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Flip to reveal answersWhat is a samskara?
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All 11 Flashcards — Rites of passage and worship
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Question
What is a samskara?
Answer
A lifetime rite that marks and sanctifies a stage of life. Hindu tradition describes sixteen; few families perform all of them.
Question
Name the samskaras the guide highlights.
Answer
Birth, naming a child, upanayana (the sacred thread ceremony), marriage, retirement, and death and cremation.
Question
Name the four ashramas.
Answer
Brahmacharya (study of the Vedas), grihastha (married householder), vanaprastha (retirement), sannyasa (renunciation).
Question
What is a murti?
Answer
An image in which a deity is held to be present — not a representation the worshipper looks at.
Question
What is darshan?
Answer
Seeing the deity and being seen by the deity: Hindus describe worship before a murti as a mutual seeing.
Question
What is arti?
Answer
The lamp ceremony: a lamp is circled before the murti with bells, conch or drum and bhajans, devotional songs.
Question
What is prasad?
Answer
Food offered to the deity and then shared among worshippers as blessed — receiving back what was given.
Question
What is an Ishta-Devata?
Answer
A personal deity chosen for devotion from among many, which is why two orthodox Hindu households may worship quite differently.
Question
What is yatra, and where does it go?
Answer
Pilgrimage — to sacred rivers, shrines and the kumbha-melas, the great bathing fairs. It is undertaken rather than obligatory.
Question
What is achamana?
Answer
Ritual purification with water, with which worship usually begins.
Question
What is seva in Hindu practice?
Answer
Community work, often undertaken at an ashram. The guide names it alongside pilgrimage.
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Full study notes for Rites of passage and worship
Topic 2.1 hub
Rituals
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