Cohen 1

Dylan Cohen
Mrs. Lucarelli
Comparative Civilizations
9 November 2015
Hindu Religious Ceremony: My Experience
On October 26th, 2015 I accompanied Sujal Saraiya in a Hindu religious ceremony at a
temple that comprised of many different aspects of the Hindu culture. My experiences were
extraordinary, and although my knowledge of Hinduism is vast, it was not fully complete until I
participated in these theological rituals:
1. Upon entering the temple, I was instructed to remove my shoes, as one is not allowed to
wear shoes since they will then drag the dirt from their soles into a holy place of worship.
2. Next, I climbed a flight of stairs to then reach a massive room full of people with the
desires to glorify and venerate their gods. Interestingly, there was no set ceremony - one
could go at any time, approach a deity, and pray; which is what the men, women, and
children were doing all around me.
3. After taking in my surroundings, I approached a man wearing a long, orange silk robe
who inquired me to hold out my right hand, into which he poured tea and, for good look,
I drank.

Cohen 2

4. Then, I walked around the room, pausing at certain deities to observe that they were all
gold and bestowed with jewels. Some shrines had coins and dollars in which people
would leave in return for good luck, and others had pomegranate seeds for the
worshippers to take for good luck.
5. I continued with a small ceremony, lasting about five minutes, where a man stood beside
a prodigious deity of Shiva and muttered prayers to a fire. Afterward, the men and
women attending this ceremony, including myself, rubbed their right hand over the fire,
touched their two eyes (with the right hand), and ran their hand over their head (with the
right hand).
6. By this time, I was finished at the temple and could return to get my shoe

Cohen 3