It is not my intent to ridicule anyone’s religon. I am curious about this article I came across in my interest of elephants.
Well, in the Hindu religion, basically you use a pooja thali - a steel plate, filled with offerings such as flowers and sweets, with a flame in the middle, and you sort of hold it in front of the elephant and wave it in circles (the thali, not the elephant) and pray to it. And anoint it with red colors, and garlands. And bow to it.
i’m not sure what those guys did, but that’s what we would do.
Thanks!
I love the SDMB.
CP
Does the elephant get to eat any of the offerings from the thali after you finish waving it around? If not, what do you do with the offerings after the ritual is finished?
whew!!!
Vote for presidential candidates with prominent ears?
Verrrrrrry carefully.
Put him on an ivory tower?
You don’t. You worship a duck.
I’m down with that.
Yes, he will most likely get a nice big piece of prasad. Prasad is blessed food, most likely fruit or nuts, and he’ll be fed it. The rest of it will be spread amongst the devotees. Whenever we went to mandir (temple) we used to get some prasad and you were supposed to be grateful you received it but definitely eat it.
Sometimes if someone couldn’t make it to temple you’d bring them a piece of prasad, and then they could get the blessings from home, too.
Why a duck?
Oh! Let’s not start that again!
Two men walked into a bar. The third one ducked.
Are elephants an aspect of or related to Ganesha in any way?
Erm…yes and no. I mean, Ganesh has an elephant head, and trunk, and ears. Do we worship elephants in particular because of it?
You have to understand first of all that in India, Hinduism is almost like Christianity in the States. Think of that thread a little while ago where everyone was telling about their “vastly different” upbringings - only as I read them, I only saw Christians and didn’t fully comprehend the difference between Baptists, Protestants, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. I barely understand the difference between Protestants and Catholics, anymore anyway.
Like this, there are many different versions of Hinduism in India - to the point where almost every home worships in a different way. So this could very well mean that there are people who outright worship an elephant, and not because of the reasons referenced in the article linked to by the OP, but just because.
My family/home/people don’t worship the elephant. We do worship Ganesh - but not that much. We are more Krishn devotees, so you don’t see much Ganesh-pooja in my home.
After all that, are you gonna tell the elephant it ***can’t ***eat it?
Thanks again, Anaamika.
You are so welcome. I love when I get a chance to talk about Hinduism on this board. This board is very centered around the Big Three religions - Islam, Christianity, and Judaism - unfortunately, and so the discussions revolve mainly around those three religions or atheism. I love seeing questions about any of the other religions out there, but Hinduism is the only one I really know about.
I’d love to see a thread about Hinduism in general. It’s a religion that I find absolutely fascinating.