Prayer and daily devotion

Hindu worship (puja) is performed daily at many home shrines as well as in temples. The deity, present in a sacred image (murti), is honoured as a guest: offered water, flowers, incense, food and light, and greeted with mantras. The ceremony often ends with arati, when a lamp is waved before the image and worshippers pass their hands over the flame and then over their eyes. Receiving darshan, the sight of the deity, is itself a blessing. Many Hindus also recite the Gayatri mantra at dawn and dusk (sandhya), repeat a divine name on a string of 108 beads (japa) or sing devotional songs (bhajan) together.

Buddhist devotion begins with homage to the Three Jewels: the Buddha, his teaching (Dharma) and the community (Sangha). Theravada Buddhists chant the Refuges and precepts in Pali before a shrine with offerings of flowers, candles and incense, the fading flowers recalling impermanence. Meditation, cultivating calm and insight, is central for many. Mahayana schools add other forms: Pure Land Buddhists recite Namu Amida Butsu in trust in Amida Buddha’s vow, Nichiren Buddhists chant the title of the Lotus Sutra, and Tibetan Buddhists repeat the mantra Om mani padme hum, turn prayer wheels and make full-length prostrations.

Jain prayer honours the qualities of liberated souls rather than asking them for favours, since the tirthankaras, having attained liberation, do not intervene in the world. The most important prayer, the Navkar (or Namokar) Mantra, bows to five kinds of supreme beings: the enlightened teachers, the liberated souls, the heads of the monastic orders, the preceptors and all monks and nuns. Many Jains perform puja before tirthankara images with eight kinds of offering, though some sects reject image worship. Samayika, forty-eight minutes of meditation and equanimity, and pratikramana, a ritual of confession and repentance, help purify the soul.

Sikhs are encouraged to rise in the amrit vela, the hours before dawn, to bathe and meditate on God’s name (naam simran), often repeating Waheguru, ‘Wonderful Lord’. The daily prayers (Nitnem) include Guru Nanak’s Japji Sahib and other compositions in the morning, the Rehras Sahib in the evening and the Kirtan Sohila before sleep. Most acts of worship end with the Ardas, a standing prayer that remembers the Gurus and Sikh history and asks for the welfare of all humanity (sarbat da bhala). In the gurdwara, the congregational singing of hymns (kirtan) is the heart of worship.

Zoroastrians divide the day into five watches (gahs), each with its prayers. Prayers are offered facing a source of light – the sun, the moon, a lamp or the sacred fire – as a symbol of the wisdom and purity of Ahura Mazda. A central daily ritual is the kusti: after washing, the worshipper unties the sacred cord and ties it again around the waist, reciting prayers in Avestan, including the Ahuna Vairya and Ashem Vohu, and renewing the choice of good over evil. At a fire temple, worshippers bring sandalwood for the fire and receive ash from the priest, touching it to the forehead.

Jewish tradition sets three daily services: shacharit in the morning, minchah in the afternoon and maariv in the evening, with additional services on Sabbaths and festivals. Their core is the Shema, the declaration ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one’, and the Amidah, a series of blessings said standing and facing Jerusalem. Some prayers require a minyan, a quorum of ten adults (in Orthodox practice, men). On weekday mornings many wear a prayer shawl (tallit) and tefillin, small boxes containing scripture. Blessings (berakhot) are also said throughout the day, over food and other everyday experiences.

Christians pray in countless forms, but almost all share the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples. Communal worship, especially on Sunday, centres for most churches on the Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, the Mass or the Divine Liturgy. Monks, nuns and clergy, and many lay people, keep the Liturgy of the Hours – psalms and prayers at set times of day, such as Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer. Catholics may pray the rosary, a cycle of prayers counted on beads; Orthodox Christians repeat the Jesus Prayer and pray before icons; and many Protestants value spontaneous personal prayer and Bible reading.

Salah, ritual prayer, is the second of the Five Pillars of Islam. Muslims pray five times a day – at dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and night – after washing in a set manner (wudu) and facing the Kaaba in Mecca. Each prayer is made up of cycles (rak’ahs) of standing and reciting the Qur’an in Arabic, bowing, prostrating with the forehead to the ground, and sitting. The call to prayer (adhan) announces the times. The Friday congregational prayer (jumu’ah), with its sermon, is a duty for men, and women may attend. Alongside salah, Muslims offer personal supplication (du’a) and remembrance of God (dhikr).

Bahá’u’lláh revealed three obligatory prayers, and every Bahá’í from the age of fifteen chooses one to say each day: a short prayer once between noon and sunset, a medium prayer three times a day, or a long prayer once in twenty-four hours, which includes standing, kneeling and raising the hands. These are said privately, after washing the hands and face, and facing the Qiblih, the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí near Akka. Bahá’ís are also asked to read from the sacred writings each morning and evening and to repeat ‘Alláh-u-Abhá’, ‘God is Most Glorious’, ninety-five times a day.

In Daoist monasteries, priests, monks and nuns chant morning and evening liturgies, reciting scriptures and hymns to the deities to the sound of bells, drums and the wooden fish. Lay worshippers visit temples to offer incense – often three sticks, raised to the forehead with a bow – before deities such as Laozi, honoured as the Supreme Lord Lao, or popular protectors and immortals, and may consult divination blocks or fortune sticks about life’s questions. Many Daoists also practise inner cultivation, from quiet sitting and breathing exercises to the internal alchemy (neidan) that seeks to refine the body’s energy (qi) and return to the Dao.

At a Shinto shrine, worshippers bow at the torii gate, then purify themselves at the water basin (temizuya), rinsing the hands and mouth. At the hall of worship they drop a coin into the offering box, may ring a bell, and follow the usual pattern of two bows, two claps and one bow, offering thanks or a quiet request before the final bow. Many homes have a kamidana, a small shelf shrine holding talismans from local and major shrines, where offerings of rice, salt and water are placed each morning. Wishes may also be written on small wooden plaques (ema) and hung at the shrine.