Browsing: Hindu faith

If Thanksgiving is a festival of gratitude, then Indians have been preparing for it their whole lives.

In India, take a walk down the Mumbai waterfront in the early morning mist, and you see ordinary citizens quietly feeding the fish and the birds. Their daily day doesn’t really begin until the deities in their home shrine have been venerated with fresh flowers and offered prasadam.
It is only after eating a little of this blessed offering does the family sit down to their meals. Many remember to keep aside a portion of the food for a hungry person or the birds. It is all about sharing.

She was a captain in the US Military, has served in the war-torn hell-hole of Iraq and been awarded several honors, including the Bronze Star – but she has never fired a shot. She was in the combat zones of Northern Iraq for 12 months, surrounded by the cacophony of bombs and mortar attacks – yet she has never carried a gun.

She says simply, “My defense is God.”

Maha Shivaratri – “Himself creates. Himself preserves. Himself destroys.”

For millions of Hindus Mahasivaratri is a very meaningful day, a day of oneness with the Supreme Being. Why do Hindus observe it? What is the Sivalinga? And do believers fast or feast on this day?
If you’ve ever wondered what the different rituals signify, the editors of Hinduism Today share an all-comprehensive report with readers of Lassi with Lavina, dispelling the myths and clarifying the power behind this observance.

India’s towns and cities are full of surprises and religion is part of the landscape. Small, functional temples are everywhere – an idol of an Hindu God, a few temple bells, a scattering of marigolds – and it becomes God’s abode. All that’s needed is faith – which there is in plenty. Yet nothing is quite as it seems – or there is at least a footnote to the larger story.