Do Hindus have specific prayer times?

Do Hindus have specific times in the day to pray as well? You’d be surprised that we do & here’s the tea.

Technically, both the Vedas & their essence in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita say that all the actions & work we do should be considered an offering to God to free us from their effects, called karma, and we should be remembering Him at all times, so any time during the day is great for meditation.

But long answer, if you go to our Vedas, you’ll see roots of the practice called as Sandhya Vadanam, which points to the 3 sandhyaas or transitions during the day - the dawn before sunrise i.e. prataha, the mid-day i.e. madhyana & just before sunset i.e. sayam.

The way in which we should pray at these junctions was designed with the scientific knowledge of our body’s circadian rythm clocks to keep us productive & focused throughout the day.

We start with achamana & marjana which are like the pre-gaming purification rituals before the actual prayers, done by reciting mantras while sipping water, touching different parts of the body, and sprinkling water over ourselves.

You then do Pranayama which is moderating your breathing, followed by Sankalp which is you declaring your intent to pray & prepping your mind to go into meditation mode.

Then we recite the Gayatri Mantra which is the foundation of this practice & it’s interesting to note here that it’s not just said in the morning but also in the evening because we’re not praying to the actual Sun but rather the deity called Savitra, which is the divine light that’s more than the physical light we see. The term Gayatri comes from the musical technique or metre with which it was composed.

You then do Arghya i.e. offering water to God as a symbollic sacrifice, followed by a concluding prayer called as Upasthana for Surya or Agni Dev.