In doing some research on new products to develop for my Etsy store, I came across the devotional behavior of dressing deities. Certainly I’ve seen Murtis in temples elaborately dressed, but not in people’s homes. And I’ve seen puja instructions call for dressing a deity, but usually in the form of draping a thread over them to represent clothing. I discovered, particularly for people in ISKCON, there is a devotional practice of dressing naked murtis in amazing clothing and jewelry... Read more
My friend Pava is someone that I see frequently in real life and I find her to be very thoughtful about all the issues of faith, religion, culture, and self-expression. When I first met her, I was a little afraid that she wouldn’t like me; that she would find me offensive. Instead we became fast friends and speak often about religion. She is Jain and today in her interview she’ll explain a little bit about how that’s different from Hinduism.... Read more
Friday night Brad and I had a little Diwali party at our apartment and it was really nice. This is a Lakshmi altar that I put out in our living room. I drew the rangoli with colored sand that was on sale at Michael’s. The murti is a new one from our wedding. Cooking puris for masala puri chaat! I had some trouble getting them to puff, but a few did! ... Read more
I actually addressed this question back in April, but then I realized that I titled it Hinduism and Marriage Equality, so not everyone knew that it was also about what Hinduism believes about homosexuality in general. Since a reader asked this recently AND it comes up in the top five searches for “What does Hinduism…” here is the link again to my post on what Hinduism has to say about Homosexuality: Hinduism and Marriage Equality Hope you’re having a great... Read more
The cry of racists everywhere. “But I’m friends with [insert race or ethnicity] people!” One of the criticisms that was leveled against me when my wedding was on APracticalWedding.com (comments no longer there because the APW team is awesome) was “Just because a couple of Indian people you know said it was okay doesn’t mean it was okay.” I was sorely tempted to say “What do you mean a couple?” I could point out to her that I have 1,600... Read more
As I’ve mentioned before, I love reading “frugal” lifestyle blogs and I’m all about trying to live a simple and mindful life. One of the big stressers in my life is any feeling of excess “stuff.” Every piece of clutter feels like it’s dragging down my calm and needling at me constantly. There’s nothing more peaceful than a tidy room, in my experience! I’m not sure how we have the amount of clutter we do. I know I don’t need... Read more
Here is another interview with a young American Hindu about religion, culture, and identity from my friend Anjali… 1) Tell us about you and your family. Were you born in the U.S.? Were your parents? Are they from India or Africa or somewhere else? My family is from India. My dad was born in a small village called Peddapuram in South India. My mom was born in Hyderabad, which is a more multicultural city, heavily populated with Hindu people and... Read more
Diwali is one of the biggest holidays of the Hindu calender. It’s the last big festival before the quiet month of December. Particularly in the west, Diwali is an opportunity for outreach and many Hindu groups in America hold melas (celebrations) designed to bring in non-Hindus to learn more about Hinduism. For many it is the mark of the Hindu new year (some regions have their own individual new years). It is often called the Festival of Lights and one... Read more
Curious to know what people were wondering about Hindus and Hinduism, I went to Google and entered some prompts. For example, I typed “Why do Hindus” and then paused to see what questions would come up. I’m going to be doing a series of answers for Google to help people get their most pressing questions answered. First up… Why Do Hindus Pierce Their Nose? Elaborate decoration of Hindu women (well, brides in particular) is a tradition from ancient times. Hindu... Read more
Today we’re going to play a little game. For each thing I mention, you decide if it is something that is relevant to Hinduism as a religion or is part of Indian culture and not tied to Hinduism. I’ve mentioned before that I find it very difficult to separate out what is cultural from what is religious for a lot of Hindu things. Hinduism having grown and developed closely with Indian cultures, teasing those things apart can be impossible in... Read more
The White Hindu
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In