| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| hiccups | Posted
on 21-Mar-04 07:58 AM
Need big tips on getting married in a hindu tradition. My girlfriend who is a christian is engaged to a nepali guy. Its her dream to be wed in the traditional saat pheras.... she wants to get married in san deigo; is there any purohits who would perform te full rituals of a hindu marriage around that area.All his relatives are here in the US... so no needto go home. Any information would be appreciated. HICCUPS |
| maaya | Posted
on 21-Mar-04 04:55 PM
Hi Hiccups, I am not from San Diego but I assume there are plenty Nepalis there and a lot more Indians. I am sure the Nepali boyfriend and his family know about some temples and purohits around that area. Maybe you need to talk to his family and figure out. Do a google search to find out the hindu temples in San Diego. Maaya |
| yOuNgBlOoDz | Posted
on 21-Mar-04 08:03 PM
well houston ma.. ek jana nepali baje purohit hunuhuncha.. bihe chahi yetai aayera gare hunthiyo... bhoj khanu pauthiyo :P:P:P... yb |
| batauli | Posted
on 21-Mar-04 11:39 PM
http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=8097 excerpts: ... Sanskrit mantras in California wedding By SANGITA RAYAMAJHI ...... It was the month of weddings, Hindu weddings in Nepal. In Claremont, California too the wedding bells were ringing. A Professor at the Claremont Colleges, Professor Deepak Shimkhada’s daughter was getting married. The ceremony was held within the precincts of our college. Perhaps for the first time Claremont was seeing a Hindu wedding. It was January 16, 2004. Very much like in Nepal we dressed up for the occasion and reached the wedding venue. The mandap was there before us on the dais from where we had heard many a lectures and talks and conferences. This time it was a gathering of a different kind. I looked at the mandap, the bride and groom in their wedding fineries and the pandit standing next to them, a white man in dhoti, kameez and a doshalla over his shoulder and sporting a nice long toupee all bound up at the back of his head. How could this tall, white man perform Hindu wedding rituals? I was sceptical. I had my reservations. But as the wedding rituals commenced I looked on askance? I was stunned, thrilled and sceptical, all at the same time. This white man, this pandit who stood six feet tall was chanting the Sanskrit mantras—so articulate—and interpreting each line into English. The bride and the groom were made to repeat these English translations. It was such a wonderful wedding, “performance” I’d like to call it. The bride and the groom understood each and every articulation of the priest, and each word had a meaning, each word made sense. Every word articulated, I felt mocked many of those rituals performed in my home country. The priest made everyone understand what was being said and done. The ritual was no longer a ‘ritual’, it was not a derivative, neither was it a hereditary deliberation where the priest as well as the clients were not meant to translate anything that was done into a meaningful action. I was tremendously impressed. Later I got talking to the priest. He is the head priest of Laxmi Narayan temple in Riverside, California. He is a Hindu of course, got his Ph. D in Sanskrit from McGill University in Toronto and his ordained name is Shukavak N Dasa. He has carried out hundreds of weddings, Annaprasannas, Upanayans, Nwaranas, Satyanarayan pujas, written books, one of them being Hindu Encounter with Modernity, biographies of Hindu religious figures and his translation of Bhagvata Gita is in the press. The question to myself was, would this Hindu priest be allowed into any temple in Nepal? His day begins with snan and jap and reading and writing and ends with prabachan in the evening and when I next talked to him he was driving out to perform some Shivaratri pujas. ...... So how do we define Hinduism then, by birth or by faith? If by birth Dr Shukavak and his family could never be Hindus, but if by faith then he is the staunchest Hindu than many of us. So this wedding of Riti and Anurag led me into thinking deeply on religion, the religion of my country, the so-called only Hindu Kingdom in the world, a nomenclature which I do not want to accept fully. Anything that goes against the principle of secularism cannot win my heart. But then I cannot deny despite as I said being exposed to Christianity in a Jesuit school for 11 years that I am a Hindu. You should define yourself by what you do and not by what you are born into. The mantra from Rigveda that I read reverberates in my mind. I feel that we evoke the power of a true religion when we echo the mantra of love and life. Any religion that transcends these two elements is not a religion. I would like to end my narration with a quotation from Rig Veda (10.85.26) that has filled my mind with a sense of well-being and openness: “May Pusha lead you from here holding your hand. The two Ashvinas carry you in chariot. Go home so that you may become the lady of the household, take control and give orders”. ............ batauli |