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■ Puja -- An Interpretation
by Swami Aksharananda
(Source: Caribbean Jahaji Vol. 1 No. 4)

…puja must be located in the deeper context of
Bhakti, at the heart of which lies the relationship
between the bhakta (devotee) and Bhagavan (deity)

It is not uncommon to hear Hindus remark that it is difficult to comprehend our rituals in general, and particularly that most widespread devotional ritual form of worship we call puja. This lack of understanding has sometimes led to frustration, alienation, or worse, cynicism. The following series of short articles is designed to meet this need for meaning.

Rituals, myths and symbols by which humans communicate religious experience and truths are complex phenomena encoding a range of meanings at a variety of levels.

Meaning is not merely a lexical or grammatical translation of the ritual text, that is, what is said and done in the ritual performance. More important than the purely discursive, analytical and rational, meaning is emotive and intuitive. One feels and experiences it. Bhava is the key.

Religion and the religious experience must be the context from which we begin and end the quest for the meaning of any religious act. For example, just as how psychology must be the basis for understanding psychological phenomena, so too must religion and the religious experience be the basis for understanding the religious phenomena.

In interpreting a religious act, as in the case of puja, both text and context must be investigated and understood. Hence to have an insight into its significance, puja must be located in the deeper context of Bhakti at the heart of which lies the relationship between bhakta (devotee) and Bhagavan (deity). To attempt to understand puja outside the field of Bhakti is futile.

Puja, whether we "understand" the text or not, is not "mindless ritualism" as many contend.

Puja consists essentially of what is said and what is done, of mantra or sacred speech and mudra or sacred action and gesture. The power of mantra is in the sound itself, which contributes to the process of transformation of the worshipper. Mantra is understood as the sonic manifestation of reality or shabdabrahman. Mudras, on the other hand, reinforce the transformative power of the mantra.

The environment of sacred speech (mantra) and sacred gesture (mudra) is accompanied by the involvement of all the human senses. The sight of vivid bright colors of flowers etc.; the smell of incenses, perfumes, and sandalwood (chandana); the sound of bells and conches; touching the articles of worship such as turmeric paste (hardee) and water; and finally the taste of sacred food or drink ensure that the total person is concentrated in the act of worship. All of these enhance the total sacred environment which conveys meaning and which helps to bring about spiritual rejuvenation in the worshipper.

The fundamental understanding underlying this form of worship is that in reality there is no radical disjuncture between human and the divine. Puja is a dynamic movement toward identity between deity and worshipper. Both the worshipper and the deity enter into and share in a common space and time sanctified by acts of purification and by the presence and power of the deity. The journey of the devotee to the heart of God is simultaneously the journey of God into the heart of the devotee.

Hence the goal in puja is to reinforce, re-establish, and re-enact the primordial relationship between the worshipper and God. The worship (puja), the worshipper (pujari), and the worshipped (pujaka) are all merged together in a common process and experience in which the mundane ordinariness of the devotee is radically transcended.

Puja, therefore, posits a unitive state of being, the great origin or womb to which all existence seeks to return. Whether through the celebratory offerings or yajna which dominated the Vedic vision of reality and liturgy; or the identification of Atman and Brahman through Yoga in the Upanishads; or through the Gita’s path of the consecration and renunciation of the fruits of all actions; or through the grace of Bhakti, the religion of love, there is a continuous theme of integration and a quest for the origin and center of being.

The ritual worship of puja draws all these strands together into one magnificent expression of the human endeavour for wholeness and an end to alienation from the sustaining source of being. Speaking of the ritual as a context for this integrative experience, Heinrich Zimmer, (Artistic Form and Yoga in the Sacred Images of India: 1984, p216) observes:

The experience of this oneness is not to be gained through a mere act of reflection; a genuine assimilation of it can only be the result of a transformational process that - like all puja - demands the total effort of the whole man. The limits of the individual human existence must not only be surmounted in thought, but dissolved and eliminated in the ritual; for the return of the divine from Its differentiation to suprapolar oneness is no flight of fancy, but an actual transformation within the realm of Being.

It is this transformation-in-encounter that puja brings about by providing the sacred nexus or space for the dramatic confrontation between worshipper and the deity.

■ Puja as Structure
by Swami Aksharananda
(Source: Caribbean Jahaji Vol. 1 No. 5

In Part 1 (Caribbean Jahaji, Aug., 1996), of this series, conditions for the interpretation of Puja were presented. Among other things, it was seen that Puja provides the sacred environment of space and time in which the bhakta and Bhagavan are brought into relationship. In this issue, in Part 2, we will look at Puja as a structure.

This act is accompanied by the mantra:

apavitra pavitro vaa sarvaavasthaam gato’pi vaa
yah smaret pundariikaasham sa baahyaabhyantarah shucih

This space itself is further divided into three principal zones of increasing sacredness, from the periphery to the center:

an outer zone consisting of the area occupied by the participating audience;

an intermediate zone consisting of the area occupied by the yajamaana and the purohita; and

an inner zone demarcated by the chauk or mandala at the center of which stands the Kalasha or Kumbha.

While the space on the ground is structured into these three zones, the text of the puja is also similarly conceived. In this case, the outer zone consists of rites of purification leading to a gradual separation of the worshipper from the mundane spatial and temporal existence into the sacred realm of the ritual.

In the intermediate zone, the worshipper meets with a number of subsidiary or guardian deities: Agni, Prithivi, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Varuna whose worship further prepares the worshipper for the central encounter.

The text then enters the third and final zone, the most sacred chamber of the structure where the transformative encounter with the pradhaana devata or principal deity occurs. Here, offerings are made to the deity and it is here also that the principal item of exchange, naivedya or ordinary food, is transformed into prasaada, the consecrated food of grace.

There is a parallel relationship between the spatial and textual structure of the puja and other sacred structures of worship: the structure of the mandir, the structure of the mandala, and the structure of the sacred geography of Teertha/teerat.

Space on the whole is not a uniform homogeneity, it varies from point to point. From the Hindu perspective, some spaces are qualitatively sacred, holy ground set aside from ordinary, mundane space. Such spaces are marked by the presence of sacred objects and structures. The Ashvattha (banyan) tree, the Maanasarovara lake, the Amaranath cave and all temples are examples of such sacred presence.

The Hindu temple has a tripartite structure consisting of zones of increasing sacredness situated around the center. The outermost zone is known as the mandapa or mukhyamandapa. In this zone, the person who enters the temple will first meet with guardian deities lokapalas and dvaarpaalas.

The intermediate zone of the temple is known as antarala or gudhamandapa. Here one meets another series of deities or family deities related to the principal deity of the temple.

Finally, comes the most sacred zone, the garbhagriha or literally the womb-house, where the principal deity is located.

The mandala, which in simple terms is a diagramatic representation of the cosmos, also shows a similar spatial configuration. All sacred spaces are based on such mandalas. For example, the mandala for a temple, or any sacred construction, is known as the vaastu-purusha-mandala, that is, the plan that links the cosmic person or purusha with the local site known as vaastu.

The central four (or nine) squares, the nucleus of the mandala, are known as Brahmasthaana, the foundation of Brahma. The outermost perimeter of the vaastu-mandala is a space occupied by 32 deities known as padadevataas. Between the perimeter and the nucleus is an intermediate rim in which can be found 12 other deities known as aadityas.

In the same way, the teertha, both as a journey into the heart of the sacred and the sacred site itself, is constructed in zones which increase in sacredness as saadhaks make their way from the periphery to the center. The best example of this is the sacred city of Kaashi, the City of Lights.

The city is ringed by several sacred zones starting with the Panchakroshi road, which marks the outer limits of Kaashi. The innermost site is known as madhyameshvara, lord of the center, occupied by Shiva himself, who is also Kailaasheshvara, the summit above the center.

Between the two are a number of intermediate spaces through which every pilgrim to Kaashi must pass in order to reach the Lord of the center.

(Note from Vidya Bharati, New York: As a Hindu courtesy, we request that credits be given to the author and publisher whenever this article is used.)