To a Site Visit to a Religious Temple - Research Paper Example

29 February Assignment The ISKCON Hare Krishna temple in San Diego is a place of auspicious and religious worship for Hindus. While growing up in American society, I have personally not been exposed to any other religions from around the world except for Christianity, and thus the entire experience of visiting the ISKCON temple in San Diego, on the day of the Sunday Festival also known as the Open House, proved to be a different and exciting experience altogether which helped to enrich me regarding society and world cultures.

Hinduism involves the worship of a number of deities like Lord Krishna, Ganesh, Shiva etc; however the ISKCON temple is subject to worship primarily of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna has been known to be the author of the discourse of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the holy text of the Hindus. The temple is extremely beautiful, with ornate carvings and wooden panels here and there made to depict the lives of the Gods and Goddesses. Furthermore, there are paintings and carvings of Lord Krishna during the battle of Kurukshetra when he was talking to Arjuna about the necessity of going ahead with the war, despite Arjuna knowing that his relatives were on the other side and would lose their blood and life.

Upon entry into the temple, one goes through the main temple building and can see all the beauty with which Hindus have decorated the past which holds a great amount of pride in their culture. The idols have been decorated with different coloured cloth and lights in order to depict the vibrancy and victory of light over darkness, which is the primary Hindu belief and philosophy of life. The monks in the temple are known as the ‘bhaktas’ or the divine followers of God, who devote and dedicate every aspect of their lives to learning about and living for God, in this case Krishna.

There are idols of Lord Krishna with his love, Radha in the temple as well in order to help people understand the meaning of love and affection and how the same should be imparted within a family as well as other relationships in society, in order to create a better place full of peace. The ‘bhaktas’, also known as ‘Hare Krishnas’ wear orange garments like robes and have taken to following a very simple lifestyle. Upon speaking to a few of them, they responded by saying that their way of life was such because they have renounced the material aspects of life and live on the bare philosophy that the Gita preaches regarding being self sufficient and being able to live without any attraction towards the material things in life.

Furthermore, they also believe in the attainment of spiritual enlightenment which is possible only with constant devotion and belief in the supremacy and oneness of God. The wax statue of ISKCON’s founder, His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is also one of the attractions at the temple. When I entered the temple, the ‘bhaktas’ were reciting passages from the Gita as hymns and prayers, and offering their services to God while a more learned and elderly monk sat in front conducting the proceedings.

Upon finishing, each individual rose and offered his personal prayers in front of the deity and was offered some sweet jaggery and holy water believed to be from the Ganges in order to accept the ‘prasad’ and cleanse oneself. A ‘tilak’ was then put on each individual, thus signifying the personal touch of God on every human being that has offered his or her prayers in the temple. The monks were reciting ‘kirtans’ and performing ‘arti’ which is the process of offering one’s devotion to god.

‘kirtan’ consists of hymns and prayers, especially mantras, which are spoken in order to attain spiritual enlightenment. People are involved in the entire process and often accompany the same with singing and dancing in the name of God. The temple also has an eating room where the monks were then sitting and eating their food, however the eating process only starts after some food has been offered to God as ‘bhojan’. This means giving everything to God first, and asking him to taste and then give back the leftover to His followers.

It is an act of letting Him know that one can survive without food as well, simply on His devotion and love. There were other monks that were meditating in the garden for hours at an end and it was extremely peaceful to watch them; the gardens were silent and yet bustling with a vast amount of happiness and positive energy that comes from being able to talk to God within oneself. Thus, the visit to the temple was extremely enlightening for me and left me feeling excellently about myself. I felt a great amount of positive energy within and was able to understand the point of meditation and reciting the hymns.

On my way out I was even given a copy of the translated version of the Gita and hope to read it and learn the wisdom that it has been known to teach in order to become a better person in life. Works Cited "Temple Tour." : ISKCON (Hare Krishna) of San Diego. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. . Smith, Huston, and M. Darrol. Bryant. Huston Smith: World Religions. New York: Paragon House, 1992. Print.