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I ran across some info on the hindu marriage rite because of some celebrity divorce: Quote:Since the announcement, Hindu religious leaders have voiced their concern that the estranged celebrity couple have given their faith a bad name. Hindu statesman and president of the Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed told WENN, “They should have taken marriage more seriously as it is a sacred right in Hinduism. The religious leader continued, “In Hinduism, marriage is the most important sacrament. The married couple is looked upon as a complete module for worship and participation in cultural and social acts.”
“If celebrities opt for a Hindu wedding, they should be prepared to adhere to the commitment, devotion, responsibility, sanctity and morals, which are attached to it. There are reasons why Hindus, as a group, have one of the lowest divorce rates in the world,” Zed added.
I am wondering how the Hindu marriage rite compares and contrasts to Temple marriage. Any ideas?
No ideas from me. I don’t know – but I’d be interested to hear from someone who does. wayfarer?
Roy wrote:I am wondering how the Hindu marriage rite compares and contrasts to Temple marriage. Any ideas?
except for it being the most important ritual for both, the rites have absolutely nothing in common. hindu marriages take days to complete and typically cost an annual salary or more. there are rituals upon rituals and lots of food and tradition. most hindu marriages are arranged.wayfarer wrote:except for it being the most important ritual for both, the rites have absolutely nothing in common. Hindu marriages take days to complete and typically cost an annual salary or more. there are rituals upon rituals and lots of food and tradition. most Hindu marriages are arranged.
So, there isn’t really a similar theological component about how going through the marriage rite (as opposed to just civil marriage) will affect you in the afterlife?
My oldest daughter was married in an abbreviated Hindu ceremony (1/2 hour vs 3 days) and I didn’t see any similarity with the temple ceremony other than the committment steps that they took together. Roy wrote:wayfarer wrote:except for it being the most important ritual for both, the rites have absolutely nothing in common. Hindu marriages take days to complete and typically cost an annual salary or more. there are rituals upon rituals and lots of food and tradition. most Hindu marriages are arranged.
So, there isn’t really a similar theological component about how going through the marriage rite (as opposed to just civil marriage) will affect you in the afterlife?
not at all. the effects of a puja (hindu ceremony) are to help you get blessings from the gods here and now or for an endeavor you are about to undertake. Although sometimes in hindu weddings the term ‘forever’ comes up, there is no concept that a person is married from this life into the next incarnation.all that said, the actions you take with respect to your marriage affect you into the next life. Although people in the west call this concept ‘karma’, the word refers to actions/works, not the judgment or outcome, nor does ‘karma’ mean ‘fate’ as many sort of imply. In effect, hindus are ‘judged for their works (“karma”)’ with absolutely no concept of a savior who pays the price for your sins. So, the hindu in marriage is fully accountable for the actions one takes with respect to his/her spouse. If you are mean and violent, your propensity towards violence will lower your caste or status in the next incarnation. If you are faithful and serve one another in love and kindness, in harmony with ahimsa (nonviolence), then you will come back in the next life as a better, more favored caste. If you’re really a saint, you might even escape the cycle of re-incarnation.
Hindus have a spirituality, live by rules and morality that makes most Christians look like heathens, frankly. Sure, they’ve enshrined certain ‘caste’ structures that I find reprehensible, and they’re deeply superstitious about getting favors from the various gods, godesses, divas, etc. But in the main, India is far more religious and accepting of diversity in religion than anything in the west.
wayfarer wrote:If you are mean and violent, your propensity towards violence will lower your caste or status in the next incarnation. If you are faithful and serve one another in love and kindness, in harmony with ahimsa (nonviolence), then you will come back in the next life as a better, more favored caste
Do they believe that automatically happens by forces in the universe without a Supreme Being or any kind of judge to cause the status in the next incarnation?
Heber13 wrote:wayfarer wrote:If you are mean and violent, your propensity towards violence will lower your caste or status in the next incarnation. If you are faithful and serve one another in love and kindness, in harmony with ahimsa (nonviolence), then you will come back in the next life as a better, more favored caste
Do they believe that automatically happens by forces in the universe without a Supreme Being or any kind of judge to cause the status in the next incarnation?
that would depend upon who you ask. There is not an eternal single judge, as would be the case in Christianity (incl. LDS). There is/are supreme being(s) depending upon how you look at the mythological framework — a lot of them, or one, or a lot are really just one, or… well, it’s really hard to describe ‘god’ in hindu terms. judgment and salvation are NEVER discussed or are meaningful. it’s all based upon the law of karma — action creates consequence — kind of like ‘There is a law, irrevocably decreed … before the foundations of this world…”.hindus have a far more developed understanding of eternal progression than LDS theology — now whether it’s true is entirely another matter — but they take it to be an absolute truth. We lived before, and the choices we made in a previous life affect how we live here. That’s consistent with LDS thinking, but we don’t know much more about it. Hindus can tangibly say that my choices in my previous lie to do my duty or not — my magnification of my role in my previous life (caste) affects my role in this life. Thus, the lesson learned, is to do your duty. If my caste is to clean up garbage from the street, then I am to clean up the garbage with excellence, and be happy in it. If I try to do something else and not fulfill my role, I’m not going to be happy and I’m not going to progress. There’s good and bad in this principle.
So, applied to marriage, if I choose to be faithful to my wife, and my wife to her role in the family to serve, etc., then we both progress to the next level, whatever that may mean. If we are unfaithful, we may go back to sweeping streets, cleaning sewers, or worse, becoming some lower order being. it’s all in the law of karma.
Now, you asked about how the judgment occurs — hindus are NOT to concern themselves with rewards or judgments. A key shloka (sanskrit verse) expresses what hindus believe about this:
Bhagavad Gita 2:47 wrote:karmanyevaadhikaaraste, ma phaleshu kadaachana,
ma karmaphala hetur bhuur, ma te sangostv’ akarmani
(my translation)
you have the right to choose your actions, but no right whatsoever to the fruits (rewards, consequences)
don’t set your heart therefore on the fruits of action, nor get attached to inaction.
Importantly, ‘adhikhaara’ means the right or title to something — and in this case, it is the right to ‘karma’/action — sometimes this is translated as ‘doing one’s duty’. In the LDS context, this is explicitly ‘free agency’ — agency being a right and title to action or inaction — we have the ability to choose our actions, but we do NOT have the right to choose the consequence or reward. That is what agency is all about.however, LDS teach that the law is absolute: if we do X we’ll get blessed for X. “If ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land” – the promise made dozens of times in the book of mormon. By extension, LDS believe that if we are prosperous, it is because god favors our actions — and if not prosperous, then we must be sinning. No one says this, but it certainly is implied by an inherent favoritism to promote successful business people to leadership positions.
hindus do not make such judgments, because the culture and scriptures essentially forbid such judgments or setting one’s heart on reward/consequence.
“wayfarer wrote:Bhagavad Gita 2:47 wrote:karmanyevaadhikaaraste, ma phaleshu kadaachana,
ma karmaphala hetur bhuur, ma te sangostv’ akarmani
(my translation)
you have the right to choose your actions, but no right whatsoever to the fruits (rewards, consequences)
don’t set your heart therefore on the fruits of action, nor get attached to inaction.
Lowell Bennion used this quote as way of teaching service and the importance of not being motivated by gain and the LDS thing about “getting blessings”.
I’ve always said that one of the reasons I like Buddhism and Hinduism FAR more than non-Mormon Chrisitianity is that “pure Mormonism” is so much more like those other religions than it is to other Christian denominations – in SO many ways. Of course, there are major problems in the practical, human implementation of the “ideals” and “principles” in Buddhism and Hinduism, just as there are in Mormonism, but the underlying foundations are so similar in so many ways that it’s easy for me to imagine (meaning only “see in my mind’s eye”) a common historical genesis of the theologies.
Roy wrote:I ran across some info on the hindu marriage rite because of some celebrity divorce:
Quote:Since the announcement, Hindu religious leaders have voiced their concern that the estranged celebrity couple have given their faith a bad name. Hindu statesman and president of the Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed told WENN, “They should have taken marriage more seriously as it is a sacred right in Hinduism. The religious leader continued, “In Hinduism, marriage is the most important sacrament. The married couple is looked upon as a complete module for worship and participation in cultural and social acts.”
“If celebrities opt for a Hindu wedding, they should be prepared to adhere to the commitment, devotion, responsibility, sanctity and morals, which are attached to it. There are reasons why Hindus, as a group, have one of the lowest divorce rates in the world,” Zed added.
I am wondering how the Hindu marriage rite compares and contrasts to Temple marriage. Any ideas?
Not much.
Hindus up til recently have ALWAYS had arranged marriages. They get married to who their parents say, not who they love. And they have to marry within their exact social class or caste as well.
In many cases, Hindus are married BEFORE puberty as well. Gandhi for example was married off at age 9. The parents decide the spouse long before that, before the children are born in some cases.
Also until the British banned it in the 19th century, widows were supposed to throw themselves on their husband’s cremation pyres. This was known as suttee. The British managed to stamp out this barbaric practice.
[Edit to add: I’m sure the celebrity/American version of “Hindu marriage” has absolutely nothing to do with real Hinduism, just like so called neo-Paganism has nothing to do with pre-Christian traditions.]
SamBee wrote:They get married to who their parents say, not who they love.
I think that’s an over-generalization, and maybe outdated from today’s world. My Hindu friend who just got married in Dec was feeling a lot of pressure from his parents to find the right person and marry since he was over 30 years old, but they did not force him. He found a person that was right for his situation, and there is love there. If you think about it, parents want their kids to be happy, even though the cultural practices and expectations do differ a lot.
I wish I could have attended his wedding in India, but couldn’t afford the travel. I heard it was a week long event that cost about as much as a year’s salary.
😯 They really know how to party! (and they do it without alcohol too!)Quote:I think that’s an over-generalization, and maybe outdated from today’s world.
Not at all, it’s what they’ve done for thousands of years, and it’s still going on.
The idea of marrying for love is a relatively recent one, even in the west.
Physical attraction is not the best basis for a marriage, there has to be other factors. But in the west, this is what we concentrate on.
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