Interview with Aparna

For my seventh blog I conducted an interview with a Hindu student at ECU named Aparna Satsangi to gain further insight into the practices and beliefs of Hindus. Bear in mind that there are many different types of Hindus and the beliefs of one do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of all. Aparna is an 18 year-old Indian female and full-time student. I was referred to Aparna by fellow night class student Eddie Sanderlin. Setting up the interview simply involved me e-mailing Aparna to see if she would agree to do an interview, which she did. We set a date, time and location and were on our way. I had never met Aparna previously and as such I was a little nervous beforehand. I had outlined several topics on which I wished to know more about and used them as jumping-off points to open up a dialog between her and myself.


I began the interview by asking Aparna what form of Hinduism she and her family practiced. She said that she was a Kyasth Hindu and that her family comes from Northern India, more specifically the Rajasthan region. She is a vegetarian and primarily worships the deities Krishna and Ganesha. I asked her how she goes about her worship practices and she stated that in her dorm she has a stone Ganesha deity to which she prays. The deity is set on an altar in her dorm with a red dot upon it. In front of the deity incense is placed as well as sweets and rock sugar. The purpose of the sweets and rock sugar is to act as sustenance for the deity as well as to demonstrate her devotion to the deity.

One noteworthy aspect of Hindu belief is that Hindus treat the deities as though they are living. The deities are as real to them as Christ is to Christians. Similarly, in Thailand and Siam there is a cultural tradition of giving thanks to the “Rice Mother” by offering to her the rice that has been harvested (Content4reprint, 8). “Even when not directly concerned with the cultivation of rice, the Rice Mother must be propitiated. At the end of a meal children often raise their hands palm to palm in thanksgiving to the Rice Mother. It is said that her ire is incurred if, when eating, one allows grains of rice to fall to the floor, or if these grains are stepped on, or leftover rice is discarded. If one wishes to criticize the way rice has been cooked, one must beg the Rice Mother's pardon first and then politely make one's complaint” (Content4reprint, 8). I followed this up by asking what some of the rituals, traditions and ceremonies were that she personally observed. She answered this by saying that there are many different traditions and ceremonies that she observed, but there were two that were of particular importance. Firstly, there is Divali which is the Hindu festival of lights. Divali takes place around what non-Hindus would term “Christmas time”. The focal point of Divali is the making of homemade candles. The reasoning for this being that long ago the poor did not have money to worship in the same fashion as Brahmin and members of higher castes. To make-up for this the poor would make their own lamps and put them around there homes to welcome the gods. The timing of this holiday is based on the lunar calendar. Secondly, there is the celebration of Holi. Holi is the spring-time celebration of color. Followers gather together for a meal and afterward cover each other and powdered colors.


I then asked Aparna what some of the key principles of her system of belief were to which she responded with a whole host of key principles. In Aparna’s system of belief there is heavy emphasis on respect for elders and loyalty to family. She also pointed out that unlike monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Hinduism is polytheistic and has many gods and goddesses. Overall she said, “The most important things to me are respect, following tradition and being content with the self.” With that I thanked Aparna for allowing me to conduct an interview with her. I felt it a valuable experience that allowed me to connect with an actual practitioner of the subject I had been studying instead of just reading countless pages of text on the subject.