Mangal Mandir Jagrati Class Lesson 6 October 20, 2013 There are 10 different forms of worship.

1. Puja – ritual worship, especially of the deity 2. Arti – worshipping God with lamps. 3. Bhajan or Kirtan – singing the glories of God 4. Darshan – taking audience of a deity or holy person 5. Prasad – offering and eating sacred food 6. Pravachan – talk or lecture on the scriptures 7. Havan – the sacred fire ceremony 8. Japa/Meditation/Prayer – worshipping God in our own mind 9. Parikram/Pradakshina – circumambulation 10. Seva – active service, to the deity, holy people, etc.

When Bhajan or Kirtan is done, we sing or listen to hymns and songs. Often we use musical instruments such as tabla, kartal, harmonium, manjira and others. Our Gods and Goddesses also use musical instruments. Below are some of these musical instruments in more detail.

Damru is the musical instrument of Lord Shiva. He is seen holding damru in his Nataraja form. Tabla, Mrdangam and Dhol are often used to accompany bhajans. Each of these percussion instruments differ in their shape and the sound they produce. Both ends of Dhol are almost equal while mrdangam is bigger on one end than the other. Tabla is two separate drums played together.

Kartal and Manjira are different kind of cymbals. Mira used Kartal while singing Krishna’s bhajans.

Among string instruments, the most popular one is sitar or veena. Saraswati Maa carries a sitar. The other popular one is tanpura or tambura which is Narad Muni’s instrument. Sitar is the most ancient musical instrument of Hinduism.

Harmonium, sankha and bansuri are wind instruments. Harmonium was first introduced in India in the middle of 19th century. It was brought from France and modified to match Indian music. Now there is no temple that does not own a harmonium and no bhajan/kirtan gathering that does not use one. Sankha is Lord Vishnu’s instrument. During sagar manthan (churning of the ocean), sankha came out. Lord Vishnu took the sankha and blew on it. To this day we use sankha during aarti. Bansuri is Lord Krishna’s favorite musical instrument. When He blew on bansuri, the Gopis lose themselves in the music and would sway in dance.

Mangal Mandir Jagrati Class Lesson 6 October 20, 2013

Damru Tabla Dhol

Mrdangam Kartal Manjira

Sitar Tanpura (tambura) Harmonium

Sankha Flute (Bansuri)