Sacred

with someone you love, these are all objects that could have meaning to someone, something that they consider sacred. But does the object itself hold value or the meaning behind it? If that same item was given to a random person, would it still hold the same meaning to them as it did to you? I believe an object is a representation of what is truly sacred, your character. Your character is sacred because it defines who you are as a person. There are many factors that define your character and it…

body as a transport to release emotions. As defined by webster dictionary, Sacred dance encompasses all movement that expresses or enhances spiritual experiences. There are many forms of sacred dance but they all revolve around spiritual connections within oneself and the world around them. Yoga is one form that one looks within to find inner peace to gain relaxation through different bodily positions. One section of sacred dance is called dances of imitation. This style of dancing is…

PART A The Sacred Thread Ceremony, also known in Hindu as Upanayana, is a Hindu ceremony. In Hindu culture, a person in born twice, and the Scred Thread Ceremony represents a boy’s second birth. It can be performed on a boy on any odd-numbered year in his life, usually when he is 7 to 15 years old. The Sacred Thread ceremony is the initiation ritual when a boy becomes a man; and is only performed when the boy’s parents believe he is mature enough to accept the responsibilities the Sacred Thread…

Sacred spaces can be found everywhere in our world today; they are numerous and can occur wherever one places emotion, awe, or just respect. Sacred spaces change our world today from just a place of living to a place that is important and gives purpose to our lives and humanity. They can come in many different forms and what one considers to be a sacred space another may not; however, this is part of what makes them so sacred, your connection to that spot and what it means to you on a spiritual…

article India’s Sacred Cow the author, Marvin Harris, attempts to explain the rationale behind the Indian culture’s admiration and worship of the cow, a practice which is often questioned by Westerners. He is able to illustrate that keeping cows alive is actually vital to the survival of many Indians and given their economic climate, is actually the most sustainable use of their resources. Harris brings up a number of factors that would indicate that defining the cow as sacred is a necessity…

A common consensus of a sacred place is that it encompasses a physical place. This place is a designated area where we are free to worship, release the burdens of life and verbally or physically communicate with God. More importantly, sacred places are said to be places of healing and spiritual development. As with any natural living process, organisms grow and change in sync with a rapidly evolving environment. This can be vaguely applied to the concept of sacred places which is mainly…

The Vedas are ancient scripts from an unknown religion in India, first recorded in about 1500 BCE. The four sacred text collections that compromise the Vedas are: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda. The first, Rig Veda means hymn knowledge and describes how the universe was created from a being that existed before existence, and created the universe by his sacrificing himself. From this being its pieces constructed everything known, while specific pieces were used to refer to the…

“Why the Secular Needs the Sacred,” William Kirk Kilpatrick correctly explains why society needs the sacred. Kilpatrick states that the secular cannot manage without the sacred because the sacred defines life and provides structure. Kilpatrick shows two views of authority: a contract between two parties, or roles given by the sacred. He claims that without the sacred, there is no basis for morality. Kilpatrick also cautions that if authority is not derived from the sacred, parents and children…

pervasive symbols that is associated with Hinduism, and often India as a whole, is the concept of the “sacred” cow. The purpose in placing “sacred” in quotations is because this persistent image of Hinduism and India in general is endlessly complicated in both its origins and in its applications, historically and in the present day. Many scholars have analyzed the origins and importance of the “sacred” cow, addressing it through various lenses: economic (Adcock 2010), political (Parel 1969),…

In the book The Sacred Quest: An Invitation to the Study of Religion, an example of schism was provided, “In 1947, to cite another famous example, India gained its independence from Great Britain; but in order to deal with the fears of Muslims, in particular, there had to be a partition of that subcontinent into a Muslim state (Pakistan) and a predominantly Hindu one (India)”. (Cunningham & Kelsay, 2013. p 86) In reading this it helped me understand how religions can divide a community simply…