Praying to Vedic Deities

[namahsivaya]

Namaste all,

Does anybody here pray to any Vedic deities occasionally or on a regular basis? I have been thinking about doing a simple puja to Indra, Varuna, Vayu or another Vedic deity every week or so in addition to the Shiva and Ganesha pujas that I do.

From my understanding, most worship of the Vedic deities involve specific rituals like making offerings into a fire and such, but I would just like to do a simple puja.

I know this is probably not a common practice, but does anybody have any good prayers or mantras to any Vedic deities? My simple puja would just involve an invocation with prayers and mantras, personal prayer, and offerings of prasad. Should I look into buying a murti of a specific deity that I would do puja to, or would that be too hard to find? I might just print out a nice picture from the internet and do puja to that.

Any prayers, mantras, advice, or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.

Aum Namah Sivaya

[Sahasranama]

Varun puja is done in the kalasha kumbha.

Indra puja during lokapala puja.

Agni puja is done before starting agnihotra.

[sm78]

Puja would not be a right way to practice the vedic religion. As sahasranama has pointed, some of the vedic gods have been adopted in pujas but in a subsidiary role.

My own belief is you will dilute the puja by including vedic gods for which they are not intended.

Only way to respect the vedic religion imo, is to learn it and practice at least the very basic duties of sandhya vandanam (contains lot of prayers to agni and surya) and the daily home fire ritual - agnihotra or aupasana, depending on your ashrama - and maintain the fire. I now believe that only brahmins should do these practices, others can read the vedas and draw inspiration, or follow some veda inspired prayers.

Puja and vedic rituals are based on two completely different (almost opposite) understanding of the role of a ritual. They should not be confused with one another - like the smartas do all the time.

[Sahasranama]

Only way to respect the vedic religion imo, is to learn it and practice at least the very basic duties of sandhya vandanam (contains lot of prayers to agni and surya) and the daily home fire ritual - agnihotra or aupasana, depending on your ashrama - and maintain the fire. I now believe that only brahmins should do these practices, others can read the vedas and draw inspiration, or follow some veda inspired prayers.


Sandhya vandana is practiced by all three dvija varnas, but nitya agnihotra may be just for brahmanas. There are examples in the scriptures where Rama and Krishna (kshatriyas) did Sandhyavandana. There are also verse that says "one who knows the fours vedas, but does not do daily agnihotra is not a brahmana, but one who doesn't even know the vedas, but does daily agnihotra is verily a brahmana." I have just paraphrased this, I can't find the verse now, but it may support that nitya agnihotra is for brahmanas alone.

Can you tell more about aupasana for grihastas, I have never seen anyone practice this.

[sm78]

Puja and vedic rituals are based on two completely different (almost opposite) understanding of the role of a ritual. They should not be confused with one another - like the smartas do all the time.

Puja is completely based on the concept of anugraha or divine grace. Whether advaita or dvaita, vaishnava or shakta, whatever be the status of jivatman or paramatman in the respective religion, there is no puja without the concept of anugraha. Desire to do puja is thus the highest desire and already a sign of divine grace working in individual heart.

The vedic sacrifice is on the other hand is a mere duty. It upholds the original sacrifice made by prajapati which created the world, and is done as a duty which upholds this original sacrifice, the universal law which holds all creation. There is no divine grace to be achived by the sacrifice (though benefits are encountered), the concept of divine itself is not important. The sacrificer is not the focus, nor the Gods receiving the sacrifice, but what is the focal point is the sacrifice itself - which recreates the original sacrifice, upholds the universal law of give-and-take, and makes the world go round (according to the vedic belief). Desire to perform a vedic sacrifice itself is un-vedic, since your desire, your ego, your passion, your love or hate are all meaningless here. Its only the duty which must be carried out by the appointed brahmin (for a sponsor or yajman in case of specific srauta sacrifices). It is thus worldly in its aim, but spiritual in a very different way (I think in a far more profound way than puja and later religions). Vedas assume a status quo of a perfected society at the end of evolutionary cycle- and sacrifices are to maintain the same. Sacrifices are perfect only by following the procedures perfectly, the mental qualities of the sacrificers is also immaterial. Whether he is a thief or a saint doesn;t effect the result of a vedic sacrifice done perfectly, since the sacrifice alone upholds the law.

I know it may sound a bit of jibberish - and my own understandings are only developing. But this is what I have come to understand. I have great respect for the original srauta religion, but I don't think having the desire to do them is necessarily good, unless one can really do them and have the right.

[sm78]

Can you tell more about aupasana for grihastas, I have never seen anyone practice this.

The kanchi paramacharya explains it in his book ... I'll try to find out the quote. Basically as I know it, post marriage - one maintains the sacrfice made during the marriage in the kushundika till the end of the grihasta ashrama. The aupashana sacrfices are like agnihotra, but a bit more complex.

Yes true, sandhyavandama is for all dvijas, not just brahmins. I am not casteist, so I personally won't get offended if sudras or anyone does it. But I think one needs to understand it is a duty and not a ritual to get divine grace. The entire vedic religion is based on duty only. I find it profound, and in the present day duty is not just the rituals but all activities we do everyday.

[Sahasranama]

I also see it as a duty, that's why I am surprised when women and others want to do upanayana. In the vishnu purana there is a story of vyasa bathing in a river chanting "women and shudras are blessed." When asked why is he saying that, he answers "women and shudras can chant the name of Hari and attain everything without observing the duties of the dvijas."

I am not offended though, just surprised.


I find it profound, and in the present day duty is not just the rituals but all activities we do everyday.Yes, this is a nice philosphy which is also described in the Bhagavad Gita.
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bhagavad/bhagavad_04.html (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ror8QCAez18)

[sm78]

I am not offended though, just surprised.

Because people I think believe they prove a point against the "discrimination". To an extent the vedics have also not clarified this point, and often perform vedic rituals with same mentality of a puja. But purva mimamsha is a very differnt type of religion - and when this is clarified, I think people should thank that they are spared a thankless job of upholding the duty.

You see all these propaganda on how sandhyavandanam and agnihotra helps to attain peace, spirituality etc. No one says that it is not fullfill such personal desires, even for peace and spirituality that one does vedic rituals.

For emancipiation from our human suffering, the divine grace has descended as agamas, tantras and temple worship, rituals in japa and puja. No one is discriminated there.

[saidevo]

namaste Sahasranama and others.

KAnchi ParamAchArya, in his book 'Hindu Dharma: the Universal Way of Life' says that aupAsana is for people of all castes:

All castes have rites to be performed with the sacred fire. During marriage people belongings to all varnas must do aupasana and the fire in which the rite is performed must be preserved throughout. Today, only Parsis seem to keep up such a practice of reserving the fire. (p.601)

This book can be downloaded here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gparkglkyr5

Search the pdf version of the book with the keywords 'aupasana' and 'agnihotra' to know what he teaches about them, which is spread over some chapters in the book.

[Arjuni]

Namasté, namahsivaya and all.

Namahsivaya, those below your original post have given excellent advice, regarding sandhyavandanam, agnihotra/aupāsana, and daily practices appropriate to devotees. (Also, Saidevo, thank you for the book link you provided; I've scanned through the sections involving aupāsana and found it quite educational so far.)

Another practice is the Hatha yoga series of asanas called sun salutation (sūrya namaskāra) - very good for physical health as well as spiritual devotion, and the names of Sūrya may be chanted as mantra during each step (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Namaskara#Mantras_to_pronounce_and_chakras) of the sun salutation.

Also, in the Himalayan Academy's online text of Loving Ganesha, they provide a Ganesha puja in chapter 12 (http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/lg/lg_ch-12.html). The puja includes a prayer to Indra near the end, in the section titled "Rakshadharanam". Maybe you could incorporate this into the Ganesha puja that you already do?

Something else to consider, since you are already a Shiva devotee, is to acquire rudraksha bead(s), wear, and do rudraksha puja. All rudraksha is sacred to Shiva, but each bead has a secondary deity with whom it is associated, too. The 3-face (mukhi) bead represents Agni, the 4-mukhi Bṛhaspati, the 12-mukhi Sūrya, and the 11- and 13-mukhi beads Indra. Wearing rudraksha brings such blessings and, as far as I know, is also open to everyone.

Finally, there are many Gāyatrī mantras besides the famous Maha Gāyatrī; they are provided here (http://www.stephen-knapp.com/gayatri_and_other_mantras_for_assistance.htm), and about halfway down the page, you can see that there are mantras there for Agni, Varuṇa, and Indra given for specific purposes. I imagine it would be alright to use these for devotion as well, without necessarily crossing lines between Vedic and modern worship?

Now, I'm a western convert, not a brahmana, so please definitely take the rest of my post as one person's ideas, and not anything that Hindus generally would accept or agree with! But you did ask about personal experiences, and I do have answers based on mine.

Does anybody here pray to any Vedic deities occasionally or on a regular basis?
Daily prayer and japa.

I know this is probably not a common practice...
I'm pretty sure it isn't, either. ;)

My simple puja would just involve an invocation with prayers and mantras, personal prayer, and offerings of prasad.
This is what my japa practice evolved to include, and once I learned how to do a full puja, I started that.

Should I look into buying a murti of a specific deity that I would do puja to, or would that be too hard to find?
It depends which Deva. There are some very beautiful posters and statues of Sūrya out there. Indra has importance in the Buddhist and Jain religions, so some interesting images of him have been made by artists of those faiths. Mitra, Agni, Varuṇa, Bṛhaspati, Vayu, not so easy to find.

I might just print out a nice picture from the internet and do puja to that.
That's just what I did. There are some really lovely images out there. One thing to consider, besides using image searches like Google, is to visit sites like deviantART, where people post their own, sometimes amazingly beautiful work. (One of my favourite examples is this talented artist's devotional watercolours, here (http://purpleorb.deviantart.com/gallery/4601347).)

Regarding personal experiences, I'd be happy to talk more, either here or via PM if you'd prefer. May I ask what moves you to pray to the Vedic deity/ies? I was happy to see your post. :)

Indraneela
===
Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.

[namahsivaya]

sm78 and Sahasranama, thank you for your replies. I guess I won't do puja to any of the Vedic deities then since it is not appropriate.

Indraneela, thank you for your response. I have heard of Surya Namaskara before but I have never done it. I will look into doing that now since I can't do puja. That prayer to Indra looks good, and I will incorporate it into my current Ganesha puja. I have a rudraksha mala, but I didn't know that each bead has a deity associated with it. Should I pray to the beads themselves as representations of those deities? Also, thank you for that list of Gayatri mantras, they look very useful.

I really just decided to pray to Vedic deities because it came to my mind how they were the original deities worshipped in early Hinduism, and they are not very popular today. They just seem very interesting, especially with some being associated with various aspects of nature and our natural world. I also find it interesting how the Vedas, our most revered scripture, largely centers around these deities.

Aum Namah Sivaya

[Arjuni]

Namasté, namahsivaya,

Thank you for your reply! The Vedic deities are indeed very interesting, and I think many volumes could be written (and have been written, of course) about the paradigm shifts between Vedic religion and modern Hinduism...

A better link for Sūrya Namaskāra is here (http://www.harekrsna.de/surya/surya-namaskar.htm). Best wishes with that practice!

Rudraksha japa malas are usually made of 5-mukhi beads, which are sacred to Lord Shiva alone as far as I know, no 'secondary' deity involved...also, some wonderful information on rudraksha, its exact nature and its proper care, has been given by Yajvan here (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=6228). :)

Indraneela
===
Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.