The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9.26 offers a beautiful description of a simple puja in which Lord Krishna says that even a leaf, flower, fruit or water if offered with unconditional love and devotion is sufficient and pleasing to God.
Hindu rituals, from the elaborate to the very simple, are conducted both at home and at temples. Rituals include homa or havan, yajna, and puja, all of which draw together all the five senses thereby centering the attention of the devotee performing the ritual and calming the devotee’s heart and mind through adoring focus of the chosen deity (deities) being invoked and worshiped in the ritual.
It is this Divine cosmic principle which is worshipped in rituals like puja in one’s favorite form/s (Ishta Devata) of the devotee in a fairly short time period on a daily basis as a spiritual practice (sadhana) fostering discipline and devotion. This allows the devotee to set aside a given amount of time each day to remember and cultivate a personal connection to their favorite form of the Divine.
Objects and actions offered in puja to the Divine act as vessels of the devotee’s faith and spiritual energy, which allow direct communication and interaction with the Divine. Puja is considered to be a technique or discipline for fostering the spiritual growth of a devotee by facilitating action (karma), devotion (bhakti), knowledge (jnana), and focus and introspection (raja or dhyana), all of which is offered with humble and loving surrender to the Divine.
In any puja, the devotee treats their Ishta Deva as a revered guest in their home and heart, welcoming them with hospitality, serving them with love, and finally sending them off courteously back to their abode, seeking their blessings throughout the process.
There are numerous forms of worship among Hindus, of which Puja is one of the more popular; Panchopachar (05) Dashopachar (10) Shodasopachar (16) Rajopachar Dwatrishopchar (32) Chatushashtipochar (64) and Ekodwatrinshopchar (132). There is, of course, diversity in practice and the way in which different steps might be sequenced or grouped depending on sampradaya and deity tradition, as well as regional, community, and family tradition.
The traditional 16-step puja is called the Shodashopachara Puja. The main purpose of this type of Puja is two-fold. Primarily it is to uplift the five senses of the worshiper and by doing so elevate him to a higher level of consciousness that will promote good thoughts and actions. Secondarily it draws upon the Indian traditions of honoring a guest, wherein each upachara is a service to the deity who takes presence in the sculpture for the duration of the Puja.
Avahanam and Dhyanam; This is the invocation to God. We are going invoke one of His forms and going to announce what are all activities we are going to do. We will then briefly meditate on that form. The offerings;
Asanam; This is providing a seat or broadly a shelter. Again, in Indian homes that first thing after greeting a guest is to provide them with a seat. In Puja, we pick up a form [Ganesh, Shiva, Krishna etc] and then establish the seat of that Puja (you can see the first image if you scroll down).
Padhyam; The first thing before you enter a home you have to wash your feet. This is something not found in the modern west, but very important in India. The feet is unclean due to walking outside in dust. We symbolically wash the feet of the altar.
Arghyam; This is an offering that washes one’s hands. Hindus ritually wash their hands a number of times a day (possibly an evolutionary response to a disease prone tropical environment).
Achamaniyam; This is the ritual cleaning of mouth. Throughout the day we acquire a range of sin through bad/harsh speech and practically we also add a lot of different foods. This offering cleans the mouth.
Madhuparkam; This is a refreshment drink. Could be made with honey, ghee, curd etc. This gets you charged up before the bath.
Snanam; this is the ritual bath. An important portion of Hindu rituals. And for Puja, we do a bath of the divine form with a variety of items with Rudram where for each Anuvakam (stanza) you bath the idol with a different material (milk, honey etc) or with a different type of vessel.
Vastram; Now that you have taken your shower, the next obvious thing is the clothes. For guests or for God, we prepare new clothes to offer.
Yajnopavitam; this is a sacred thread worn over your left shoulder going across the torso. Before an important occassion the sacred thread is changed.
Abharanam; jewellery offering. Usually substituted with rice coated with turmeric.
Gandham and Haridra Kumkum; sandalwood paste for sweet fragrance and grounded turmeric as germicide. It feels cool on the body and according to ancient Indian medicine ( Ayurvedic), we need to balance heat and cold in the body.
Akshata; this is raw rice mixed with grounded turmeric. This is a very holy mix that impresses the eyes as well as nose.
Pushpam; this is an offering of flowers while chanting a quality of the God with 8/12/16/108 types of mantras. You make your guest happy by saying various nice things about him/her.
Dhoopam; this is by burning fragrance sticks and other incense materials. This puts the mood in a positive, calm state.
Dheepam; it is an offering of an oil lamp, providing light to the room improving the ambience
Naivedhyam and Thambulam; Now our God is all cleaned up and the ambience is set, now time to offer food. We offer a range of fruits and sweets. And finally end up with betel-nut leaf for digestion.
Karpoora Neerajanam; This is an offering of showcase of the divine form with burning of camphor. This is when the devotee gets into a state of excitement ready to approach meditation. This also called as aarti and is usually the pinnacle of the Puja.
Among these sixteen services, five hold more importance than the rest. Together these five services are referred to as the pancha upacharas, and include gandha, pushpa, dhoopa, deepa and naivedya. Collectively, these five services engage the five senses.
Panchopachara is a paradigm of making offerings which consists of Five items representing the five elements of which the universe is comprised. Gandha; sandalwood paste or scent of some kind symbolic of the earth. Puṣpa (flowers); symbolic of the ether. Dhupa (incense); symbolic of the air. Dipa (a lamp); symbolic of the fire. Naivedhya (a food offering of some sort); symbolic of the water element.
When the external senses are put through a proper experience, the 6th sense; the mind, can now focus on the divinity. Unlike in a few other religions, Hinduism asks you to not to meditate directly. The mind needs to be calmed and cooled, before it can meditate. That is what the Puja steps are for. Besides these the following are also used in more elaborate pujas:
Chatram; an umbrella, Vadhyam / Ghanta; playing musical instruments, Sangeetham; singing, Chamaram; a long brush used to whisk off insects and dust, Panchamrit (The mixture of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar). Flowers are a big part of pujas / require flowers for various stages of the worship. Our saints and poets sing of offering various flowers to their Gods. Tyagaraja sings of offering “lotus, various types of jasmine, champaka, lilies” apart from the sacred Tulasi in his “tulasi dhala”.
Some special leaves such as Bilva/Vilva (for Shiva), as well as grass like arungampul (for Ganesha) join their flower-brethren in these pujas. A beautiful verse attributed to Srimad Vedanta Desikar, states that, more than the flowers collected from nature, Bhagavan Vishnu prefers the following pushpa (flowers)
अहिंसा प्रथमं पुष्पं पुष्पम् इन्द्रिय-निग्रहः
सर्वभूत-दया पुष्पम् क्षमा पुष्पं विशेषतः
ज्ञानं पुष्पं तपः पुष्पं शान्तिः पुष्पं तथैव च
सत्यम् अष्टविधं पुष्पं विष्णोः प्रीतिकरं भवेत्
The shloka enlists 8 flowers we can offer from our mind; which is both pleasing to the Lord and will also purify us. The flowers are Ahimsa (non-violence in thought, words and action towards all creatures), Indriya nigrahah (sense control and reigning in the mind), Sarva bhuta daya (compassion and empathy towards all), Kshama (forgiveness ), Jnanam (knowledge, especially self-knowledge), Tapah (living a life of austerities and meditation), Shanti (peace even in the middle of samsara) and Satyam (abiding in truth in all conditions). While physical flowers are great and should continue, we should try to offer these Maanasa pushpani throughout the day, not just during our puja.
In these ritual forms of worship, a murti (deity; literally, manifestation which is three-dimensional) or two-dimensional image serves as an embodiment of the Divine, invoking the idea of that form and its attributes in the mind of the devotee. They are focal points designed to be aides in meditation and prayer. Hindus do not consider God to be limited to the murti, but it is a sacred symbol that offers a medium for worship. The murti or image thus serves as a powerful tool for contemplating the nature of the Divine.
Murti are also considered to house the power or energy of the Divine, which is infused as life-breath into the murti during a ceremony called prana prathishtā, and withdrawn at the end of ceremonious worship, when the murti is immersed in water during what is called a visarjan. Visarjan is also done without water when the Deity is released from the form that it was invoked in, so is a generic term used to conclude a puja for deities that do not have a permanent pratishta.
Picture information; Shri DurgaMadhav Yatra (ShaktaGundicha) during 16 Days Dasera Utshava (Shodashopachara Puja) Shri Jagannath Temple Puri
Authored by Dr Anadi Sahoo
