Sri Deva Sthanam

Chanting: Japa

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:39:00 +0000

Japa is the chanting or repetition of a mantra, which is a kind of prayer. Japa is also a meditation on the sound of the mantra. Perhaps the best example of japa is the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra: hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare; hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare. Another mantra that is commonly recited as japa is the gayatri mantra. Usually some means of…

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Religious Practice: Sadhana

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:38:31 +0000

In Hinduism one’s personal religious practice is called sadhana. The word sadhana means a what a person does to accomplice a goal. In general there is no one sadhana or religious practice that applies to all. Hinduism recognizes that every individual has a unique position in life (adhikara) and therefore there is no one way for all. In this way there are many forms of God and one individual may be…

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Hindu Samskaras

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:38:06 +0000

A samskara is a rite of passage, and virtually every world culture has such ceremonies. Rites of passage are ceremonies that mark important events in the life of an individual. A Baptism, a wedding, a Bar Mitzvah, a Confirmation, and a funeral are all examples of rites of passage. Such important events generally include pre birth ceremonies, birth ceremonies, life ceremonies…

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Gayatri Mantra

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:37:27 +0000

The famous gayatri mantra that almost every Hindu knows first appears in the Rig Veda (iii /62/10). In roman letters it is as follows: Literally hundreds of books and web pages are currently dedicated to explaining the esoteric meaning of this mantra, so there is no need to repeat that discussion. Instead, here is a basic grammatical explanation. Gayatri is actually the name for a Sanskrit…

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The Meaning of Sounds

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:36:50 +0000

Blowing a Conch and Ringing Bells, Chanting Shanti and Reciting of OM Why do we blow a conch? In the Bhagavad-gita it is described that at the beginning of the great battle Krishna Bhagavan blew his divine conch and then was followed by Yuddhisthira, Bheema, Arjuna, and so on, who also blew their conches. The sound of the conch is the sound of victory and success. Often a conch is blown at…

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Sacred Songs: Bhajana/Kirtana

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:36:05 +0000

The words bhajana and kirtana both mean “to praise” or “to glorify,” therefore, a bhajan or a kirtan is the praising of a deity through song, music and dance. Hindus from different parts of India will use one term over the other, in much the same way that havan and homa are interchanged by devotees from different regions of India. Apart from praising a deity through song and music…

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Mantras

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:20:57 +0000

Simply stated, a mantra is a religious utterance composed in Sanskrit verse and taken from the some part of the Vedas. In other words, a mantra is a piece of Vedic poetry. The verses of the Vedas, including both the Shruti Vedas as well as the Smriti Vedas, are mostly written in verse and therefore are considered mantras. The reason the Vedas are primarily composed in verse as opposed to prose is…

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