Preparations Before Worshipping a Deity

Rituals to create Sanskars, Religious practices. Holy and religious festivals, vowed religious observances are opportunities to put the teachings of Hindu Dharma into practice. Faith develops by following Dharmik conduct. Faith when combined with propagation of Dharma helps unite those who have fervors for Dharma.

When united, followers of Dharma can be protected from heretics. Unity will also help fufil the higher goal of establishing the kingdom. Sine this task has Divine blessings, it is considered to be samashti sandman (Spiritual practice for the spread of Spirituality) of the highest order. When vyashti sadhana (individual spiritual practice) is combined with Samadhi sadhana, God-realization can take place faster!

H.H. Dr. Jayant Athavale started writing Holy text with blessings of His Guru H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj. Imparting knowledge on Spirituality and answering the how and why of Spirituality in a scientific terminology are the main factures of these Holy text. Some Holy text contain Divine Knowledge obtained by Santana’s seekers, which is not available elsewhere on earth!

Under the guidance of H.H. Dr. Athavale, in-depth spiritual research is being conducted on ‘God-realization through Art’, ‘Spiritual remedies for distress due to negative energies’, and necessary guidance is being provided.

Puja of Deities is an easy way of abiding by achars (Conducts) set by Dharma to facilitate sadhana (Spiritual practice) of a worshipper. Puja of a deity creates a center and bhav in the mind of the worshipper. It results in showering of grace by the deity and makes the home environment more satvik. It also creates a sansker (Impression mind) of Dharma on the future generation. Preparation for a Puja is truly the foundation for the ritual of Puja. It not only purifies the worshipper, but also equips him to imbibe Chaitanya that is emitting from the puja; hence, the necessity of preparation.

Performance of a religious act is a kind of scientific experiment in the science of spiritually. Preciseness is the key to success of an experiment. Religious activities are no exception to this rule. Obviously, only when religious actives are performed with precision can we benefit from them. Precision comes from perfection, and hence, it is equally important to understand the spiritual underlying religious acts. Acts performed after understanding the underlying spiritual science generate faith. Similarly, Dharma says that ‘if a good deed is performed in an unscientific, manner, the unscientific performer too gets the benefit, though marginal’. Hence, it is essential that the religious acts be performed as per the spiritual science. Keeping in view this aspect, this Holy text elucidates the preparations to be made before a puja and their underlying spiritual science.

Various aspects that this holy text focuses on include the importance of reciting stotras (Holy hymns), chanting mantras (Please see Glossary) and the Name of God before the puja, precaution of the venue and implements in puja, drawing a rangoli (Please see Glossary) to match the Principle of the Deity, various types of asana (Seats) to be used during the puja, appropriate methods of removed the nirmalya (Withered flowers and leaves, which have been offered earlier to Deity) and wiping the pictures and ldols of Deities; so also the importance of achaman (Sipping water from the palm), Prenayam (Please see Glossary), pronunciation of desh-kal (Name of the place, date and time), making a sankalp and nays (Assigning various parts of the body to various Deities by specific postures of fingers) and importance of puja of a kalash (A metal water container), the shankh (Conch), the ghanti (Bell) and the deep (An oil lamp) just before the commencement of puja.

Our earnest prayer at the Holy feet of the Guru is-‘May the worshipper understand the importance of preparation for puja after reading this Holy, and perform puja with bhav; may he get utmost chaitanya from the puja’.-Complier