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Hi, my name is Aashvina and I'm a Hindu. We believe in Brahman, who is the one supreme spirit. Brahman is the energy or power that created the universe and is present everywhere and inside all living things. We also believe in karma, which means everything I do - good or bad - will have consequences for me in the future.

We believe that Brahman can be worshipped in lots of different forms, which we call murtis or deities. We pray to these in our homes and in the mandir, which is what we call a Hindu temple. We have a lot of different murtis such as Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the preserver and Shiva as the destroyer. In some Mandirs they show all three together. This is known as a Trimurti.

Puja is what we call worship, and we give offerings like flowers, fruit and incense to the murtis. The priest also does an offering of fire, called an arti ceremony. Our temple has a female priest. This is very rare. She learned from her father, who was also a priest.Hindus have a lot of holy books. The authors are called the Vedas and the Upanishads, and they're mostly used by priests, but there are some like the Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita, which a lot of Hindus read for themselves.

Mostly Hindus wear whatever they like, although some like to wear traditional Indian clothes, especially on important occasions. Some men wear a sacred thread, called a yajnopavita or janeu.

We follow the principle of ahimsa, which means non-violence, so a lot of Hindus choose to be vegan or vegetarian to reduce the amount of harm they do to the world. Cows are especially holy to us, so a lot of Hindus won't eat beef, even if they do eat other kinds of meat. But today we're eating a vegetarian meal!