Beginner Puja – Day 6 – Q&A

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Some good Q&A today as well, some from folks trying to catch up with

their altar questions and others with questions on the current topic

– purification during the puja.

Lets address the altar questions first…

Michael from Seattle wanted to know

“e) Camphor and holder - Could you go into more detail about this?”

Jana also asked in a similar vein “Does camphor come in different

forms? I note that at least one website said "camphor tablet." Are

there different or better forms? The camphor spoons come in quite a

mind-boggling array of styles. Is one better, or more functional, (or

maybe safer!) than the others?”

Berijoy pipes in “ah good questions! i would like to know these, too!”

Hi Michael & Jana & Berijoy , as mentioned by Muktimaa , you could get

camphor in tablets or as crystals. Unless you are doing loooooong

aratis (forthcoming description of this at the end of this series of

puja) where many people would share in doing the arati, you would

just need a little bit of camphor during your individual puja. A

little of it goes a long way.

You could get a camphor holder made out of brass or silver (brass is

easier to maintain but silver is very pretty and high maintenance).

Muktimaa’s post

/message/10419 is also very

informative. Thanks Muktimaa – She who is always helpful and

informative.

You also asked “k) A rudraksh to offer the deity. Any idea where I

could find these?”Again, many of our readers, Arjuna , Muktimaa and

Linda have recommended good websites. You could also get them at your

local Indian store in the puja section.

Regarding Rudraksh, as Jana said, they come in a variety of faces –

the five-faced Rudraksh being the most popular one. The rare ones are

of course more expensive. It is said that each type of Rudraksh

bestows a certain power to the wearer, but the five-faced one has

been deemed “safe” for most people’s use. So unless you get a

Rudraksh gifted to you by a saint or guru, please stick with a

five-faceted rudraksh.

FYI- did you that Rudraksh means – Rudra-aksha – tears of Lord Rudra aka Shiva ?

Continuing with Michael’s question “Where could I find a flower garland?”

Well, you could make one of course – just string a length of thread

and needle through a few flowers. You could buy readymade artifical

garlands at any Indian store and pretty sure if you googled on “puja

items” you would be able to find one too.

Well, I hope that answered your questions Michael, Jana and Berijoy.

Please let me know if you need any further clarifications.

Moving on to the questions on purification.

Jana wanted to know “With what do we draw the yantra with? Some more water?”

And Henny says, “I am a little confused because I thought we were to

draw the yantra's on the altar 'in front of the seat', but I now

understand we draw the first yantra underneath the seat, lifting up

the front part of the seat, while being seated. The question is: do

we draw the yantra underneath the seat on the floor (that is in my

case on a small carpet?) Or should you have something underneath the

seat to draw on?”

Berijoy asks “we lift up the seat (in my case mat) that we are sitting

on so then this means on the floor we draw the yantra, not on the mat

(under my knees)? Is that right?”

You know I think I need to clarify my last post just a little bit.

The yantra – a dot (bindu) surrounded by the equilateral triangle is

1) Drawn inside out – bindu first and then triangle.

2) Drawn with water or sandalwood mixed in water. Personally I

prefer water as its easy to wipe off without leaving any marks on my

floor. You put a few drops of water in your left palm, touch this

water with your right pinky finger, lift the asan a little in the

front and draw the yantra beneath the asan. Yes, dear ones, I also

confirmed with Swamiji who says that it’s BENEATH your asan (the

front of your asan that you lift while being seated) and not BEFORE

your asan. Hope that clarified your doubts.

3) Yes Berijoy it is drawn underneath your asan – the floor or

carpet –not underneath your knees ie on the asan. Hope that helps

clear things.

4) And yes Jana you are correct in your point “the point of the

triangle point forwards/towards the altar in both (Durga & Shiva)

pujas” The triangle is drawn so that the based of the triangle is

towards us and the point faces the altar. In fact this is how it’s

drawn for ALL pujas.

Jana, thank you for following along in the Beginner Durga Puja book.

This is a call for all those readers that have the Durga Puja book

but not the Shiva Puja to follow along too. Most of the puja steps

with the exceptions of dhyanam and nyasas are very similar, so you

should be able to benefit from these posts.

Linda brought up a question

“You Say "Om Vishnu, Sip water. Pour more water into palm if necessary

Dear Nanda ~ what are we to do with the water after we sip it? Swallow it? Spit it out? “

You would swallow it Linda – definitely not spit it out.

Anything that has our “spit” in it – be a napkin or a tasting spoon or

food from our plates is considered “ucchishta “ or “jhuta” both which

refer to “unclean”. So we want to make sure our puja area is clean.

You know as an aside, anything that we cook for the puja , we do NOT

taste before offering. Will talk on this during offerings in the next

few days.Because if we taste what we make and offer it to God, it is

like we are offering him our leftovers and that’s a NO-NO.

Jami’s question

“So we snap our fingers in the ten directions in the order N S E W NE

SW NW SE UP DOWN. So the question is, how do you physically snap

behind without turning around on the aasana? I hope it's not a silly

question.”

No, its not a silly question and Arjuna gave the perfect answer “Bend

your elbow up over your head and have your hand behind. “

Amazing Grace, that’s what we all do in this step.

Again, Henny’s beautiful question/comment

“The other question I have is this: when looking for the meaning of

the word 'adhara', ,I found that this word has a relation to the

muladhara chakra, and that 'kama' can refer to the yoni and also to

the center of the chakra. So I wonder if the mantra used to honour

the Divinity within has some relation to the Kundalini shakti

residing at the base of the spine? Thinking along these lines, with

this mantra, then, you would be honouring the One Power, our sole

Support and Source of sustenance, manifest as your person on the

seat. Reading this mantra, I feel that at this point in the puja you

(the pujari, I mean) are really becoming 'present', all there,

one-pointed. Which brings me to one other small question (or not so

small, perhaps): is the dot in the middle what could be called 'the

point of manifestation'?”was sent to Swamiji , and here is what

Swamiji had to

say

“Excellent explanation.

Also look at the bindu as the first and last point of manifestation before moving into the formless.

mula means root , dhara which supports

adhara means primary, preeminent.”

Henny, you said “tell me to wait with questions like these until I have practiced the

Shiva puja for some years....”

I most certainly won’t !!!!! Keep ‘em coming Brother (or is it Sister?) Henny.

My thanks to the Silent Sadhus that follow along but do not want their names mentioned.

A special thanks to Kanda from Nanda

Kanda says, “it is so delightful to know so many sincere devotees are learning Shiva Puja.”

On that note, we will close on today’s Q&A and I will talk on the next verses in my next post.

Jai Shiva

Nanda

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[Guest guest]

, Nanda <chandimaakijai> wrote:

 

Dear Nanda,

 

thank you for clarifying the do-we-or-don't-we-lift-up-the-seat

matter.

 

Thank you also for taking the trouble to gather all our questions and

presenting them to us, with the answers, in an orderly manner (it must

be a lot of work). A side-effect is that by reading the questions

again, more questions arise. So one more on camphor: I have a small

lump of camphor. Do I put it on a spoon and just hold a match to it?

Should I then wave the light until all camphor has disappeared?

 

Please convey to Swamiji my heartfelt thanks for his answering my

question. He can speak volumes in a few words,

 

looking forward to our next lesson,

 

with love,

 

Henny

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