Very recently the author was privileged to have been invited to attend many different types of religious places of worship to attend the regular services, including the following: a Baptist church, a Muslim mosque, a Buddhist funeral, a Catholic mass, and a Sikh gurdwara. Of the above listed, one would expect to observe similarities among a Protestant, Islamic, and Catholic worship service as much as one would a Buddhist and Sikh service. The most interesting and unexpected commonalities were found between the Catholic and Sikh services.
With Catholicism being considered an Abrahamic religion, and Sikhism arising from the Dharmic religions, it was a pleasant surprise to witness and participate in similar activities in both worship services. Concern will only be given to a short discussion of differences, a consideration of the shared features in food consumption, and the main theological and philosophical ideas in reference to the food items.
The Catholic mass is a celebration of the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, also commonly known as communion or the Lord's Supper. The service consisted of sitting in European style chairs placed in rows much like pews facing the pulpit. A liturgical reading and "speak-back" is performed, individual and group concerns are presented in prayer, and then one partakes in communion to conclude the service. Having been a shorter week-day mass, components of the regular service were missing. This is in comparison to the longer, monthly Sikh service.
The Sikh gurdwara is a darsan service. Gurdwara literally means "the doorway to the guru," with guru meaning "that which brings you from dark to light." Darsan is a devotional service in which one not only perceives the divine, but is in the presence of the divine as well. The common phrase is "to see, and be seen." The service consisted of being seated on the floor in a cross-legged position around the front-side of the pulpit. Liturgical readings and "speak-backs" were performed in song fashion. After this, concerns were brought forth by the group and discussed, and then a meal was provided which had been cooked during the service.
The style of seating was cultural and inconsequential, although one could argue that the cross-legged seating was a yogic asana, and thus relevant to the psychological atmosphere of the service. The lack of music in the mass service was for convenience in relation to the daily nature of the service, as the author was told the weekly mass was much more elaborate. The music in the gurdwara was very rhythmic, keeping a steady tempo and regular duration in percussion note hits. The melodies were carried out by the voices of those in attendance and by several common Indian instruments. This very repetitious musical movement and liturgical reading was much akin to a mantra, a vocal or mental phrase used as an object of concentration during meditation. The author began to notice many of the similarities in the two services after a comparison was made between the Catholic rosaries and prayers and the Vedic mala beads and mantras.
The main feature to be discussed is the commonalities between the two rituals of food consumption. The Eucharist is a symbolic replication of the last supper between Jesus and his disciples. He commanded them to eat the bread and drink the wine they shared as if it were metaphorically Jesus' body and blood. In the Catholic service, the priest and his helpers dispersed bread and wine to those in attendance who were "in communion." At this point, in Catholic belief, a miracle of transubstantiation occurs in which the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus, if only spiritually. One is then literally in the presence of Jesus, who is the physical embodiment of God.
In the Gurdwara, one is having darsan with the Guru. In this case, Guru is different from the concept of guru as teacher. One is in the presence of and is being seen by the transcendental Guru, or God. The earthly guru is considered an avatar of God, or a physical embodiment of God. Food is offered to the Guru and is also considered to be having darsan. At the end of this service, this food has been handled by the divine, and what remains has been imbued with a form of spiritual blessing. Those in attendance eat this food, and have literally been in the presence of the Guru.
From a historical viewpoint, the similarities could have arisen from a spreading of the earlier Vedic ideas of an avatar to the Greeks and Romans as a demigod and on to influence the Judeo-Christian theology. The Greek philosophy of the Logos made its way into the Gospel of John in the Bible and was translated as "The Word," of which Jesus was an incarnation. From a psychological point of view, the commonalities could have arisen individually from a fundamental wish for a mediator, so as not to have to approach the divine oneself. The doctrine of original sin tells us we are not worthy. The Vedic philosophy of Dualism tells us we are not whole and are separated from the divine by our own ignorance. Abraham Maslow called this the "Jonah Syndrome," or the fear of one's own greatness.
Regardless of the author's conjecture of the origin of the similarities between the consumption of food between the Catholic Mass and the Sikh Gurdwara, they curiously exist.
