Guest guest Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 "...Question : What is the significance of a light or deepam in a puja ? Why do we light a lamp , and why do we offer lights during Arati ? Put your introspection hats on , folks and come back and let us know. JAI MAAAAAAAAA............" Hey Latha, This is great! Collecting all of this information...I add: Deepam can be seen as the soul in us which we offer as symbol of our surrender and devotion to God. It is usually related to the Manipura chakra (the Element of Fire). So, if you look at the "Worship of 5 elements" in the beginning of Lalita Sahasranam, you will see deepam as the 4th element of worship with the mantra "Ram". But, what get's confusing is that some other sources list Deepam as relating to the element of Akasha or Ether. This is what is so confusing about gathering this information as was mentioned in an earlier post. You can have a bunch of sources and each one is telling you something slightly different. What I think would be SO WONDERFUL (hope you are listening Swamiji) would be if we collected all of this and gave it to "our" authorities and asked them if we could make a kind of puja handbook for those of us who are connected to Devi Mandir (either directly or indirectly). Personally, I know of ALOT of people who would be very very happy if something like this was available. (Hint, Hint). So, Latha, should we all just send in whatever information we have and then it will be "untangled"??? sadhvi PS: Maureen: thank you for the beautiful post you sent in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Dear Sadhvi, Your request for a handbook duly noted and passed on to Swamiji. Let us see what he has to say. Yes, I will take everyone's input and compile them into one email and forward Swamiji. Here are my two other interpretations of why we light a lamp and do the Arati. Fire - unlike other elements , is the only element that always points upwards. To me, that means, our minds like fire, should always point upwards - to higher thoughts / aspirations and move towards God all the time. The second is more prosaic - all the sanctums in a temple are usually very dark (I wonder why) , especially in South Indian temples. So we need a light to be able to see what to do in a puja. The Arati when waved towards the deity serves to highlight and impress upon our minds the physical attributes of the deity. I have seen when Swamiji waves the lights during Arati - he starts with the crown of the deity and slowly waves it clockwise across the entire length of the deity. Almost as if he were meditating on each and every part of the deity that he was waving the light over. A beautiful must see ... and I am sure some people here can describe some memorable Arati's with him. JAI MAA Latha , "nityashakti" <sadhvi@p...> wrote: > "...Question : > > What is the significance of a light or deepam in a puja ? Why do we > light a lamp , and why do we offer lights during Arati ? > > Put your introspection hats on , folks and come back and let us know. > > JAI MAAAAAAAAA............" > > Hey Latha, > This is great! Collecting all of this information...I add: Deepam > can be seen as the soul in us which we offer as symbol of our > surrender and devotion to God. It is usually related to the Manipura > chakra (the Element of Fire). So, if you look at the "Worship of 5 > elements" in the beginning of Lalita Sahasranam, you will see deepam > as the 4th element of worship with the mantra "Ram". But, what get's > confusing is that some other sources list Deepam as relating to the > element of Akasha or Ether. This is what is so confusing about > gathering this information as was mentioned in an earlier post. You > can have a bunch of sources and each one is telling you something > slightly different. What I think would be SO WONDERFUL (hope you are > listening Swamiji) would be if we collected all of this and gave it > to "our" authorities and asked them if we could make a kind of puja > handbook for those of us who are connected to Devi Mandir (either > directly or indirectly). Personally, I know of ALOT of people who > would be very very happy if something like this was available. > (Hint, Hint). > So, Latha, should we all just send in whatever information we > have and then it will be "untangled"??? > sadhvi > PS: Maureen: thank you for the beautiful post you sent in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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