Hindu Religious Life: Puja ("Meeting God")
Hindus meet with and worship God in a wide variety of ways, but certain fundamental elements remain relatively stable. One central idea is the notion of ritual purity and impurity. These are material rather than moral catefories--stepping in dog poop does not make one a bad person (unless you knowingly spread it over the house), but rather a person whose shoe needs cleaning. In the same way, respect for deities --who are said to be hyper sensitive to pollution--means that one should purify oneself before encountering them. The easiest way to do this is bathing, since the water carries the impurities away. The men in this picture have the added benefit of bathing in the Ganges, which is considered a Goddess as well as a river (giving one physical contact with divinity).
Bathing an makes one pure, but purity is always ephemeral and volatile, because impurity is everywhere--in the surrounding environment (filth and dirt) and through interactions with others, but the biggest source is one's own body. Any bodily fluid is considered polluting, as are the acts connected with them: eating, sweating, going to the bathroom, and any sexual activity. Impurity is the default bodily state, this really matters only when one wants to interact with a deity, when respect demands maximum purity. Head and facial hair are believed to collect impurity, and for some rites (especially for the dead) people will have their hair cut or heads shaved as extra purification (2005).
Early one Sunday morning this father and son were filling large jugs with Ganges water; the father (a Delhi government employee) had clearly preceded this with a Ganges bath. They had driven up the night before and would return to Delhi later that day. When I asked him why he was doing this, he simply replied "To have at home." Many pious Hindus keep vessels of Ganges water in their homes, sometimes to use for puja and other rituals, and sometimes just as a purifying thing. It is also sometimes put on a dying person's tongue, so that at the end of life the last thing one comes experiences is contact with is the Goddess Ganga (2005).
Hindu temples are most commonly called mandirs ("homes") and their primary function is to be where the deity resides. A temple may be may be a dedicated building such as the temple at left, or a dedicated space within a home, such as the domestic shrine at right. Both provide settings in which people can directly interact with deities, either as individuals or (more commonly) in small groups. This emphasis on worship in small groups rather than large congregations means that these temple spaces are often relatively small (though the grounds around them may be large).
A well-known saying, atithi devo hai ("Guest is God") summarizes how Hindus worship--treating guests as if they were gods, and gods as their guests. This is most clearly seen in the acts of hospitality that are the same for god and guest--welcoming them, seating them, feeding and caring for them, and eventually bidding them farewell. This is done through a series of offerings, which may be simple or complex. The woman in the top photo has a pot of water and a small plate of offerings; the lower photo includes offerings of scents (incense), sounds (bell), light (lamp) flowers, fruit, and cooked food. Whether simple or lavish, God is believed to accept everything offered with devotion.
Aside from giving material offerings, another common feature in puja is respectful behavior--in many cases folding one's hands and bowing one's head (as in this photo) all the way to lying prostrate with arms extended. These "respect-granting" gestures are exactly the same for deities and for people of higher rank/status, showing again the fluidity in how Hindus understand divinity and sacred power. conceptions of divinity.
After the deity has been "fed," something that has been offered is returned to the devotees to be consumed. This is prasad ("grace"), sanctified food that has charged with the deity's power, and is now given to devotee as a tangible symbol of grace. In this case the prasad was yogurt mixed with honey, which was spooned out to those who had attended this ritual, but prasad can be virtually anything edible (such as fruit, sweets, cookies, or cooked food), drinkable (such as water, milk, juice, or lassi), or even smokable. Since it is charged with the deity's power, it can never be thrown away like an everyday object, but must be carefully conserved.