oom of the home” (Wangu 11). “The puja ritual keeps Hindus aware of their gods andmindful of their duties as individuals” (11). The most sacred setting for puja is the temple (11). “The temple is the house of god and a link between human existence and the divine” (11). It isthe center of the Hindus lives (Berry 40). Most importantly, the temple is a place of passage fromthis world to the next (40).Hindu society was divided into four major castes based on a persons occupation andfinancial whereabouts. The four main castes were Brahmins, priests; Kshatriyas, knights andnobles; Vaishyas, skilled workers, artisans, and merchants; and Sudras, laborers (Wangu 125).Mastrangelo 4 The Hindu caste system was supported by Dharma (Wangu 12). Dharma insisted that a certaincaste had certain duties in society (12). If a person did not carry out these duties they were considered sinners (12). The Hindus believe that if a person performs their duty unquestionably,a balance could be made in the world and humans could exist in peace (12). Sinners werebelieved to be responsible for upsetting the balance of life in the universe. The caste system wasimportant because it divided a person’s karma (Wangu 125). “Karma is the good and bad deedsor acts in a person’s previous or present life which will determine the quality of the nextincarnation” (125). Karma is thought of as a person’s fate or destiny. Rituals performed and celebrated from the time of conception to the moment of death arecalled samskara (Wangu 111). Hindus practice samskara traditional rites of passage to mark thetransitions a person makes as he/she gets older (Srinivasan 67). The life of an individual is dividedinto four stages: childhood; student life; householder, married; and denial of material things inpreparation for the final years (67). Since these stages are common, Hindu priests also marry andraise a family (...
