Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 268 pages
• Published by: Yale University Press March 1, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0300089058
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0300089059
• Book Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 1.8 pounds

Product Review
An anthropologist-turned-believer, Stephen Huyler has dared to cross the line of objectivity and produce an introduction to Hindu religion that combines first-person detail with reverential admiration. Ten years in the making, Meeting God is the culmination of Huyler's travels throughout the Indian subcontinent, documenting in vivid photographs the panoply of Hindu devotional practices. What distinguishes Meeting God is its intimacy--through his glossy color photographs and vignettes of individual Hindus practicing their rituals, he takes the reader into a world that pulses with the power of faith. The crux of the book is puja, daily devotional practices that anchor Hindus in the divinity of the universe, whether that human being is a farmer, carpenter, engineer, or housewife. The remarkable array of different puja don't seem to interfere with modern life in India, and, as Huyler insists, actually enhance it. Given the vacuity of meaning in our own modern world, each page of Meeting God is an inspiration to deepen life. --Brian Bruya --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
For centuries, India's strict caste system prohibited many Hindus from worshipping their gods in a public way simply because lower caste Hindus could not afford the services of a brahmin (a priest). Yet Huyler, co-curator of the Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion exhibition at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, notes that these lower caste families and individuals found many ways to worship and to keep alive devotion to their own religion. In what is sure to become an enduring work, the author provides descriptions of the many devotional rituals that occupy Hindus as they seek darshan, seeing and being seen by God. In an opening chapter, Huyler explains the major concepts of Hindu devotions: puja, "a ceremonial act of showing reverence to a God or Goddess through invocation, prayer, song, and ritual"; dharma, "the supreme law of righteousness"; karma, "the doctrine of absolute responsibility"; varna, the caste system; Brahmanas, priests and their families. Using stories and photographs, Huyler describes the elements of public worship in a Hindu temple, the rituals accompanying worship in the home, the practices surrounding community festivals, processions that honor specific deities and the coming-of-age ceremonies that mark adolescence and old age. photographs grace every page: 200 in all, gorgeous full-color depictions of temples, household shrines, statuary of deities, sacred sites such as the Ganges River and people engaged in particular ritual activities and processions. Huyler's riveting prose and lavish photographs bring Hinduism and its practices to life in all their richness and diversity. (Sept.) FYI: The book will accompany an exhibition that opens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in fall 1999.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
I liked the photographic images and find it helpful that they are all in color. I was pleased to see a few pages of footnotes, although it seems more would have been helpful. So, is this text cultural anthropology? It doesn't seem objective. It doesn't seem inquiring. It's exceedingly rose-colored. Without much explanation, Huyler seems to have embraced this kind of Hinduism, although, he indicates, not having forsaken his Christianity. I don't recall his explaining how he combines the two. The kind of Hinduism he describes seems fundamentalistic even as it tolerates many gods. I found no mention of Vedanta, of any philosophical issues open within Hinduism. As Huyler describes how particular Hindus perform their devotions, was there mention anywhere of what these people had to say about their devotions and their gods, in what way (according to them, not Huyler) it helps them and in what way it is real to them. It seemed just Huyler's voice and no nuances. Amidst such apparent simplemindedness, it is hard to fathom the Upanishads, incredible to consider that Buddha once taught here and impossible to imagine that no so long agao Jiddu Krishnamurti emerged from this land. What's especially unclear is whether devotional Hinduism is as limited in dimensions (despite many gods) as Huyler presents it. Much of that seems like it could be due to his own filter. Huyler has too much to say and shares too little of what his subjects would say. Comment | | (Report this)