A physical lamp represents you. It is not enough to just light one lamp. We need lots of lamps to be lit for knowledge to blossom and for the darkness to be dispelled. You have to light up with vibrance, with joy and full of prana (life force) and that is the real festival. And this can only happen with knowledge, not just with comforts, gadgets, money or friends.
Real happiness can be found only with knowledge. We worship Goddess Lakshmi, as a symbol of thanksgiving to Mother Divine for the protection and blessings we received in the past year. We pray to renew our connection with the divinity. Anyone who is in touch with the divinity has no dearth of anything. The divinity is everywhere but it is dormant, and puja (prayer) is the way to awaken it. The Pandits chant an ancient prayer, known to be mankind’s first prayer from the Rig Veda — the Sri Suktam. Before that, we invoke Lord Ganapati, for removal of all obstacles. Then we invoke all the divine beings into a pot of water, as part of the Kalash Puja. We seek blessings for everyone on this planet, so that they are blessed with a good mind, a good heart, a good intellect, and wisdom. Puja is that which is born out of the fullness of our hearts.
Doing anything with honour is a sign of divine love and puja is the art of honouring the divine. The ceremony of puja imitates what nature is already doing for you. Without our knowledge, the Divine worships us in so many forms. In puja, we offer everything back to the Divine as a play. Flowers, that represent our love, are offered in puja. The Divine loves you through so many forms: mother, father, spouse, children, or friends. The same love comes to us in the form of the Master to elevate us to the level of divine love, which is also our own nature. Recognising this flowering of love from all sides of life, we offer flowers. Fruits are offered, as we thank the Divine for all kinds of fruits we are blessed with in every season. You offer grain, as gratitude for the food nature provides us.
A candle light and camphor are offered; just as the sun and moon in nature nourish you, revolve around you. Incense is offered for the various fragrances we get to experience in nature. All the five senses are used in puja, and it is performed with deep feeling. Through puja, we say to God, “Whatever you bless me with, I give it back to you.”
We perform various yajnas that bring various material and spiritual benefits like they bring yasha (good name), buddhi (knowledge), vidya (education), balam (strength), ayush (long life), pragya (heightened consciousness), aishwaryam (wealth), veeryam (valour), and many more.
Goddess Mahakali represents power, Goddess Mahalakshmi symbolises the blessing of material wealth and Goddess Mahasaraswati symbolises wisdom — the three fundamental Shakti or powers are invoked this time of the year in various parts of the country. The different aspects of our life are governed by these subtle energies, and puja is a way of connecting to the subtle world. The world that we see is just a tip of the iceberg and there is so much more. What is the best way to connect with the subtle world of angels (Deva/ Devi)? We just have to sit in deep meditation and listen to the mantras; bathe in the mantras. This is called Mantra Snanam. The vibrations of these ancient chants energise our self and bring the blessings from the unmanifest.
We may not entirely understand the rituals in the puja, it is a good idea to just sit with eyes closed and absorb the vibrations. That is what is called shraddha, which simply means falling in love with the unknown. We know that there is something, but we don’t know what that is. Once we fall in love with it, we start knowing it. Then you feel, “Wow, Mother Divine is not just a concept that has come from somebody’s mind, it is a reality!”
The first step is loving the unknown and once you do that you realise that it is a part of you and not different or away from you. This is the Veda and the Vedanta, i.e., knowing the Divinity and merging into it.
The author is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and an ambassador of peace. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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