New deities

[Kalidas]

So someone gave me the advice to expand beyond Kali Maa and expand my pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. Yet sadly this is a subject I know NOTHING about. Being someone who has always worshiped God as a single monotheistic entity the idea of multiple deities is...new and some times overwhelming.

So first I am curious though. Are there Hindus who only worship one deity? Or if so is it EXTREMELY uncommon. If no or if it is uncommon, why? I was always under the impression that people stayed within their "sect" shaivites with Siva and His family, Vaishnava with vishnu and his many incarnations, Shaktas and the many forms of the divine goddess and her forms, or Smarta and well all of them.

Do you think there is much about Hinduism and even ones own spiritual growth in Hinduism that they will lose out on if they do not increase their pantheon?

How does one introduce new deities to the alter?

Are prayers done for each one separately on different days, or are all of them prayed to each day?

If you do happen to pray to many deities is there one yous till deem as "yours"(not like in a MINE and no one else's) but like in a special this to me is God( ishta deva).

See i know most of the deities have their own "gifts" to give. But I am not one to really ask for gifts of things like luck, wealth, health, happiness, etc etc. I don't even ask Kali Maa for anything specific. I just pray in devotion and just generally enjoy spending time with her, like that moment in her grace is all the gift I need. This is probably due to a bigger issue though. I have not had a lot in my life and as such don't need much to be made happy. These last 5 years have been rough like REALLY rough (they will probably go down as the worst of my life). So I have kind of developed an almost fear of good things. Like if something good happens it means something even WORSE will happen to "pay me back." Well sadly this has bleed over into my worship and I am a little afraid to ask for anything for fear that it will be taken away. better to not have a gift and lose it I guess.

Thanks for any answers ahead of time

 

[Sb1995]

It was me who told you to expand !! I'll answer your questions now!!

-It is EXTREMELY uncommon to see Hindu's that worship only one deity, you are the first one I've ever seen in my 17 years in this life
-Some people do tend to stay within their sect but there are so many deities within the shivite sect and so many deities in the vaishnava sect. I am a Shivaite but I worship Vishnu, Ram and Krishna. I don't really concern myself with the sect, I worship from both sides.
-To be quite honest, I do think you are missing out on a lot by only worshiping Kali Maa herself, you will gain so much more if you expand as I mentioned to you before.
-To introduce a deity to an alter I just said a mantra and places it and performed aarti.
-For me (and majority) prayer is done for each deity on separate days. I do Durgamata aarti every single day (Jai aambe gauri/jai jagdish hare) and I do Hanuman chalisa/aarti every Tuesday (that is his designated day for most) and Ganesh aarti every Thursday. I'll be honest and say even though I have Ram,Krishna, Sai Baba, Paravati, Shiva all on my alter it is very occasional for me to perform their aarti at home I just attend the temple on Monday (Shiva's designated day) for worship and aarti of him.
-I love every deity equally but the first deity and the one that is most present in my life is Ganeshji.
-I feel for your struggles and I'm sure once you show your heart to Ganeshji he will remove ALL obstacles and put you on the right path (He is the remover of obstacles )

I am pretty much always available so if you wan't to send me a PM/Message feel free my friend.

-Om Sai Ram

 

[Kalidas]

yes you are the one, but I tend to avoid mentioning people directly in posts so as to not start any issues. Maybe I will start small and add Ganeshji in. I will still pray to Kali Maa everyday. Maybe he can help remove my fears of being happy. It sounds weird saying that "I'm afraid to be happy."

I figured it was uncommon.

 

[Sb1995]

Trust me, even if you don't have a murti you can just print a photo and he will help you instantly. Whenever you are about to sign something, accept something etc or just need help all you need to say it "Om ganeshaya Namah" and all will be ok

 

[bp789]

My experience has been the opposite actually in that we only worship one deity. Well to be specific, we don't only worship one deity, but we primarily worship one deity.

For example, my family are Swaminarayan Hindus, and we worship Swaminarayan as God. When my parents due to their prayers and aartis and such every morning, they're consistent in that they do the same thing everyday, with Swaminarayan as the focal point. We don't really worship other deities that often (aside from Krishna since Swaminarayan Hindus believe Swaminarayan is a form of Krishna). In my family, the only time we worship other deities is during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Hanuman Jayanti, Ram Namavi, Janmashtami, etc. While we do keep small murtis and pictures of other deities like Ganesh, my family's shrine mostly consists of Swaminarayan.

 

[Sb1995]

My experience has been the opposite actually in that we only worship one deity. Well to be specific, we don't only worship one deity, but we primarily worship one deity.

For example, my family are Swaminarayan Hindus, and we worship Swaminarayan as God. When my parents due to their prayers and aartis and such every morning, they're consistent in that they do the same thing everyday, with Swaminarayan as the focal point. We don't really worship other deities that often (aside from Krishna since Swaminarayan Hindus believe Swaminarayan is a form of Krishna). In my family, the only time we worship other deities is during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Hanuman Jayanti, Ram Namavi, Janmashtami, etc. While we do keep small murtis and pictures of other deities like Ganesh, my family's shrine mostly consists of Swaminarayan.

From my experience Swaminarayan Hindu's don't typical visit regular temples and mandir's am I correct? I have only seen them at the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto. I do admit though it extremely beautiful and all marble! It's only 15-20 minutes drive away for me

 

[Kalidas]

My experience has been the opposite actually in that we only worship one deity. Well to be specific, we don't only worship one deity, but we primarily worship one deity.

For example, my family are Swaminarayan Hindus, and we worship Swaminarayan as God. When my parents due to their prayers and aartis and such every morning, they're consistent in that they do the same thing everyday, with Swaminarayan as the focal point. We don't really worship other deities that often (aside from Krishna since Swaminarayan Hindus believe Swaminarayan is a form of Krishna). In my family, the only time we worship other deities is during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Hanuman Jayanti, Ram Namavi, Janmashtami, etc. While we do keep small murtis and pictures of other deities like Ganesh, my family's shrine mostly consists of Swaminarayan.

SO I'M NOT ALONE! lol. That's cool. Again this may be chopped up to one of those, "it depends what kind of Hindu are you" things lol.

 

[Philomath]

I only worship Shiva....though I don't have an altar.

 

[bp789]

From my experience Swaminarayan Hindu's don't typical visit regular temples and mandir's am I correct? I have only seen them at the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto. I do admit though it extremely beautiful and all marble! It's only 15-20 minutes drive away for me

For the most part yeah, we mostly visit our own Swaminarayan mandirs since that's we learn about the specific prayers, aartis, and philosophy of the sect. We mostly only visit other temples for things like Holi because their festivals are larger than the ones at the Swaminarayan temples. There are actually multiple subsects of the Swaminarayan sect itself. My family is part of the Original Swaminarayan Sampraday. Our temples aren't really that lavish as the BAPS temples sadly, they're way more simple (at least in the US), although some of the ones in India are really gorgeous.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/New_Temple_Shri_Swaminarayan_Mandir_Bhuj.jpg

 

[Sb1995]

That's very interesting and good to know. I haven't talked to a Swaminarayan Hindu before so it's nice to know such things. Ya it makes sense to visit your mandirs which are marvelously made

 

[Sb1995]

I only worship Shiva....though I don't have an altar.

Just like lemaster (sorry I haven't gotten his name yet) I think it's time for you to expand as well Jude-ji!

 

[Philomath]

Just like lemaster (sorry I haven't gotten his name yet) I think it's time for you to expand as well Jude-ji!

To who though? Shiva was the Deity I immediately connected with when I became interested in Hinduism. I liked Krishna too initially but ISKCON kinda ruined it for me.

 

[bp789]

SO I'M NOT ALONE! lol. That's cool. Again this may be chopped up to one of those, "it depends what kind of Hindu are you" things lol.

Pretty much haha. I know that Hare Krishnas (ISKCON) also do the same thing in that they primarily worship Krishna. Their temples may have different forms of Krishna throughout their temple, but it's still Krishna. Actually it's not just ISKCON, but Vaishnava temples in general.

Sometimes it's not even what Hindu sect you belong to, but what your preference is. I know in India, there are people that identify as Vaishnavas, Shaivites, etc and they visit temples that only have that specific deity, but in their home shrine they have multiple deities that they pay their respects to. There are some Smartists(?) who even though they believe all the deities are essentially the same God, their home shrine primarily consists of their favorite deity just because it's easier to focus on only one form of God, rather than worry about multiple.

This issue also gets confusing when you deal with stuff like village deity, ancestral deity, personal deity, etc or when two Hindus of the different sect marry each other (although this usually isn't a problem as they just combine the practices).

 

[Kalidas]

To who though? Shiva was the Deity I immediately connected with when I became interested in Hinduism. I liked Krishna too initially but ISKCON kinda ruined it for me.

I also like Krishna. Just finished the Gita today! I know nothing of ISKCON, other than the fact that some ignorant Buddhist told me I couldn't be a Hindu because I'm white I should be a hare Krishna instead.

 

[Sb1995]

To who though? Shiva was the Deity I immediately connected with when I became interested in Hinduism. I liked Krishna too initially but ISKCON kinda ruined it for me.

Hanuman, Ganesh, Durgamata ji, Lakshmi, Vishnu, Ram Lakshman Sita, Paravati, Saraswati to name a few Ganesh is the son of Shiva so I'm sure Shiva would be happy you worship his son too

 

[Kalidas]

Pretty much haha. I know that Hare Krishnas (ISKCON) also do the same thing in that they primarily worship Krishna. Their temples may have different forms of Krishna throughout their temple, but it's still Krishna. Actually it's not just ISKCON, but Vaishnava temples in general.

Sometimes it's not even what Hindu sect you belong to, but what your preference is. I know in India, there are people that identify as Vaishnavas, Shaivites, etc and they visit temples that only have that specific deity, but in their home shrine they have multiple deities that they pay their respects to. There are some Smartists(?) who even though they believe all the deities are essentially the same God, their home shrine primarily consists of their favorite deity just because it's easier to focus on only one form of God, rather than worry about multiple.

This issue also gets confusing when you deal with stuff like village deity, ancestral deity, personal deity, etc or when two Hindus of the different sect marry each other (although this usually isn't a problem as they just combine the practices).

I married a pagan! She told she is considering worshiping Kali Maa too. Did you know Kali Maa is also a Pagan deity? I had NO IDEA!

 

[Philomath]

I also like Krishna. Just finished the Gita today! I know nothing of ISKCON, other than the fact that some ignorant Buddhist told me I couldn't be a Hindu because I'm white I should be a hare Krishna instead.

Well that was an ignorant statement made by that monk. ISKCON resembled Christianity(which I had just left) way too much for me.

 

[Kalidas]

Well that was an ignorant statement made by that monk. ISKCON resembled Christianity(which I had just left) way too much for me.

Well it was a woman and she was no monk by any means. Just your everyday white suburban hippie coming to my work. Hey I too left Christianity for Hinduism! Did we just become best friends?! YUP! Wanna do karate in the garage?! YUP! sorry

 

[Philomath]

Hanuman, Ganesh, Durgamata ji, Lakshmi, Vishnu, Ram Lakshman Sita, Paravati, Saraswati to name a few Ganesh is the son of Shiva so I'm sure Shiva would be happy you worship his son too

Hanuman is awesome. I've started liking him more and more after I watched the Ramayana movie. Idk why but I don't feel much of anything for Ganesh, but I do like Murugan. Dattatreya interests me too, but I couldn't find much info on the people who worship him.

 

[Sb1995]

Hanuman is awesome. I've started liking him more and more after I watched the Ramayana movie. Idk why but I don't feel much of anything for Ganesh, but I do like Murugan. Dattatreya interests me too, but I couldn't find much info on the people who worship him.

That is very unfortunate I hope one day that connection opens