Anthony Fillmore Religious Service Paper World Religions To Achieve Moksha

Hinduism is a very interesting religion. The only religions that I have ever been familiar with are Christianity since it is such a large part of my community. So in order to expand my current knowledge, I am going to be doing this religious service paper on Hinduism. Prior to taking this course I knew next to nothing about it. As we learned in class one thing that we went over that intrigued me, and that I was very interested in, was Moksha. Hindus believe that we are placed on earth in order to learn how to be righteous and to perform their duties on earth. If a Hindu lives his or her life unrighteously, they are reborn again and must go through life and all the suffering that comes with it again. They will stay in this wheel of rebirth until that have achieved a certain level of righteousness. Once they have achieved it they are released from the wheel of rebirth and achieve their goal. They merge with their god and they receive a feeling of fulfillment and they prosper. When one does not achieve Moksha, they are reborn in a different state. The state that they are given is selected by the way that they lived in their previous life. If a person lived very good in their last life but failed to complete Moksha, they will be reborn high in the caste system and can also be very rich. If they lived very poorly, they will be born low in the caste system and may be born blind or lame. In other words, we are placed in this earth based off of our karma from our previous life.

There are many ways that Hindis can achieve Moksha. Some will live a life of depravation and limit themselves from almost all worldly things. They will not eat much and sometimes go into silence. They embrace poverty and hardship. They also abandon their jobs and families and focus strictly on God and trying to become one with him. While they dont have to worry about any of these worldly things, they have all the time in the world to attempt to connect with God. Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend one of the sacred rituals that are performed at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. Approaching the temple, I was amazed with the size and beauty of it. It kind of reminded me of the Taj Mahal in a sense. We approached the stairs to the main entrance. After we walked in, I was amazed at the detail of the room. There were many beautiful paintings all over the room. But the first thing that caught my eye was the intriguing statues in the front of the room. They had three or four statues of a few of the Hindu Gods. I noticed that on the left side of the room, there were a lot of instruments being played and a man singing in his natural language. There was also a chorus of other followers that were reciting the words that he sang. I couldnt understand what they were saying because they were speaking Hindi, but I could tell strictly from their mannerisms that what they were saying was sacred. I sat down on the floor in a group of people that were participating. There were about twenty minutes of songs and it was followed by a synchronized prayer. The priest then stood up and lit a kind of torch called the jyoti. Everybody stood up and the priest began waving the torch in a circular motion in front of the statue in order to show respect to the gods. There was also a

song being sang throughout the waving of the torch called the aarati. The priest then passed the torch to the participants who followed suit with the priest. They also carried a small bell that they rang back and forth while they waved the jyoti. I also got a chance to participate and it was a very neat experience. While I was sitting there, I met a young man about my same age named Sanjay Rimal. I was able to interview him and ask him about the rituals performed. I asked him about the ritual and what it means as well as what the significance of the light is. He responded with, We believe that light symbolizes knowledge and darkness symbolizes ignorance. We do a similar ritual at home except we use a lamp. Each time we light anything, whether it is the jyoti or just a lamp at home, it symbolizes removing our ignorance to make room for knowledge. God is the source of knowledge so we use light to honor and worship him. The oil represents the bad things that we do and the wick represents our ego. When we light the lamp we burn away the bad things we do and we also burn away our ego. When we burn these things away, it helps us to progress towards our final goal of Moksha. We also wave the jyoti in front of our Gods to honor them. I then wondered about the bell and what it could mean. I had a couple ideas. I thought maybe they used it to invite God in or maybe to alert God that they were performing the ritual. But knowing their beliefs it confused me. To Hindus God is omnipresent and all knowing. So what would be the point of it? I asked Sanjay what it meant. He told me, The bell isnt used to alert God or anything like that. The bell creates a sound that makes a sound that basically drowns out all other sounds that might distract you from the ritual.

The next thing that I was able to see was the sacrificing of fruit. Many people attended this section and brought their own fruit. Each person took a turn and brought their fruit up and laid them on an alter that was in front of the statues of the Gods. Along with the fruit a few flowers were laid down. There was then a prayer given and all of the fruits were blessed. After the blessing the person ate the fruit that had been blessed. There was also incense that was lit and a lamp lit as well. They also had a helmet that was placed on their head that was meant to protect them. The helmet was meant to be the helmet of the God Hanuman. Again I turned to Sanjay to explain the figurative meanings to the blessing of the fruit. He told me, The fruit that we offer symbolizes our detachment from worldly things and also our self-sacrifice and surrender. The incense represents the desires that we have that are not in sync with God. When we burn the incense we show God that we are willing to give those desires up. The lamp being lit signifies the same thing that it did earlier, in that we are submitting to God and allowing his knowledge to come in. The flower was a lotus flower. A lotus flower opens in the morning and closes at night. Just like the flower, we must open our minds to the light. And allow it to teach us. It also lives and survives even in the roughest conditions. It symbolizes what we should strive to become. A man who is always joyful and is unaffected by the sorrowful world around him. All of these things we do are to help us get closer to God and help us get closer to achieving Moksha. Another thing that Hindus do in order to help them achieve Moksha is to do Yoga. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj which means to unite. We all know yoga as a lot of funny stretches, but to a Hindu it very significant. Yoga is not only a physical exercise but it is also a spiritual exercise as well. It teaches the participant to gain control over their mind, body, and emotion. It also helps them to release their desires. Even when simply used as an exercise, it still

helps to relax the mind and gain control over oneself. Yoga is also often used as a warm up to meditation. Meditation is another way that we can achieve Moksha. Throughout meditation Hindus recite the word, om. Om is the universal name for the Lord. When repeated over and over, your mouth will open and close repeatedly. They are also blurred together and sound like mum. These three letters represent the three states of being. Waking up, being awake, and sleeping. They also represent the three deities Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. While they represent these things, it also represents God because he is all things. Meditations purpose is the help one to realize that their atman, or soul, is actually one with the omnipresent God or Brahman. Most Hindus will have a separate room in their home in which they perform prayer. Many Hindus will also use this room for meditating. Meditation will also help to calm ones mind from the stresses of our daily lives. Doing so allows us to realize who we really are and achieve Moksha. Moksha is the ultimate goal of all Hindus. As Hindus strive to live righteously and do the things that they need to do, they will hopefully achieve Moksha and become one with God. If not they will be born again and relive life and deal with all of the suffering and pain that comes with it. This endless circle of rebirth can only be ended by living in the right way and realizing that we are not really who we think we are. We are part of God and we need to realize this and look past the illusion of this world and become one with him. Only then will the Hindu achieve his goal. I have learned to have a very deep respect for the beliefs of Hindus from this experience. I have also learned to treat each

religion in that same manner and to respect their beliefs and to try to understand why they believe the things that they do.

Reference Page

www.sanskritdocuments.org/articles/Hindu_Rituals.pdf http://www.hafsite.org/media/pr/yoga-hindu-origins Sanjay Rimal Interview (November 29, 2013