How does Hindu Church work?

Another question for Wikipedia!

Gah! Did you try to read that Wikipedia entry? It’s a complex jumble that says absolutely nothing! I’m looking for a concise answer here, maybe someone has some experience to recount?

I did. I really liked it. It says:
1. You can worship at home or in a temple.
2. Temples are generally dedicated to one deity.
3. You don’t have to go to temple.
4. You can worship at home, or wherever, through an icon that links you to the diety.

Part two:
There are a few different traditions:
1. Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority
2. Many practicing Hindus do not claim to belong to any particular denomination
3. Academics categorize contemporary Hinduism into four major denominations: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism.
4. The denominations differ primarily in the god worshipped as the Supreme One and in the traditions that accompany worship of that god.

For part two I’m not even summarizing, I’m copying and pasting.

I think you’re trying to fit Hinduism into a Christian framework. Not everything works like that. Every religion has its own thought-box. :)

Thanks for summarizing the jumble! laureth, how do you see that Wikipedia is cramming Hinduism into a Christian box? I’m not in any religious box & the Wiki definition is sparse, but at least it makes minimal sense…

Psyla, laureth was saying she though you were trying to fit Hinduism into a Christian framework. (I thought the same a bit when I read your question.)

I’m leaning at the sense of Hindu community. Do they share their religion with each other? Do they have a gathering comparable to “church” in the US?

Other religions don’t necessarily have “churches,” “pastors,” or “sermons.” These are very Christian things. Not every religion will have them! That is what I mean by trying to fit Hinduism into a Christian box.

It’s like me asking what Christians would do at their Sabbat celebrations when they have only one God. How do they cast a circle when they don’t use an Athamé? Who do they honor as the Goddess if they don’t have one? And why do they think the “cakes and ale” ritual are pieces of their Messiah’s body? —-> That’s me trying to fit Christianity into the Wiccan religion’s box, and it doesn’t work. They’re not very comparable. I think you’ll find that Hinduism is so different from Christianity that it’s hard to compare it like that, too.

Of all the religions, Hinduism has the most similarity to Wicca, with its thousands of Gods & freedom from mandatory ceremony. Gardner & others attempted to dictate Wiccan ceremony & belief, & did a beautiful job of it, but still, tried to create a Wiccan box where it should have been a sphere! Before Gardner’s time, Wicca more closely resembled Taoism with its graspability of the unseen.

the wiccan box should have been a sphere, brilliance

I also laughed at the wording of your question.

Thanks, fireside. I’m still trying to get some idea of how Hindus work together when communing with their Gods. One of my coworkers is Hindu and I stall at asking about it because I don’t want to reciprocate by having to describe my own unorthodox religious beliefs… unless I were to lie… but to say I believe in one of the common more boring religions would be so self-defacing. Maybe I could ask, & describe myself in response as the eclectic that I am.

If I remember rightly, these documentaries do a good job of explaining things. I’m pretty sure that’s the right part.

Hindus pray to many deities but see each deity as a manifestation of the same supreme self. Also, the essential difference between Semitic religions and Hinduism is that in Semitic religions, God is an “external” being while for Hindus, God is within oneself and can be “realized” within oneself. So a prayer is like being in connection with the god-self. All the different deities represent goodness and values that one ascribes to God. Each Deity has associated myths, beliefs and traditions. Though there are temples with just one “God” or “Goddess” normally, Hindu temples have many deities. When a Hindu prays to a deity (God / Goddess), he see in truth praying to the Supreme God and so on with the next deity. It is like seeing God in various lights, aspects – but at the same time – God remains same. Have I confused you enough? For a Hindu, a temple is not a place where he is sermonized or taught religion. Some temples do have singing and prayer chants – but it is not a regular item like in a Christian Church. Which is why there is no contradiction or conflict among Hindus as regards theology or God as can be seen between various sects of Christians like Roman Catholics and Syrian Catholics or in Islam between Sunnis and Shias.

Hindus pray to many deities but see each deity as a manifestation of the same supreme self. Also, the essential difference between Semitic religions and Hinduism is that in Semitic religions, God is an “external” being while for Hindus, God is within oneself and can be “realized” within oneself. So a prayer is like being in connection with the god-self. All the different deities represent goodness and values that one ascribes to God. Each Deity has associated myths, beliefs and traditions. Though there are temples with just one “God” or “Goddess” normally, Hindu temples have many deities. When a Hindu prays to a deity (God / Goddess), he see in truth praying to the Supreme God and so on with the next deity. It is like seeing God in various lights, aspects – but at the same time – God remains same. Have I confused you enough? For a Hindu, a temple is not a place where he is sermonized or taught religion. The canting that is done before the deity is a ‘mantra’ by a priest. A mantra is a prayer but being in Sanskrit (an ancient language, not much in common use today) it is chanted by the priest along with associated rituals. An essential element of prayer for a Hindu is “Bhakthi” which expresses his love and devotion to God. This love and devotion is expressed through ritualistic ‘feeding’ – means, giving food to God. And this food which is first given to God and thus consecrated (made holy) is distributed among the worshipers as “prasad”, which is eaten. So, an expression of devotion is having food with God. Though this may seem silly to a Christian, religious rituals of one religion does seem silly, foolish and funny to believers of other religion, but makes perfect sense to the believer of that religion. For example, I may find Christians praying to a grotesque image of a dead man on two pieces of wood revolting (I said this to just clarify my point). This one-ness of God for Hindus is the reason why there is no contradiction or conflict among Hindus as regards theology (the basic percepts remain same) or worship of God/Goddesses as can be seen between various sects of Christians like Roman Catholics and Syrian Catholics or in Islam between Sunnis and Shias.