Prayer in Hinduism

Prayer or worship is considered to be an integral part of the Hindu religion. The chanting of mantras is the most popular form of worship in Hinduism. Yoga and meditation are also considered as a form of devotional service towards the Lord. The Picture to the right represents the Aum sign, which is a sound of peace.

The Vedas are a collection of liturgy (mantras, hymns)

The Hindu devotional Bhakti movements emphasizes repetitive prayer. Stemming from the universal Soul or Brahman, prayer is focused on the personal forms of God, such as Shiva, Vishnu, or Vishnu's Avatars, Rama and Krishna.

Before the process of ritual, before the invoking of different deities for the fulfillment of various needs, came the human aspiration to the highest truth, the foundational monism of Hinduism, pertaining ultimately to the one Brahman. Brahman, which summarily can be called the unknowable, true, infinite and blissful Divine Ground, is the source and being of all existence from which the cosmos springs. This is the essence of the Vedic system. The following prayer was part and parcel of all the Vedic ceremonies and continues to be invoked even today in Hindu temples all over India and other countries around the world, and exemplifies this essence:

Shiva

Shiva (/ˈʃivə/; Sanskrit: Śiva, meaning "The Auspicious One", also known as Mahadeva ("Great God"), is one of the three major deities of Hinduism. Shiva is in the form of Vishnu and Brahma yet one with them. He is Anant, one who is neither found born nor found dead. He is the Parabrahman within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism. He is one of the five primary forms of God in the Smarta Tradition, and "the Transformer".

At the highest level, Shiva is regarded as limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. Shiva also has many benevolent and fearsome forms. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash, as well as a householder with wife Parvati and his two children, Ganesha and Kartikeya, and in fierce aspects, he is often depicted slaying demons. Shiva is also regarded as the patron god of yoga and arts.

The main iconographical attributes of Shiva are the third eye on his forehead, the snake Vasuki around his neck, the adorning crescent moon, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the trishula as his weapon and the damaru as his musical instrument. Shiva is usually worshiped in the aniconic form of Lingam. The worship of Shiva is a pan-Hindu tradition, practiced widely across all of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Shankar Mahadevan

Shankar Mahadevan (born 3 March 1967) is an award-winning composer and playback singer who is part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy composing trio team for many Indian films. He is a four-time winner of the National Award: three times for Best Male Playback Singer and once for Best Music Director. Mahadevan founded the Shankar Mahadevan Academy, which provides online music lessons in Indian music for students worldwide. In 2015, he made his debut as an actor in the Marathi film Katyar Kaljat Ghusli, a film adaptation of a 1960 stage classic by the same name.

Early life

Mahadevan was born and raised in Chembur, a suburb of Mumbai, into a Tamil family from Palakkad, Kerala. He learned Hindustani classical and Carnatic music in childhood, and began playing the veena at age five. Mahadevan studied music under Shrinivas Khale, a Marathi composer, and attended Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School (OLPS) in Chembur. He subsequently attended SIES College in Sion, completing his HSC. Mahadevan graduated in 1988 with a degree in computer science and software engineering from the Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology in Navi Mumbai, affiliated to Mumbai University, and was a software engineer for Oracle. His wife Sangeeta is Maharashtrian and oldest son Siddharth Mahadevan, also a singer, made his debut on the 2013 Bhaag Milkha Bhaag song "Zinda". His youngest son, Shivam Mahadevan, also a singer made his debut in 2013 Dhoom 3 song Bande Hain Hum Uske. Mahadevan is fluent in Marathi, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and English.