Where is puja practiced

How are the five senses used in Hindu worship in the home? By hearing the bell and the chanting, touching the objects in the shrine, seeing the murtis and the arati lamps, tasting the food and smelling the incense. Worship in the home puja For daily devotion, many Hindu families have a home shrine , often in a corner of the best room in the house. For this a Hindu needs the following: Object Use in worship Sense Bell To awaken the god or goddess and symbolise the beginning of the worship.

Hearing Food To make a gift, fruit or other food is placed in the shrine as an offering to the deity. Tasting Murti An image of the god or goddess being worshipped. A priest will then take a lamp, known as the arati lamp, to devotees who cup their hands over the flames and touch their eyes and faces, bringing the light and warmth of the deity to themselves Flood Finally, the devotees accept turmeric powder or white ash from the priest to mark their foreheads and the puja is over.

Puja tends to vary in rituals in different places. At the famous temple of Guruvayur on the Kerala coast, which attracts many thousands of pilgrims, five daily pujas are performed Flood They occur between dawn and sunset.

Many wonder, how a Hindu chooses to decide which deity shall be the object of his or her devotion. While there is no one simple answer to the question, some generalizations do exist. First of all, there are several kinds of deities. For most of these deities a devotee simply cannot decide.

The decision is made by the circumstances of his or her birth. Hindus also celebrate many festivals throughout the year. Most of these festivals include puja, darsana, and devotion shown toward the respective deity.

But, some of these festivals are more prominent in certain areas than others. Puja for the goddesses Durga and Sarasvati are usually celebrated more and with particular fanfare and devotion in Bengal. On the other hand, birthday of the elephant-headed deity, Ganesa, is special to Hindus of Maharastra and Rajasthan region of India Kumar Having lived in Bangladesh, I have seen the importance of Durga Puja in the region. It is known to be one of the biggest holidays for Hindus in Bangladesh.

As previously mentioned, expressing bhakti, which means devotion, to a deity is what makes puja an integral part of Hinduism. Bhagavad-Gita, which is revered as one of the most important texts of Hinduism, recommends spiritual paths as well as quiet contemplation to achieve salvation.

Yoga, which means union, is methods that can be used to live spiritually. Yoga allows people to perfect their union with the divine Molloy Out of the major forms of yoga, Bhakti Yoga is closely related to puja.

It is known as the devotional yoga. During the early transitions of Hinduism, around C. While the vatakalai emphasized the Sanskrit scriptures and salvation through traditional bhakti-yoga, the tenkalai emphasized the Tamil scriptures and surrender to the lord by his grace.

According to Ramanuja, who was an early Hindu theologian, bhakti yoga entails both love and knowledge in a shape in which a person is completely submissive to god.

This means that the self must take refuge or surrender at the feet of the deity. Medicine Buddha practice is important and helpful is so many ways. People associate it just with sickness and healing the body, but it is also very powerful for purifying and healing the mind. It helps purify broken vows. It is very powerful for purifying negative karma and for success in any activity we wish to engage in, including business, helping in court cases, preventing violence.

And of course the most important success is to have the realizations of the graduated path to enlightenment. And this practice is extremely beneficial for the dead and dying. Medicine Buddha Pujas are performed for the sick, for the dying and for the deceased. The knowledge that there is indeed something we can do for those who are sick and dying can be especially comforting during a time when we may feel helpless. So if you want to help yourself, your family, your friends, those who are sick or dying, and sentient beings in general, come along to the Medicine Buddha Puja.

Bring some offerings of flowers, fruit, biscuits and candles to increase the merit. Medicine Buddha Pujas are conducted in English. The offerings should be as extensive and as beautiful as possible, and done in order to benefit all sentient beings. This is an offering to the Guru that is performed twice a month, on the 10th and 25th of the lunar calendar.

Although it is a practice of highest yoga tantra, Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche encourages all students to attend if they have faith in tantra. In addition to such deities a system of reverence was also invented to get protection from every element of the environment of the earth. Trees, soil, rivers, hills, animals, reptiles, birds, all became objects of reverence in the Vedic period.

There is a multiplicity of religious books. The system of worship was designed to please a particular deity for obtaining some blessings and rewards. This Puja is for fulfillment of human desires, wants, freedom from sufferings, for off-springs, for marriage, rise in status and position, for health, wealth, and other desires. According to Ramayana even Raja Ram took recourse to this yagya and the horse of the yagya was caught by his children Lav and Kush which triggered a war between father and sons.

Yagya is an elaborate system of Puja which is practised even today with a particular purpose.