet no one has ‘celebrated’ the DNC THIS way before…”
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Interesting Andrea! Yeah in this case the fire was inside of the home as well. Luckily it was very small and didn’t make much smoke.
Hehe I guess this ceremony was also a little more informal than I make it sound. This happened the end of June and was at the same time as the EURO (soccer/football) finals. Some of the guys Indian and non indian snuck into the other room and watched it on mute!! No one seemed to be botherd… but I guess that would never fly with a christan ceremony. I kind of like the informal aspect of it though!
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Nice story! My first real puja was our Jain wedding, but shortly after that we visited the Jain temples at Hastanapur. There are a whole bunch of them all in one place. We (my husband, myself, MIL, SIL, BIL, and their kids) basically went from temple to temple doing aarti and prostrating in front of the idols, etc. The temples were very beautiful (oh, and the cafeteria had excellent food too!). We were all dressed nicely, me in a sari, and I was the only white person around so I got a lot of stares. It was a pretty fun day trip from Delhi, with a stop at Jain Shikanji on the way back (shikanji is like a spicy/sweet lemon soda).
We’re going to India for Diwali this year, so I’m excited to experience that and also see the Jain Diwali puja.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
A few years ago, I went to a ceremony at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, where a Hindu priest invoked the god Ganesha into a statue. (One aspect of the concept of darshan) Through various religious studies and art history classes, I was already somewhat familiar with the topic, but the priest explained it so well that I really understood for the first time.
He explained that generally, Hindus do not worship the statue itself. The statue acts as a marker. The gist of the explanation was: say you ask for directions to the river. I point over in the distance, to a tree. I say, that tree is the river. Of course that tree is not the river. But you go to that tree. And when you are at that tree, then you can see the river. You could not see it from where you were before, but you could see the tree. The tree guided you to the right direction, on the right path.
It was a beautiful ceremony, and the message really helped me come to terms with my own fractured religious views — I figure that all religions are just different trees, pointing us toward the one river; there is no right, there is no wrong, as long as you keep trying to reach the river.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
“He explained that generally, Hindus do not worship the statue itself. The statue acts as a marker.”
Yes, Amanda. And as an Anglican Catholic (and here I’m probably going to reinforce everything that fundamentalists think about my religion or similar religions), the idols make a lot of sense to me because it’s similar to religious icons or praying to saints in my church or others like mine–the Catholic or Orthodox churches, for example.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Great post, PD. The “vastu puja” is probably better known as the “grihapravesha” (literally, “house-entering”). This is a ritual you perform before you enter a new home. The rituals made sense eons back, but have now become artifacts. For example,
- smearing clothes with turmeric – Turmeric was a disinfectant to get rid of insects hiding within weaved cotton fabric.
- applying cow dung on the floor around the “home”. Dried cow dung acts as a natural mosquito repellent.
- lighting a smoky flame inside the abode – again, to repel insects/worms that would’ve hidden in nooks and corners of “homes”
- lighting incense and placing flowers around the deity – Who doesn’t want the home to smell good?
I’ve put “homes” in quotation marks since I wanted to convey that these were not brick and mortar homes when the rituals originated eons back. These were homes made of clay, hay, coconut palms and other natural products.
Absolutely, bang on Amanda. I get quite tired of repeating to folks that we Hindus are not pagans.
That we do not worship idols, but worship *one god* (also known as Brahman) whose various attributes are manifested everywhere. Ergo, every *quality* has a diety associated with it. And to make complicated metaphysics easier to digest to simple folks, basic myths are perpetuated. Unfortunately, far too few folks are aware of the metaphysics and are only focus on the rituals.
Anyway, folks here are well informed and I am not referring to any of you.
Here are some links that may help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya
etc. Follow the links from there.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Incidentally, wish you all a great Ganesh Chaturthi.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Cool!!! Pale/Desi, I’m so glad you are guestblogging! Yah!!! Great info shared in this post…I learned a lot…didn’t know that about tumeric, quizman! I thought it was just yummy in Indian food…
September 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Good post, PD! It sounds like your first puja experience was much more informative than mine have been. Usually for smaller pujas, my in-laws just do it themselves. For example, my MIL did the house puja when G and I moved into our apartment, and it was very low-key. Just offered flowers and kumkum to Ganesh, lit some incense, did aarti, and said a few mantras. Our engagement ceremony was basically the same deal. We had a bigger Gauri Habbada/Ganesh Chaturthi puja last year, since it was my first as a married woman (the in-laws only do it for the first year, so no puja this year, but we’ll do one next year for G’s cousin’s new wife). They did that one themselves, too, with help from a tape recording of the mantras.
The only non-temple puja we’ve done with an actual priest was the Satyanarayana Puja that took place after our wedding. The only English part of the puja was when G read the Satyanarayana story. Otherwise it was all in Sanskrit. It would’ve been nice to have some more of an explanation, but considering the puja was about an hour and a half long (and pretty much everyone except me, G, and the priest lost interest and started wandering around the house), adding the explanations might have been a bit too much.
quizman, that was a really interesting post! I’ll have to impress my in-laws with my newfound knowledge about turmeric at the next family gathering.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Incidentally, the Satyanarayana puja ia also of recent-ish vintage (probably 100 years or so). It is a recursive puja, rather like gnu for you linux afficionados. The story narrated during the puja is…a story about the puja..is a story about the puja…and so on ad nauseum.
Really orthodox folks do not perform that puja since it is not found in old scriptures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric has lots of details
==Money quote ==
In Ayurvedic medicine, turmeric is thought to have many medicinal properties and many in India use it as a readily available antiseptic for cuts, burns and bruises. Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine say it has fluoride which is thought to be essential for teeth. It is also used as an antibacterial agent.
==end of quote ==
September 4th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Glad you had a good time PD. Its nice that the priest explained stuff, and so surprising that he was caucasian!
I agree with you quizman, that most of these things and even superstitions once had a reason behind them, but now it usually seems just done for the sake of the ritual.
I also share your frustration with explaining to people about hinduism, the “idol worship”, etc.
When we moved into the home I had to co-ordinate the puja myself. Obviously a simple one but with the rice, boiling milk, and things.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I’m glad my post brought about a lot of interesting converstation! Thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge!
I’m excited to experience more Hindu ceremonies and pujas. Hopefully I get to explore quite a few more before I’m going to ones that involve me! 
The priest was great. I guess I should have gotten his name. If anyone is in Southern California and interested I can find out his name for you. Let me know.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I’m interested! I’m not in SoCal, but maybe he’s got some kind of professional network and could recommend somebody near me that’s equally good at explaining stuff to goras.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:51 am
“equally good at explaining stuff to goras”
And to desis! I would contend that 99% of desis have no clue about the background info about the rituals and the mantras.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
quizman, you’re right about that! A couple of my bridesmaids kept asking one of G’s cousins to explain what was happening during our wedding ceremony, and he had to tell them that although he’d been to dozens of weddings, he had no idea.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
…yeah, but in the case of my guy’s family, it would be OK for the priest to explain in Gujarati to the desis. Then my family would still be all confused.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
galaxie: There are two aspects to this. One, a description of the process and two, the description of the rationale behind the process.
While most priests would be comfortable in articulating #1, quite a few would get stumped when you probed them on #2. Most mantras are elaborations on the process. So, a priest may recite, “something something swaha” and translate that to “now place the flowers there and that coconut over there.” But that in and of itself doesn’t provide the meaning. A priest with good training could definitely provide explanations on symbolic associations, meanings and give a context to the whole ceremony.
Often, for a deeper understanding of #2, alas one is on one’s own. Books and interactions with learned folks are the only way to get this info by a process of osmosis.
It is very much like the Easter eggs. Everyone is aware of the process, but not everyone knows of the original Persian New Year’s ritual (Nowruz) that was probably incorporated in modern Christianity and remained as an artifact.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Incidentally, if the priest did say stuff in Gujrati, it may be something on the lines of; “You rotten Gujju brethren of mine. Don’t you know we’re way behind schedule! I have another function to go to and I am missing out on the tips! For God’s sake, hurry up and bring the bride out already!”
September 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
First time here….in my family my sibling is married to a south american gori
Ur post somewhow had me thinking how my SIL views our hindu customs 
liked ur blog will come back so added u to my blogroll.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hi, I really enjoyed this post… it was quite informatitive for me as I’m interested in learning more about Hinduism. I’ll return
Susan
September 12th, 2008 at 3:42 am
this is a commendable effort for better inter-cultural understanding. kudos!
and we too get to understand our culture better. thank you
November 26th, 2008 at 12:20 am
The priest in So. Cal.. is most likely Dr. Shukvak Das from the Riverside Temple
here’s a link the the mandir he services.. http://www.lakshminarayan.com
then from there, there is a link to his website.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
The “no onion and garlic” (sattvik) comes from sattva/tamas/rajas gunas (characteristics) that certain foods are supposed to have, and the theory can be found in Samkhya school of philosophy.
February 16th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
If your son/daughter had downs syndrome and someone made a joke about it, you’d probably be offended too. But, the Family Guy video is blocked at work, so I can’t really judge the full context.