Hindu Religious Studies 11
Praise Ishwara during worship. Think of His greatness and nobility.
Worship leads us to the path of honesty and religion. One should
pray for the well-being of oneself and others during the worship.
Worship can be done individually. It can also be done collectively
with others. For collective worship everybody assembles in a temple
on a particular day of the week. Then they all pray together and utter
different mantras silently. Here is a mantra with its simple meaning
in English:
'Narayanah Parang Brahmatattang Narayanah Parah
Narayanah Para Jyotiratma, Narayanah Parah'
(Taityirio Aranyaka, 10/11/4)
Simple meaning:
Narayan is the best Brahma theory, Narayan is the absolute
Brahma, Narayan is like absolute knowledge, Naryan is the
absolute soul.
Prayer
Prayer means to want something. It also means to beg something to
Ishwara. Ishwara is the Creator. He is the sovereign Lord of this
world. We depend on His mercy for everything. He is Merciful. So
we pray to Him from the core of our heart.
Prayer is part of worship. We can pray to Ishwara even when we do
not worship. We pray to Him before we start any good work. We
also pray to Him when we are in some danger. So we can pray to
Him under any situation. But He cannot be worshipped anywhere.
As in worship, so in prayer the purity of body and mind is needed.
Sunrise, midday and sunset - these are three special times for prayer.
Generally, hands should be folded while praying to Ishwara.