To all the Hindu's in this world - If you are Intelligent and a true hindu then answer this , please !!?

Friend,

I am very sincerely answering you.

I am a Brahmin doing pooja in the way you said,

We Hindus feel that everything that exists is a manifestation of God.The level of manifestation may be different in different persons or objects.

Coming to your question, first we take a bath to clean ourself bodily since we might have touched some thing unclean or had been in some atmosphere where the negative vibrations might have been heavy.We mentally feel that we , by taking a head bath and wearing a Dhoti or a fresh or clean clothing will make us some thing happy and feel fit to sit before the Holy idol of God we are praying.

Then we clean the a area around us. We lit incence sticks to have a fragrance to remove any bad or foul smell and keep the atmosphere happy to sit and meditate upon.

Then we remove the flowers etc that were used yesterday evening , the day before I mean and we actually feel that we are seeing the GOD in the IDOL before us,So we take the idol with all the respect and clean it with so many things.We call it abhisekham.We use coconut water, incence water, panneer or rose water, water mixed with sandel paste ,water mixed with turmeric powder etc and finally we use pure water alone and clean it,We use a fresh cloth to remove the misture on the IDOL.We do all this witha feeling that we are doing this personally to our lord actually.We feel happy to do it.

So FEELING THAT THE IDOL IS NOT A THING BUT A GOD WITH ALL HIS POWERS BEFORE US WE DO THSES THINGS.

Then we worship Him or Her according to our own method taught by elders or Sadguru,

We do 16 upachaarams called shodashopachaara pooja.

These things we do on empty stomach.By the time the pooja is over the food might have been prepared or we prepare specially Naiveydyam(food to offer to Him).

We Hindus believe Food is given to us by Him.We believe Food is God

Ahancha Brahma..annancha brahma...tvameyva brahma ..is a verse we use which means.....the food is God...You are God and the offerer I am God.That means everything is God.

We feel grateful to Him for providing us food , so in reverence and gratitude we feel it a sin to eat without offering the food to Him that He gave us,So we offer this as a token of gratitude for providing us all things .We offer this Naiveydyam with pancha praanaas...we say Praanaaya swaahaa,,,Apaanaaya swaahaaa...Vyaanaaaya swaahaaa....udaanaaya swahaaa...samaanaaya swaahaaa..(these are five praanas that are there in every human body).

Then after offering Him.,we lit camphor and give Haarati to Him and see HIM in the flowers we offered etc and feel happy as if we have seen Him in Person.

we distribute the naivveydyam ( Now it is called Prasaadam after offering to HIM)to all along with teertham(coconut water ).

then we offer our namaskarams(respects) .

after this we take our food or meal..

This pooj a gives us psychological boost and we feel happy .When we are unable to pray,or when we did not pray we feel we missed some thing and mentally offer all these prayers called manasic pooja , when we are unable to do the pooja.

As far as I know that is the reason.all Hindus are requested to correct me where ever I am wrong.They correct me even if Iam totally wrong.I will be thankful to all.

in advance I offer thanks to all.

I hope my answer is some what helpful to you.

EDIT: Cetrtain type mistakes I have corrected.Shodoshopachara is 16.18 was a mistake I regret .Thanks for the corrections indicated by keen readers individually.Yes it is not Naiveydyam anymore and it is Prasaadam.Thank you Chandrasekhar ji.I did not elaborate much.I think I said the central theme about our pooja.I hope so.Thank you a lot.I made the corrections you pointed out.

Narakesu really gave a great answer--what can I say now--I'll just repeat one thing he said--God becomes hungry for our love and devotion--

He comes in the Deity form -attracted by the love of His devotees--If they offer food which is more tasty then He accepts that love and intent to feed God who doesn't really need food but we need to serve Him--Just like the sun- doesn't need our little offerings of a lamp--

The wonderful aspect of God which the devotees attract and are attracted to is His personal loving and caring and reciprocating aspect!

Do you remember a quite a few years back when all the Nandi deities drank all the milk in temples all over India and it was shown on television worldwide!

added reply--wake up and smell the flowers-have you ever seen a hard solid surface some how suck in any liquid --that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of--why don't you do a little scientific experiment and see if a solid stone surface or brass can suck in water or milk!

And this accepting of milk offering only happened one time that I heard of or perhaps twice-- My very non-ignorant well educated friend just happened to be there and he gave the Deity milk and no-it didn't drip down the face or "absorb" as you say--were you there? Please observe your own blind ignorance--There are many things you will never be able to understand with your type of mentality--you can wake up a sleeping man but you can never wake up a man pretending to be asleep!

Why ask a question if you don't really want to hear the answer?

First of all you have to define a Hindu like how muslim means all those who submit (100%) to the Almighty God. A Christian means one who follow Christ. But a person who say There is only one God is also called a Hindu, one who say a Cobra as God is also a Hindu. First of all a Hindu and the religion Hinduism should be defined clearly based on some ethical books and beliefs. Today one group of people are miss guiding the mass in the name of religion. In today's scientific world to say that we cant imagine or portray the True Almighty God, that is why we do idol worship. Today our universe is 4 billion light years away from us. We cant imagine one light year also. How can we imagine 4 billion light years. Like wise we have the smallest particle, the electron which is 10 power minus 30 meter. Man cant even imagine one part in 1000 parts of a milli meter. We are talking about the Almighty God who has created such huge and small things. How can we imagine about that God when we cant imagine His creations. We have to believe Him from His creations. Not by giving him a picture or limiting His features using manly knowledge. In Mathematics we say Limit tends to Infinity and solve so many real time problems. What is this Infinity? No scientists knows about it. It is not finite. That is all. When we do prayer or any other offerings to god, we always tend to think that God needs our prayers and other offerings. The reality is God dont need anything. it is man who needs to keep praying and doing other duties to keep his life in the right Track. To understand, let me tell one example. Imagine a river is there in front of our house. If we bathe 5 times a day, will there be any dirt in our body. The answer is yes and no. Likewise to keep man away from doing wrong and sins we need to keep remember God. After death we are accountable for our deeds. To avoid forget this basic thing we pray 5 times a day. When we cut a sheep we just say In the name of God and we are the one who eat the sheep. Just to lay emphasis on Monotheism we do this. Not that God needs this sheep. God is above every thing which human knowledge can perceive.

Whew....after so much of gyan from all the learned people here, I wish to add only this much -

What does a child do before he can actually drive a real car on the roads???

It's obvious that, he's allowed to play around with toy-cars.

Similarly, what does a trainee pilot do before actually flying airplanes???

Obviously, he's trained on flight-simulators.

The concept is very much same here. One needs to take care of the worshipped idol in all possible ways, so that the mind gets stabilized with HIS name & thoughts. This needs to be done by the beginner. An advanced Yogi need not perform all these rites to get HIS grace.

This is the most logical explaination I could give to you. There are other reasons too - SPIRITUAL (Bhakti-marga), METAPHYSICAL (Tantra-marga), SOCIO-RELIGIOUS, etc. But, I wish to go by the simplest of all methods - "To go by the book". Trust me, if one really follows the teachings of various scriptures - vedas, puranas, smritis, etc.; one can never go astray & will really achieve the 'ABSOLUTE BLISS'.

A religion is made of Values, Symbol, customs and Traditions.

Values are the heart of the religion. Symbols are memory refershers of the identification of the values. Customs are practices made to practically realize the values. Tradition are social requirements by which Values are introduced in long way.

Ancient religion keen in administring God in all the walks of life brought in those traditions which are performed for pleasing God, in a way to use all the senses for devotional serivce to God. By doing a devotional service only the devotee's bakthi is enhanced and as for there is no gain or loss for God.

Thats the reason why the poojas and abishekas are conducted. Only a devotee who is able to feel God can really tell us what it is when he/she performs a devotinal service to God. Even then normal people can never understand that.

There are no general grounds in the respect of answering ur tangible and intangible doubts on those cermonies. First it is what performed by our ancestors. But they are conducted basically to enjoy God, may be to tell God is the prominent ascpect of life one has to work for.

Enjoying God is better than enjoying sense world. But if u want logical answer for a poetry then be a poet, so be bhaktha and do deveotional service and feel the magic of God first hand.

I am an atheist too and also a proud Hindu.

The basic difference of Hinduism from other religions is that a Hindu does NOT stay separated from God.Being Omnipresent God is in every living and non-living form.

So he simply shares whatever he has got with God.It is immaterial how pleased is God with that offering.It only shows his love(not simply obeisance) for God.Hope you understand.

In Hindu homes whatever offered to the God is subsequently consumed by the family members as Prasadh.In temples also it is distributed to the devotees as Prasadh.

The Abhishek water, milk etc..(is given away as holy water for sprinkling on devotees' head.

(edit)Atheism is also an accepted path in Hinduism though I am the only member among about 25 other devout Hindus in our joint family.I have described our customs as followed here.These customs are binding factors in Hinduism.

I'm born in a christian family but i don beliv in th concept of god or in any religion..

i don ve much knowledge bout Hinduism but stil i consider it to be th best religion to be followd but olny after understding it not jus blindly.. and i think th true hinduism is not at all followd anywher becas it is modified in th time duration

i saw a few of ur questions in ur profile and.. i wud jus lik to say tat..., let it be any religion,.... every rituals in it has its own hidden meaning lik u askd in a qus tat y hindu gods r fed tat is becas th food which is fed to god is actually given to th poor ppl and not to th statue.. and th food has to be higenic so they bathe th statue..

in hinduism each and every living creature is considerd to be an avtar one or th other of god and tis is becas human dont harm any creature..

if u take ramayan, th story has set an model of how a perfect human shud be lik how a husbnd shud be, how a teacher shud be, a doctor, a warrior, a brother, friend, carpenter,a son, jus everyting..

i feel hinduism is a science more than mere religion becas the 'vedas' also include ayurvedam-th medical science and other sciences lik astrology etc.

infact th ancient hindus have discovered bout th planets and stuffs lik tat 10,000 yrs ago.. so they r very much intelligent than any other ppl..

so it is better to follow th good things in all th religion rather than findinig out which is better

i know this has NOT answerd ur question.. anyways sorry 4 boring wit such a big answer.. and i apologise if any of th thing i said is wrong

Hinduism is best followed in it's philosophical form. These rituals are created by those Hindus who are just born in this great religion, but who are only happy thinking that its a great religion, and thats all. Naivete is one thing which is essential for a devotee to adorn, not only in Hindu religion but in all the religions that are practiced in this world. Naiveness in Hindus is widespread among the poorer masses, but the Hindus who just are proud being born in that religion, bring in naivete in the form of stupid rituals. And make a fool of themselves and the religion.

Poor also follow these rituals, but that is more out of genuine naiveness, whereas in the case of 'elite' Hindus, they act to be naive. And thus they look stupid.

What to do, I am also a Hindu and look stupid (even though I don't follow the rituals). Its all in the game!

I can only say that I am not proud of being a Hindu for these reasons. But I am proud of being a Hindu for other reasons.

And that kind of pride makes me humble. A humble Hindu- I am. A very rare breed!

Great question: you are a real Hindu.

Let me clarify:-

Hindu means people belonging to this land(Hindustan or bharat varsa(this is wat we are))

and the more important thing is so called hindus doesnt have any religion , we just have dharma(a set of instructions for the people to follow to become pure human beings, if not animals (evolution: that's wat we are.:-))).

we are not religious But we are very much spiritual.(may be we need one more thread to know the difference)

and even if you believe it's a religion, no problem.

so this religion guides people to know themselves, to realize the absolute truth(which is realization of your self , that it is not different from god, or any one.dot. but not god)

because whoever realizes that he is not different from others will never hurt others in any sense, as its like hurting your self.no point.

and whenever people distract from this dharma, we believe he will incarnate to TEACH NOT TO PREACH through his actions.

This is wat our Hinduism is about: We are not blind believers, as that is what our dharma is about, TO Realize the truth.

<<The Answer To your Question:->>

the rituals that you have mentioned are not religion rather they are regional:

as it's not possible for all the people to realize the god or truth,

some wise PEOPLE have created the IDOL worship, so that atleast people will not lose their Human aspects, the perception of the Supreme identity will stop to being inhuman.

So No wise men who is hindu never told these rituals are the way to realize the god. that is the starting point.

Even The God when he incarnated never encouraged these rituals.

so Hindu's are not blind believers, They must be truth realizing souls.

you will find very less people who are following the so called religion here. The rest is you know.....

A good question to make Hindus understand their religion. It is a proven fact that you have to take bath daily to keep yourself clean, hygenic and also to maintain your body temperature.

In olden days, people lived in community and divided the works. For example, all those who did gold business were called Chettiyars. Likewise, those who did mental works were called bhramins. The main work of the bhramins were to think and educate others. They had the biggest task of conveying good manners and matters to others.

When they asked the other community people to take bath and be clean, the other community people could not understand the importance of being clean. Hence, they had to use the help of an abstract person called "The God" and said that god will be happy only if he is served by people who took bath and were clean.

As god is also a part of human, he is taken bath.

Also, please be aware that gods are given bath with water, coconut water, sandle wood, Oil etc. The combination of all this is present in the stone of the god. Also, in case you get a chance to visit the olden temples of Tamil Nadu like palani, you will understand that the idols are made up of pancha pootham which has the capacity to cure any type of diseases. It is also said that the statue of Palani was slowly eroded for medicine sake for our former late Cheif Minister Mr.MGR.

To maintian a balance in such idols, it is given bath almost daily. The water out of which it is taken bath is so pure and has lots of medical curity.

Also, please note that almost all gods are kept in a small dark room where you have lots of echos. Note that such idols are made of black stone too. When manthras are chanted, there is a vibration in the idol called "Black body radiation". Have you heard that it is very very good for health in modern science? Have you also heard that such black body radiations affects women who are in their mesus (periods)? The ancient people, instead to telling such truths directly, used to say that god loves persons who are clean and hence compelled the public to be clean.

Our Hindus are rich in culture and in knowledge. They always associated their ideas with god to make the people understand their ideas.

Please understand that behind every myth in the hindu religion, there is a reason.