{"id":1674,"date":"2016-02-12T15:40:48","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T15:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=1671&preview_id=1671"},"modified":"2016-02-12T15:40:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T15:40:48","slug":"faith-on-their-sleeves-hindu-clothing-is-simple-traditional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=1674","title":{"rendered":"Faith on their sleeves: Hindu clothing is simple, traditional"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"Hinduism started about 7,000 years ago, during a time when no other religion existed in India.<\/p>\n

B.N. Roy, the spokesman for the Hindu Temple Society of Augusta, said it started with the creation of the Vedas, which were \u201cnot human-created. They are the revelations from God to the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vedas were followed by the Upanishads, another sacred text that discusses the philosophy and nature of God.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different types of Hindus, but as long as you believe in the Vedas and the Upanishads, you are under the big umbrella of Hinduism,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

The scriptures were followed by the Epics, or Mahabharata, which make up the Hindu mythology. Within it is one chapter called the Bhagavad Gita, or more popularly, the Gita.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the substance in a nutshell of what the Upanishads talk about. As long as you\u2019ve read the Gita, you\u2019ve really got the substance of Hinduism,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

Shaji Kamalasanan, also a member of the temple, explained that Hindus believe there is one supreme God, Brahman, which has no form, and that the supreme goal of all people is to join with him.<\/p>\n

Beneath Brahman are three deities that make up the Hindu Trinity: Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Preserver; and Shiva, the Destroyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these three gods feel that each one is important. It is a balanced state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When things become out of balance, Vishnu comes to Earth as one of many avatars to restore balance.<\/p>\n

Kamalasanan said the deities are the messengers, or assistants, of Brahman. Most Hindus follow one deity. The one they choose is a matter of tradition and personal preference, but ultimately all deities lead a person to Brahman.<\/p>\n

Spirituality falls into one of four paths, usually based a person\u2019s natural inclination: the path of knowledge and study, the path of action and doing things for the Lord, the path of devotion and the path of controlling the mind (usually associated with yoga).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central theme of Hinduism is it\u2019s inclusive. It\u2019s not exclusive,\u201d said T.R. Reddy, a member of the temple. \u201cYou see, one of the avatars is Buddha. Some of us, we believe Jesus is also one of God\u2019s avatars, or incarnations. Same way (with) Mohammed. Different people want to believe different ways, but eventually you want to reach the same one. It\u2019s very broad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The priest\u2019s role in Hinduism is very ritualistic. He doesn\u2019t teach or preach a sermon. He leads worship, which includes ritual bathing of the deities\u2019 statues and offering sacrifices of grain or milk.<\/p>\n

The priest\u2019s clothing is typically a reflection of the area of India from which they hail. In southern India, priests typically wear a 6- or 9-yard cloth, called the lungi<\/em>, which is either wrapped around the waist or wound between the legs to resemble free-flowing pants. It is either white or yellow with a red or green border.<\/p>\n

In very traditional ceremonies, priests are bare-chested with a sacred thread draping from left shoulder to hip, or they might wear a shawl.<\/p>\n

On their forehead, they wear either three white horizontal lines to represent followers of Shiva or a red vertical line to represent Vishnu.<\/p>\n

In northern India, a kurta<\/em>, almost like a tunic, is also worn, and red dot is placed on the forehead.<\/p>\n

In special ceremonies, the priest might also wear a turban.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0The Augusta Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hinduism started about 7,000 years ago, during a time when no other religion existed in India. B.N. Roy, the spokesman for the Hindu Temple Society of Augusta, said it started with the creation of the Vedas, which were \u201cnot human-created. They are the revelations from God to the saints.\u201d The Vedas were followed by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[1221,1222,1223,118],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}