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Introduction

P. Pratap Kumar
Affiliation:
University of KwaZulu Natal
P. Pratap Kumar
Affiliation:
University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
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Summary

Being a Hindu can be removing one's shoes before entering a temple; or offering worship to Gaṇeṣa at the start of a wedding ritual so that it all goes well; or in the diaspora such as Trinidad and South Africa Hindus might mark their homes with flagposts (jhandis); or in other diaspora locations the Hindu priests might creolize the worship by accommodating even Orisha spirits; or Hindus might parade their deities in the streets as part of an annual festival; or, as in Nepal, Hindus can combine in one festival the celebration of a Vedic god Indra with a local goddess Kumārī and Bhairav; or elsewhere female sādhus might engage in devotional worship with householders; or devotees may simply read the collection of discourses (Vachanamrut) prepared by their gurus as it happens in the case of the Swaminarayan devotees; or some may offer selfless service to Kṛṣṇa, which is how Pushtimargis express their Hindu devotion; or some might tattoo the name of Ram on their forehead to express their devotion to their deity, Rām; or other Hindus find the dalliances of Krsna with his female devotees sacred and sweet; or highly educated women will engage in the worship of snake goddess; or in places like Kerala the orthopractic Nambūtiris and Ayyappan devotees practice their respective traditions side by side and neither feels less Hindu; or seeing the deities in images of stone and metal and offering service to them can be a profound Hindu experience; or, for some Hindus, accessing their personal deity in the temple on a hill top can be as fulfilling as receiving deep intellectual knowledge of God; or in some cases Hindu ascetics can be militant political activists.

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Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2013

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