SHIRDI SAI MANDIR

It is 9:14pm and I just returned from a Hindu puja (religious service) at the Shirdi Sai Mandir. I had visited the temple earlier in the day, and spoke to a man named Jiten (I guess that is a popular name amongst Hindu Indo-Fijians these days), and he invited me to attend tonight’s service. Jiten #2 had told me that music is performed during the service; but, it turned out not to be the case.

That being said, for several reasons, I am not disappointed about going to the puja. There definitely was a musical element to the service: the prayers were, in fact, sung, so it was very pleasant to listen to. The absence of a musical performance also made me wonder the following: If this service were held in India, would there have been a musical accompaniment? With the notable absence of music, the puja felt entirely “Indian” – although that’s not to say every puja in India has music.

It was pretty remarkable to be fully immersed in “India” in Fiji: everything from the smell of the burning incense to the flashing lights of the temple brought back profound memories from my time spent in India in the Fall of 2005. Although Suva has a concrete Indian influence, this was the first time I truly felt that I was not in Fiji.

Another interesting note of the temple: like so many other Hindu temples, this temple was laden with iconography of other religions, as in Christian crosses, stars of David, and the crescent moon with star to represent Islam (although that is misleading, as symbolism is prohibited in Islam; the crescent moon with star that is associated with Islam is just the symbol of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, but is not directly affiliated with the religion). My favorite was the two statues of Jesus and Mary, both garnished in offers just as much so as the statues of Krishna, Ganesh, and other popular Hindu gods.

There was a giant engraving that read, “Love All Serve All.” As daunting as Hinduism can be – due to its extremely complex and sometimes contradictory nature –, I am always impressed with how accepting the religion seeks to be. Hinduism tends to absorb everything around it: the teachings of Jesus, Mohammed, Gautama, you name it, are all accepted within the realms of Hinduism. Indeed, Hinduism is an all-encompassing religion; nevertheless, that ideology is not necessarily practiced throughout of the sects of the religion.