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Parikrama
Religious practice / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.[1][2][3][4][5] In Buddhism, it refers only to the path along which this is performed.[3] Typically, in Indic-religions the parikrama is done after completion of traditional worship (puja) and after paying homage to the deity. Parikrama must be done with dhyāna (spiritual contemplation and meditation).
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In Hinduism, parikrama of religious deities in a temple, sacred rivers, sacred hills and a close cluster of temples as a symbol of prayer is an integral part of Hindu worship.[3][6][7] Hindu temple architecture include various Pradakshina paths.[8] There could a parikrama path surrounding the chief deity and several other broader paths concentric to the main path, althrough it is not uncommon to find non-concentric parikrama paths. At times the outermost parikrama path covers the whole village, town, city, thereby implying that the length of the path can stretch.[6][9] Parikrama is also done around the sacred Peepal tree, tulsi (Indian basil plant), and agni (sacred fire or the fire God),[10][11] and agni parikrama is a part of the Hindu wedding ceremony.[12][13]