Pilgrimage and devotion to the divine mother: mental well-being of devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi |
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Authors: | Samta Pandya |
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Institution: | 1. Centre for Social Justice and Governance, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400088, Indiapandya.samta19@gmail.com |
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Abstract: | Based on a study of 10,354 devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi, a popular shrine in North India, this article focuses on how devotion to the Mata, and undertaking the arduous pilgrimage regularly, contributes to the happiness and mental well-being of her followers. Their scores on the Mature Religiosity Scale (MRS) were high. Analyses of variance showed that religiosity scores, duration of being a devotee, education and pilgrimage frequency influenced their subjective happiness and mental well-being. Logistic regression models showed that those who had better education, belonged to the higher economic class, were devotees of the Mata since a long time, undertook the pilgrimage annually, had higher MRS and Gratitude Questionnaire scores were more likely to have higher scores on Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, and hence better mental well-being. This in general corroborates the positive relationship between religiosity, devotion and well-being, and specifically, the literature on well-being promoting potential of pilgrimage. |
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Keywords: | Pilgrimage devotion mental well-being religiosity Mata Vaishno Devi |
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