Seva as a prayer practice; Krishna worship in the Pushtimarg

我建议的研究项目，服务作为实践;克里希纳崇拜在普什蒂玛格，旨在应用我的博士研究在学术文章和视觉人类学。我的第一个目标是传播我在三个主要主题上的研究成果：1）祈祷作为跨文化分析的有用性，2）作为形成神圣亲属关系的虔诚方式的服务（服务），3）游戏崇拜。这三个关键主题将在本团契中进一步探讨，以展示我的对话者的日常宗教生活如何充满奇迹和神圣的游戏。Pushtimarg（恩典之路）是一个巴克提（虔诚）运动，直到最近才在全球宗教景观中被边缘化。从20世纪90年代开始，古鲁开始到印度以外的地方旅行，会见散居各地的奉献者，并举办活动讨论宗教生活。我的论文和随后的研究是在运动增加自己的知名度的时候，在一个充满张力和创新的时刻。研究印度教徒宗教生活的学者经常试图用仪式的概念来描述崇拜。在我的田野调查中，我发现许多人对使用仪式犹豫不决，因为对他们的奉献“就像”仪式，但不像他们发现的仪式那样机械。一个学术犹豫使用祈祷作为分析是它与基督教的联系。我的作品并不回避这一点，而是承认祈祷这个词的基督教根源，而不是暗示我的对话者正在发生的事情是基督教的。相反，我试图探索仪式之外的其他形式的实践。这是为了说明神圣的孩子克里希纳和他的奉献者之间建立的关系。我的工作主要集中在家庭空间。以前对普什蒂玛格和其他流行宗教的研究已经讨论了基于寺庙的崇拜。尽管普什蒂玛格运动的声誉是正统的和严格的规则周围的崇拜，我的实地考察表明，如何个人的崇拜在创造性和情感的方式在家里，并不总是遵循任何既定的规则或指导方针。在我的论文中，这个独特的视角展示了基于自发的奉献和爱的丰富的日常宗教体验。在我的发现中，神的孩子和奉献者之间建立关系的多样性类似于养育一个人类孩子的各种方式。在我的第一篇文章中，我将集中讨论到目前为止在学术文献中讨论过的seva（服务）的概念，试图表明seva作为奉献是如何被边缘化的。我的第二篇文章将是关于好玩的宗教生活的经验。我将通过人类母亲和神圣的孩子克里希纳之间的关系来看待游戏。通过印度教思想中的祈祷研讨会，我试图验证我最初的理论，即祈祷可以被承认为基督教的一部分，但可以被跨文化地应用于描述一种以关系和游戏崇拜为中心的虔诚实践。在我的田野工作中，我能够拍摄普什蒂玛格崇拜生活的一部分。通过参加短片课程，并与我现有的网络制作一部电影，我将能够探索视觉人类学，并将其作为一种方法和方式，以创新的方式向更广泛的观众展示研究。我所做的研究展示了印度教崇拜的多样性，这种多样性往往被纳入普遍的印度教思想中。印度教作为一种社会建构，由许多习俗组成，印度教徒有许多崇拜的方式。我的工作突出了解决和研究这些问题的必要性。总的来说，奖学金将为我提供一个机会，巩固我的论文研究结果，并寻求扩大我的研究与与会者从研讨会合作。电影课程和制作一部民族志短片将扩展我的研究能力，为我提供新的方法和媒体来展示未来的发现。

My proposed research project, Seva as practice; Krishna worship in the Pushtimarg, aims to apply my PhD research in scholarly articles and in visual anthropology. My first aim is to disseminate my research findings on three main themes; 1) the usefulness of prayer as a cross-cultural analytic, 2) on seva (service) as a devotional way to form divine kinship and, 3) on playful worship. These three key themes will be explored further throughout this fellowship to show how everyday religious life for my interlocutors is filled with wonder and divine play. The Pushtimarg (Path of Grace) is a bhakti (devotional) movement that has been marginal in the global religious landscape until recently. Starting in the 1990s, gurus began to travel outside of India to meeting the devotee diaspora and host events to discuss religious life. My thesis and subsequent research comes at a time when the movement is increasing its own visibility, at a moment that is both filled with tension and innovation. Researchers on the religious lives of Hindus often seek to use the idea of ritual to describe worship. In my fieldwork, I found that many were hesitant to use ritual as devotion to them was 'like' ritual but not quite as mechanical as they found ritual. One scholarly hesitation to use prayer as an analytic is its association with Christianity. My work does not shy away from this but acknowledges the Christian roots of the word prayer without suggesting what is happening for my interlocutors is Christian. Rather I seek to explore other forms of practice apart from ritual. This is to illustrate the relationship that builds between the divine child Krishna and his devotees. My work has been mostly situated in the domestic space. Previous studies of the Pushtimarg and other popular religions have discussed temple-based worship. Despite the Pushtimarg movements reputation as orthodox and rigid in their rules around worship, my fieldwork showed how individuals' worship in creative and emotional ways in the home, that do not always follow any set rules or guidelines. This unique perspective in my thesis shows a richness of daily religious experience that is based on spontaneous devotion and love. In my findings, the diversity in relationship-building between divine child and devotee was similar to the various ways to parent a human child. In my first article I will focus on the idea of seva (service) as it has been discussed in scholarly literature so far, seeking to show how seva as devotion has been sidelined. My second article will be about the experiences of playful religious life. I will look at play through the relationships between human mother and divine child Krishna.Through the workshop on prayer in Hindu thought, I seek to test out my initial theory that prayer can be acknowledged as part of Christianity but can be applied cross-culturally to describe a devotional practice that is centred around relationships and playful worship. During my fieldwork I was able to film parts of Pushtimarg worship life. By attending the short film course and working with my existing network to produce a film, I will be able to explore visual anthropology and include it as a method and a way to showcase research in an innovative way to a wider audience. The research I have done showcases the diversity in Hindu worship, that has often been subsumed in an idea of universal Hinduism. Hinduism as a social construct consists of many practices and Hindus have many ways of worshipping. My work highlights the need to address and research these diversities. Overall the fellowship would provide me with the chance to consolidate my thesis findings and seek to extend my research in collaboration with attendees from the workshop. The film course and producing a short ethnographic film would extend my research capabilities, setting me up for new methodologies and medias to showcase future findings.