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Shiva Vishnu Temple
6905 Cipriano Road, Lanham Md. 20706

by Adam Sorkin

The site visited for this encounter and dialogue was the Sri Shiva-Vishnu Temple. It is located at 6905 Cipriano Road in Lanham, Maryland. The temple phone number is (301) 552-3335. I visited the temple on Saturday the thirteenth, but don’t assume services are only held on Saturdays. There are many important factors as to why a Hindu Temple was chosen for the encounter and dialogue report. First, Hinduism is completely alien to me. If not for this class, I wouldn’t know the difference between Hindu and Hindi. Secondly, Hinduism is practiced by a relatively large majority of people as compared to other eastern religions. I wanted to experience first-hand a major eastern religion. Hinduism is the first religion covered in class, so a visit to a Hindu temple would help reinforce the early material that might otherwise be forgotten. Hinduism also has the most denominations. Some other eastern religions grew out of Hinduism (Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism), so a firm grasp of Hinduism should be beneficial in understanding those other religions which “evolved,” out of Hinduism. My background is that of a reform Jew, so the polytheistic aspect of Hinduism struck me as odd.

As I drove up to the temple, I immediately noticed differences in the construction of this temple, compared to traditional churches and temples. There were few windows to speak of, and none of the windows I saw were stained glass pictures. The windows were simple, square, black-tinted windows. Also apparent were the figurine carvings and decorations in the marble that decorated the temple’s edifice. I committed my first faux pas by confusing an offering container for a trash can, but fortunately I was stopped in the nick of time from discarding  chewing  gum  into  the  container.  As  I

walked up to the building, I noticed a cute little shoe rack that I assumed was for use by the children. However I learned that it is Hindu/Indian custom to remove one’s shoes and socks before entering the temple. The reasoning behind this is that shoes and socks are unclean, dirty, and profane since they have been trudging through the mud and dirt all day. Also, at some temples, people wash their feet before entering. This is to ensure that dirty feet do not desecrate the holy grounds of the temple.

I like the idea of a shoeless temple - it is so much more comfortable. And the dress code for this Hindu temple was also very relaxed. True, some dressed up, but the majority of people there were wearing comfortable casual clothes. Only the very devout (other than the priests of course) were wearing traditional Indian Garb or Dhotas.

There are no strict prayer service schedules at Sri Shiva-Vishnu Temple. The temple is open to devotees for up to twelve hours a day. However to lead services a priest is generally required. At Sri Shiva-Vishnu temple there are currently eight active priests. Each priest undergoes harsh training in India under the direction of a guru or swami. Training typically lasts six years, teaching priests the correct intonations and chants for the holy prayers among other skills. Hindu priests may be married and have kids, a factor that helps rather than hurts recruitment for the priests. These priests perform services to the gods before they perform services for the followers. Hindu ceremonies are known as samscaras.

The devotees and followers at the temple were very helpful in assisting my completion of this project. In fact, one devotee, Mrs. Rugminy, was helpful in answering questions that were more about Indian culture than Hinduism. For example, when questioned about the white dot on her forehead, Mrs. Rugminy explained that a white dot symbolizes a widow, while married persons wear red dots. Married women also wear a “mangalsutra,” a necklace that serves the same purpose as the red dot - a different form of a wedding ring. That is a cultural tradition in India, the displaying of dots or mangalsutras by both men and women. When an orange-yellow dot was smeared on followers during a prayer, Mrs. Rugminy explained the dot: parsan, or food shared with the Gods (a topic covered in our textbook).

The main three gods of Hinduism are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma is not worshipped because he is impersonal and formless. These gods represent creation, maintenance, and liberation respectively. As a traditional explanation, Brahma is not worshipped because his task is done: the world is already created. Shiva and Vishnu still have jobs to do, so they are more actively worshipped. I asked about the third major sect, saktas (who worship the feminine divine), and Mrs. Rugminy replied that saktas are a very tiny sect in Hinduism. Also, the different sects of Saivites and Vaishnavites are coming closer together so there is less difference between them today - people don’t refer to themselves as a Saivites but as a Hindu. 

Most of the chanting of mantras done in the temple were in the same language of the Vedas, Sanskrit, but some chants were performed in Tamil, a language native to India. Another interesting fact I learned is how the epics and puranas came to be so popular. Since women on their periods were considered impure and not allowed into the temple during those times when ovulating, those women would instead read and study the epics and puranas, thus increasing their usage among the Hindu population. 

In Hinduism there is still the concept of holy water. Priests would wash the statues of the Gods body, and thus the water became holy. This holy water is known as Pirtyam, water that takes away all problems. This water was sprinkled on the followers’ heads during the prayers.

There are no specific days, other than holidays, set aside for prayer. In Hinduism there is no Sabbath, as prayer is supposed to be a daily activity. However, this temple closed during noon because that is when the deities sleep. Followers make offerings to the gods when they pray. But they don’t give these offerings to the gods directly. The offerings are given to the priests, who then give the offerings to the gods. Typical offerings include such artifacts as flowers, fruit, food, and money. 

All services and prayers vary in length and duration. There are some prayers of determined length, though. During an “archana,” a priest will chant 108 names of a particular god. In Hinduism, 108 is considered a holy number, and there are thousands of names for the same god. Most gods are male with female consorts, such as Brahma and Saraswathi (goddess of knowledge), Vishnu and Lakshmi (goddess of wealth), and Shiva and Paravathi (goddess of material comforts). During prayer to these gods, priests must follow many proscribed rituals and tasks: a total of 16 formalities to be done to honor the gods. For example, during many chants, I overheard a loud bell ringing, almost drowning out the chants. This ringing of the bell is one of the 16 formalities, a way to let the god know you are there. The temple also offers help to achieve samadhi through a raja yoga class offered at the temple. 

A Hindu temple is not set up like a Jewish temple. There are no pews, no bimah, and no traditional services. Instead there are many, many individual shrines. At each shrine followers can pray alone or in groups. Only priests can enter these shrines, followers must remain outside. At this temple there were shrines to many gods, such as Rama, Sita, Lakshmi, the son of Shiva (Subramanya), Ganesh, and a shrine to the planets. There was a shrine to the son of Vishnu and Shiva. Vishnu took the form of a lady in one incarnation, and Shiva became so enamored that their union produced the god Aiyapa. The God Vishnu’s bed is make of snakes, so there is a shrine to the great snake Adishesha. The snake is worshiped to take evil away. Ganesh is always the first god worshipped in prayer because he is the remover of obstacles. There is an alternate form of Parvati in a shrine: Durga. I also learned that every god has a Vahana, a spiritual animal that the god may either incarnate as or that symbolizes the God. Subramanya’s (the son of Shiva) animal is the peacock. Shiva himself is formless, but his animal is the bull. Vishnu’s is an eagle, and Ganesh’s is a mouse. I think that is rather fitting for an elephant headed god. I also asked why some gods were blue. The answer I received is that some gods, such as Rama and Krishna, are blue to be different from the ordinary. Many people seemed to be bowing at the shrines, placing their heads at the bottom of the shrines. This is show devotion with “all my body.”

There are two very interesting shrines in the Sri Shiva-Vishnu temple. These shrines have one thing in common - both gods were initially devotees until the gods took these devotees as consorts. Andal, a form of Lakshmi, was initially a devotee of Vishnu. She wore her offerings (a garment) before offering them to the Gods. This is considered a sin in Hinduism. One day a priest observed her wearing the garment before she offered it. He confronted her and made her offer a new, unworn garment. However, the unworn garment kept falling of the God - it wouldn’t stay on. Vishnu came down to earth and said to use the old garment, that it was pleasing to the god. So later Vishnu took Andal as a consort. The Rama devotee Hanuman is described in our textbooks. Hanuman was a devotee as well as Andal before he became a god. All these deities are many forms of the same impersonal god Bhraman to let devotees choose particular deity. 

I attempted to pray with the followers at the shrine of a meditating Vishnu. It was actually quite difficult to concentrate with the hustle and bustle of people moving around, clanging of a bell, loud chanting in an unfamiliar language, and other ceremonies going on all around us. I now have a better understanding of polytheism: a tool that makes one‘s relationship with god more personal. My previous view of polytheism was that of an artificial, man-made creation to make god easier to comprehend. I do like the meditation aspect of Hinduism. I love sitting quietly while clearing my mind and meditating. It is almost a cathartic, purifying experience. And there is something to be said for yoga. I have tried it in the past and it can feel like an actual workout instead of a prayer/meditation session.

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