İnanç Dosyası 9 | Hinduism 4

Mahaprashad is taken out from the Jagannath Temple.

India – Puri, Orissa.  

Kitchens are housed within the compounds of important temples, and the food which is prepared there, called mahaprashad, receives the blessing of the God Himself before it is eaten. Mahaprashad is so pure that it cleanses the body of sin and in the Jagannath Temple in Puri, Orissa, at least ten thousand people a day receive dishes from it.

With the Sumerians, the sacrifices offered to the gods were thought of as the food the gods really ate. Sacrificial meat was either grilled over a fire or cooked in a pot; the cakes and loaves which, after being presented to the gods, were eaten by the priests, were also baked in the temple. For this reason an important part of the temple was the kitchen.

The ultimate goal of a Hindu is Moksha, meaning liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Women, according to some traditions, are not able to attain Moksha, but must strive to fulfil their dharma in the hope of being reincarnated as a male being in the next cycle. Until it has been clearly shown that a man has truly detached himself from worldly desires and emotions, and from material wealth, and from all that binds him to the world, he cannot attain Moksha. A Hindu holy man known as sadhu, wears scanty clothing ,carries a begging bowl and is sometimes asked by devotees for spiritual guidance to help solve their problems. A sadhu must relinquish all domestic ties and social responsibilities and follow the guidelines laid down in the dharma. He should practice fasting and perform the exercises of yoga, the Sanskrit word for "union". Yoga is a system of Hindu philosophy enabling the soul to end the cycle of reincarnation and unite with the Supreme Being. It plays a very important part in forms of worship which discipline the body and also the mind, through meditation. Hinduism offers various ways of achieving liberation through different systems of yoga, such as, hatha-yoga, which requires certain physical exercises; karman-yoga, which relies on rejection of behaviour promoting self-interest; raja-yoga which aims to enhance and intensify thought; jnana-yoga, a system which, through intellectual learning and analysis brings about the meeting of man and his Creator; and Bhakti-yoga which, through love, can reveal Absolute Reality. Yogis, (instructors) such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, have introduced their teachings to the West and have established new cults like Transcendental Meditation.