Worship: The great majority of Indian homes have a shrine for worship. Here and at temples many candles burn. People prostrate in front of deities and walk around the shrine. Coins are often thrown.

Puja or cleansing is performed early every morning by devout Hindus. This involves chanting the 1000 names for Shiva. It starts in a very subdued voice and slowly gets louder to culminate with loud bells. We love slowly being awakened from sleep listening to the beautiful chanting.

Ashrams are places of worship where gurus or leaders have built temples, where their followers live. There are many different ashrams in India and the gurus often have their own style of worship. We visited Amma’s ashram in Kerala. Unfortunately Amma was not there, so most of the activity focused on pujas, meditation, and volunteer work. When Amma is there, she performs darshan in the afternoon. She then blesses and hugs each individual. This ashram receives lots of donations and uses the money to build schools, hospitals, etc.

Rebirth: Hinduism believes that the soul does not die with the body, but instead enters a second body. The goal is to achieve liberation from this endless cycle of rebirth. This liberation is called nirvana.

Karma is the effect of former actions. By living a good life, you can aspire to a higher position in life when you are reborn.

Dharma is performing the duties laid out according to your position in life.

Gods: The Trinity consists of Brahma (The Creator), Vishnu (The Preserver), and Shiva (The Destroyer).

Nandi the bull is also worshipped, especially in Southern India.

You can see these Gods and Goddesses as well as many, many more depicted on Hindu temples all over India.

So many Gods: Some Indians tell us that only the Trinity are the real Gods and the rest is myth and fiction.

Yoga is a way of self-denial and meditation to bring together the spirit, soul, and flesh. It can ultimately lead to nirvana (release from the cycle of rebirth).

Hinduism is a complex religion and this short description has only scratched the surface.

ISLAM

Islam is the second largest religion in India with over 100,000 Muslim believers. Islam became a permanent religion in 1206 by the creation of the Delhi Sultanate by Turkish powers. The victory of Turkish rulers created a 500-year period of Muslim power in India. Both Indian Islam and Hinduism were profoundly affected by the contact.

Five times a day prayers are announced from mosques. Muslims will prostrate facing the direction of Mecca to pray. The first one is announced loudly five in the morning, and more than once did we wake up then realizing that our hotel was close to a mosque. You will also often hear Muslims say "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet". The Qor’an is the holy script, the supreme authority of Islamic teaching and belief.

Islam traces its roots to 622 AD, when Mohammed migrated from Mecca to Medina. Both the Saudi-Arabian majority sect Sunni and Iran’s sect Shi’a are represented in India.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism came from early Hinduism. The Brahmin Siddharta Gautama, who came to be known as Buddha, founded a religion of meditation and religious philosophy around 550 BC.

Buddhism was originally a major religion in India, but most Buddhists were killed around 1300 AD by Muslim invaders. Today there are about 6 million Buddhists in India, mostly in Ladakh and near Nepal and Bhutan. Most Southeast Asian countries today are Buddhist.

A clear sign of Buddhism is the presence of prayer flags, which are stretched from building to building, tree to tree, etc.

Prayer wheels are found around temples and in city streets. People spin them as they walk around them clockwise.

Like Hinduism, Buddhism believes in reincarnation. But a Buddhist must attain Enlightenment by studying to ever higher levels of learning to reach Nirvana (being freed from the cycle of rebirth).

While we visited Dharamshala, we were extremely fortunate to meet His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (see travel letter #9). We also took part in two classes each day in Buddhist philosophies. Here are some examples of the teachings:

• getting angry due to wrongdoing is against the heart of Buddhist philosophy
• anger causes bad karma
• words spoken by others cannot harm our mind, since our mind has no form
• better to let life die early than to get what you want through wrongdoing
• try to overcome attachment to reward and respect
• if no attachment to reward and respect, we won’t get angry
• Mahayana or the Great Vehicle: help others obtain happiness. Lasting happiness for all beings is complete Enlightenment
• not liking others' happiness is totally contradictory to Mahayana.

Hinayana is the version of Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka and most other Southeast Asian countries; this refers to the Lesser Vehicle, where people strive for happiness for themselves only, whereas in Mahayana Buddhism, nirvana can only be achieved by helping others to become enlightened.

Peace Pagodas: The Japanese Nipponzan Mayohoj builds Buddhist shrines or stupas dedicated to world peace. There are about 30 of these peace stupas around the world outside Japan - most of them in India and Sri Lanka.

JAINISM

Jainism was created as reform movement against Hinduism around 570 BC (by the ascetic Mahavira). It has never spread beyond India and there are today about 4 million Jains.

Jains believe in the distinction between living (jiva) and non-living (ajiva). All the living are sacred – even the smallest insect – and cannot be hurt. Thus you sometimes see Jains sweep the ground before them to avoid stepping on animals by mistake. They also wrap a handkerchief across their mouth to avoid swallowing insects. They are ascetics, vegetarians, and work in commerce and banks, since almost all other businesses are considered violent.

Jain temples are typically simple on the outside, but very ornate on the inside. Mahavira is displayed in many prominent locations. There may also be Hindu Gods and Goddesses, but in much less prominent locations.

SIKHISM

Sikhism was founded around 1500 AD. There are about 18 million Sikhs in India and most of them live in the state of Punjab in Northwest India. Sikhs stand out in Indian society, since the men are typically always wearing a turban and never shave nor cut their hair. They are well educated and have been active both in the former British Indian Army and now in the Indian Army. Despite the fact that they represent less than 2% of the population, they are both politically and economically significant.

Sikhs believe that God is one, formless, eternal and beyond description. They reject idolatry and any worship of objects or images.

Devout Sikhs start each day with private meditation and a recital of the verses of Guru Nanak, the founder of the religion.

CHRISTIANITY

There are about 23 million Christians in India spread out through the entire country. About half are Protestants and most of the rest are Roman Catholics.

Christianity was brought to India as early as 52 AD, when St. Thomas landed in Kerala. Today there is still a church of St. Thomas in the state. Syrian Christians were the next to arrive, also to Kerala, in the sixth century AD. Roman Catholicism was brought to India by the Portuguese. The Jesuit St. Frances Xavier landed in Goa 1542.

PARSIS

Zoroastrians, or Parsis as they usually are called in India, fled from Iran (Persia) in the eight century AD when Islamic invaders arrived. The majority of about 100,000 Parsis lives in Mumbai (Bombay). Most of them look distinctly Persian. They are much more influential than might be expected, since Tata, India’s largest company and maker of trains, buses, trucks, owner of tea plantations, etc., is owned by Parsis.

The religion was founded around 800 BC in Persia with the single God Ahura Mazda. Fire plays an essential role marking the presence of God. Dead bodies pollute all that they touch, so they are placed in the open to be consumed by vultures.

Language	Script		        State where spoken	        Number of speakers

Indo-European Languages
Sanskrit	Devanagari	                                A few scholars
Hindi		Devanagari	Harayana
Hindi dialect	Devanagari	Himachal Pradesh
Rajasthani	Devanagari	Rajasthan (close to Hindi)
Gujarati	Gujarati	Gujarat			5.4%
Marati		Devanagari	Maharashtra		8%
Punjabi		Punjabi		Punjab			3.2%
Bengali		Bengali		West Bengal		8.3%
Oriya		Oriya		Orissa			3.7%
Assamese	Assamese	Assam
Urdu		Arabic		Jammu & Kashmir		5.7%
Kashmiri	Kashmiri	Jammu & Kashmir
Konkani		Konkani	Goa

Dravidian languages
Tamil		Tamil		Tamil Nadu		7%
Telugu		Telugu		Andhra Pradesh		8.2%
Kannada		Kannada		Karnataka		4.2%
Malayalam	Malayalam	Kerala			3.5%

Other languages
Ladakhi		Ladakhi		Ladakh
Tibetan		Tibetan		Buddhist monks