Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 39

Thread: pūjā & abhiṣeka

  1. #1
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    pūjā & abhiṣeka

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~

    namasté
    In this same folder the discussion of abhiṣeka began. I thought to add a bit more to the conversation for one's kind consideration.

    Where does does abhiṣeka fit in?
    abhieka अभिषेक is an ablution; the bathing of the divinity to whom worship is offered so we call it ritual bathing. It comes from these words abhi अभि- over, upon ; also towards + śīkāya शीकाय- to rain fine drops; drizzle , sprinkle.

    pūjā
    We find this abhiṣeka often done in pūjā-s & yajña ( worship). It is customary to offer 16 items or ṣoḍaśa upacāra pūjā¹ . There are a few reasons for 16, yet for now it represents fullness, wholeness.

    You will see this abhiṣeka below in the offerings. Each offering has an outer quality to it ( the item), an inner spiritual quality and a devatā
    quality ( or cosmic ) , an invitation to the devatā to join and accept the offering.

    Traditions and practices differ, yet here is a simple 16 item offering. I did not add one's own (svagata¹) self-purification to this; I ask others
    to add this in for their contribution to the conversation.

    Also some choose to offer upavītaṁ or sacred thread in the pūjā. Makes perfect sense. For the 16 listed below I did not add this.
    1. āvāhanaṁ - or the invite to the devatā to the pūjā
    2. āsanaṁ - come and be seated; offering a seat to the devatā
    3. svāgataṁ - or welcome ; svāgataṃ te , ' I wish you welcome'
    4. pādyaṁ - the devatā-s feet are washed
    5. arghyaṁ - water offered at the respectful reception of a guest; it also means valuable;
      It is the offering of water is to the devatā for washing hands and face; some say just hands, others say hands and teeth.
    6. ācamanīyaṁ - pure water is offered for sipping
    7. madhuparka - an offering of a water-and-honey drink
    8. snānaṁ or abhiṣekaṁ - the ablution of water is offered for bathing; some may use other pure fluids here.
    9. vastraṁ - or cloth is offered. This is new, clean and uncut
    10. gandhaḥ - or fragrance; sandlewood is offered for the joy of scent
    11. kuṁkumaṁ ( some spell kuṅkumaṁ) - we place a tilaka, an auspicious mark on the forehead, of the devatā
    12. puspaṁ - or flowers. some offer a garland
    13. dhūpaṁ - or incense ; the sweet smell or fragrance
    14. dīpaṁ - a light or flame is offered
    15. naivedyaṁ ( considered prasāda) - whole foods such as cooked rice, fruits, ghee, sugar, and betel leaf are offered
    16. praṇāmaḥ - the yajvan (worshiper) bows or prostrates in surrender before the devatā

    Sometimes one of the offerings is left off and the 16th item is udvasana ; ud+vasana - ud = dismiss, up and above , depart + vasana = dwelling or residence. Hence udvasana is the departing of the devatā ( going above).


    praām

    words
    • ṣoḍaśa upacāra pūjā
      • ṣoḍaśa = 6+10 or 16
      • upacāra = ceremony; approach , service , attendance
      • pūjā = worship

    • svāgataṁ is wishing one welcome; svagata ( without the long ā ) is belonging to one's self , own
    Last edited by yajvan; 09 August 2016 at 11:37 AM.
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  2. #2
    Join Date
    January 2011
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    37
    Posts
    295
    Rep Power
    501

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    Vanakkam Yajvan ji

    I would really love to perform daily puja (or even just weekly as I find myself really stressed out at the moment with the start of school) but I often find myself scared and turned off by how many steps there are involved and ... (I hate admitting this) I often feel foolish, even when I perform abhishekam. I try to do it sincerely but I suppose my mostly Christian upbringing (I live in Australia where the majority are Christian so while my family was primarily secular I kinda absorbed a lot of Christian teachings through osmosis) leads to my feelings.

    I sincerely love and adore Shiva and all the many manifestations that Parvati Ma takes but whenever I perform worship I feel like a fraud. Do you have any suggestions on how I can deal with this?

  3. #3

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    Quote Originally Posted by Divine Kala View Post
    I sincerely love and adore Shiva and all the many manifestations that Parvati Ma takes but whenever I perform worship I feel like a fraud. Do you have any suggestions on how I can deal with this?
    It is not intended that everybody perform an elaborate puja with lot of display or ritualism. You are not alone in the feeling of commiting a fraud while doing puja, since very few people would be actually be able to perfrom a lengthy puja with 16/64 upaacharas with correct mindset throughout. Puja more often than not becomes a mechanical display of gestures and mantras. I have seen many people doing extremely lengthy pujas and homams mainly for pomp and display. With practice anything is possible, one can may be sit for 6 hours doing constant homas and puja, but without any real feeling and experience of the divine within. It would be completely worthless endevour. These sata-chandi, sahasra-chandi, lakhsa-chandi, koti-chandi homams (doing homam on entire saptasathi 100,1000 or 100000 etc times )which are very popular down here are mainly to serve this purpose of pomp and display.

    In my case I was not asked to perform puja but do the japa at least once. I have slight experience with pujas, but I have not performed the puja associated with this japa because it is extremely lengthy and I am sure I will be in danger of dry display if I perform it without preparation.

    In tantra, japa has been taken as the primary vehicle. With japa and meditation love and expereince of God automatically should be felt more and more inside onself. When one is established in such an experience & feeling for God, puja will become a natural adoration of the same.

    I think for most of us beginners, daily japa on fixed times and as much as possible is the key. If you are adept and comfortable with meditation, even better. Apart from doing japa in the morning-evening fixed times, one can do it any other time during the day when one has time to spare.

    You can do a very simple puja of offering lamp, incense and food after japa in your shrine and avoid any elaborate ritual for the moment.

    Do puja only when you are comfortable with it. One can not rule out "osmosis" of christain practices, but in that case, I would assume you would also find temple rituals, attending temple etc in vain also.
    What is Here, is Elsewhere. What is not Here, is Nowhere.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    January 2010
    Location
    tadvishno paramam padam
    Age
    38
    Posts
    2,168
    Rep Power
    2547

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    puja koti samam stotram stotra koti samo japah
    japa koti samam dhyaanam dhyanakoti samolayah

    (krishna arjuna samvade - uttara gita - mahabharat)

    In a conversation of krishna and arjun,krishna said - the result that
    we get by performing karodo pujas is equal to performing of 1 stotra,
    similarly karod stotras is equal to 1 japa,karod japas is equal to
    1 dhyaan and karodo dhyaan is equal to 1 mano layah.


    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...36&postcount=1

  5. #5
    Join Date
    September 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Age
    70
    Posts
    7,191
    Rep Power
    5038

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    Quote Originally Posted by Divine Kala View Post
    Vanakkam Yajvan ji

    I would really love to perform daily puja (or even just weekly as I find myself really stressed out at the moment with the start of school) but I often find myself scared and turned off by how many steps there are involved and ... (I hate admitting this) I often feel foolish, even when I perform abhishekam. I try to do it sincerely but I suppose my mostly Christian upbringing (I live in Australia where the majority are Christian so while my family was primarily secular I kinda absorbed a lot of Christian teachings through osmosis) leads to my feelings.

    I sincerely love and adore Shiva and all the many manifestations that Parvati Ma takes but whenever I perform worship I feel like a fraud. Do you have any suggestions on how I can deal with this?
    Vannakkam Divine Kala: I used to do a 45 minute elaborate puja. it started interfering with my earning a living and time when we were raising kids. So intuition said, "CUT BACK!" Now my puja consists of one prayer beseeching Ganapati, the waving of incense in silence, and the aarti in silence, then the application of vibhuthi and pottu. Then its off the puja to one round of japa, and then about 5 minutes of scripture.

    So given the notion of having such busy lives, or the notion of over-straining a muscle, it can be really really simple. The main idea is to so something every day. You can slowly over 10 years add perhaps, depending on circumstance. On the extreme end of things, I have met a person who spent so much time in worship, and study that from my perspective, other things suffered, mainly the transfer of knowledge to his children via interaction. My Guru warned of becoming 'too religious'. All the other things like work, observing people on the bus, if approached correctly, can be seen as sadhana too.

    Aum Namasivaya
    Last edited by Eastern Mind; 17 February 2011 at 01:20 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~
    namast

    Quote Originally Posted by yajvan View Post

    Sometimes one of the offerings is left off and the 16th item is udvasana ; ud+vasana - ud = dismiss, up and above , depart + vasana = dwelling or residence. Hence udvasana is the departing of the devatā ( going above).
    Why is udvasana sometimes performed? When a pūjā is performed outside of the temple, udvasana is considered a warm farewell to the devatā. When pūjā-s are done at the temple it is considered the devatā's permanent residence and no farewell is required.


    praām
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  7. #7
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~

    namasté
    dīpaṁ - a light or flame is offered
    Often this light is a candle or it can be ghee that is lit and offered. Yet there is also more light offered and it is known as ārati.

    We find kamphor (karpūra) is lit and offered, as it too is a significant symbol. It is suggested we too be like karpūra, karpūrati, to be like camphor. Pure, blazing, with no impurities. Kamphor is completely burnt up , no left-overs.

    We use this word ārati and it is significant. If we look at the word ārati like this āra+ti we get the following:
    • āra - is a spoke, iron, brass; a probe ; also it's known as the planet mars or saturn
    • ti is for iti or 'thus' . It suggests completion. This makes perfect sense as ārati suggests the completion of the pūjā

    But where do we find light in this word? With ra. It's 3rd derivation is brightness , splendor. When used in the masculine gender¹ it is fire, heat. It's feminine gender use is motion¹. This word also has a softer side as it also can mean love, giving and play.
    Yet for me the key is this - ra is the bīja (seed) sound for agni. Who is this agni? We know to be flame, illumination, the first devatā hymned in the ṛg ved ( rig veda).


    So we can look at āra+ti as the completion (iti) portion of the pūjā that we offer ra (light & adoration) done with brass inferring a plate offering.



    praām

    words
    • Grammatical gender - is masculine, feminine or neuter. Gender we can see is liṅga a mark , spot , sign , token , badge , emblem , characteristic. When looking up a word you will see mfn as an abbreviation next to the definition.
      • These characteristics/marks are called puṃ-liṅga , strī -liṅga and napuṃsaka-liṅga:
        • puṃ-liṅga - puṃ = puṃs is a masculine word but also defined as a man.
        • strī -liṅga strī is defined as the the feminine gender yet also is defined as the 'bearer of children'
        • napuṃsaka-liṅga - napuṃsaka is na +puṃ+saka : na = not 'he that man , or she that woman '

    • motion - aligns with arati, without the long ā, defined as (2nd derivation) moving quickly; we find ārati is offered in a clockwise rotation moving ~fairly quickly~
    Last edited by yajvan; 09 August 2016 at 11:38 AM.
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  8. #8

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    Quote Originally Posted by Divine Kala View Post
    Vanakkam Yajvan ji

    I would really love to perform daily puja (or even just weekly as I find myself really stressed out at the moment with the start of school) but I often find myself scared and turned off by how many steps there are involved and ... (I hate admitting this) I often feel foolish, even when I perform abhishekam. I try to do it sincerely but I suppose my mostly Christian upbringing (I live in Australia where the majority are Christian so while my family was primarily secular I kinda absorbed a lot of Christian teachings through osmosis) leads to my feelings.

    I sincerely love and adore Shiva and all the many manifestations that Parvati Ma takes but whenever I perform worship I feel like a fraud. Do you have any suggestions on how I can deal with this?
    Namaste Divine Kala,

    I don't do long elaborate pujas with lots of materials and procedural rules and whatnot. My puja just consists of the basic prayers and mantras, sometimes abhishekam, offering of fruits and/or flowers, japa, meditation, and sometimes scripture reading.

    I think above all, it is the amount of bhakti that one puts into it. Maybe overtime I will learn a long elaborate puja, but for the most part I leave that to the pandits at the temple. For home worship and my personal sadhana, I have found this very simple puja to be very effective, as long as there is strong bhakti and true love for God in it.

    Jai Sri Ram

  9. #9
    Join Date
    September 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Age
    70
    Posts
    7,191
    Rep Power
    5038

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    Vannakkam DK et al: As one who believes in the hovering presence of devas during pujas, and regarding aarti, there is a mystical understanding that the deity can see the flame, and is attracted to it. So that is how they are attracted. Certain sights, sounds (right bells, mantras) smells (incense, cleanliness) all attract them. So from this perspective, its like beckoning a loved one. "Come, come, I have some prayers, please bless me," etc.
    Many of the ingredients (fresh water, fruits, flowers, etc also attract)

    Imagine walking along somewhere on a very dark night, and you see lights and sounds coming over in a forest, so you go investigate. it is a bit like that.

    Of course not everyone believes in this mystical side, but I just wanted to point it out, as some of us do. So from this perspective also, sincerity and an open heard is practically mandatory.

    Aum Namasivaya

  10. #10
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    Re: pūjā & abhiṣeka

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~

    namasté

    A bit more on light.
    dīpaṁ - a light or flame is offered

    There is little doubt we associate light with the Supreme, with sattva. Lighting a lamp is a reminder of this light that is found in the spirit i.e. prakāśa¹.
    Many keep akhaṇḍa dīpa or a continuous lamp ( a+khaṇḍa = not + break ) at home or at the maṇḍir (temple). A close-ness to the Spirit is kept.

    Agni is considered flame, light, a devatā in the veda as we mentioned this in the post above regarding ārati. He is the first word found in the ṛg
    veda i.e. agni iḷe purihitam - agni I adore.

    This flame , when it is in a windless place is also used as an example of the ātman, perfectly still, unflickering, yet bright from within.

    Now some suggest¹ the the oil or ghee lamp has another significance. The oil is the symbol of our vāsana-s¹ , the wick is the ego.
    The flame then is the burning-up the vāsana-s as they are 'wicked-up' through the burning element ( the wick) and brought to the
    flame ( knowledge) for their consumption ( removal). The flame burns upward and is carried away.

    Hence, this flame (tejas - fire) is light and heat. Light is knowledge and dark is ignorance. We light the lamp to bring the light, knowledge,
    that removes the darkness, ignorance. A reminder of who we are.




    praām

    words and references
    • prakāśa प्रकाश- visible , shining , bright ; clearness , brightness , splendor , lustre
    • svāmi cinmayānānda
    • vāsana वासन- causing to abide or dwell ; receptacle - i.e. past impressions. WE think of them as you probably know vāsana by another name, samskara, which is an approximation. For more on this see HDF post http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=627&highlight=vasana
    Last edited by yajvan; 09 August 2016 at 11:14 AM.
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •