Beginner Puja – Day 13 –Q&A on Offerings

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

I am back with the Q&A on Offerings. Again, my thanks to Berijoy and

Henny on the Q&A for this topic.

 

Berijoy remarked, “pedicure--are you being funny? Or is this an

allusion to some other symbolic thing i don't know?” in response to

my tongue-in-cheek remark on “Give Shiva a pedicure” during the foot

bath.

 

Well Berijoy and anyone else with the same question, I admit I was

being partially funny and from now on I will indicate so with a

grinning emoticon so you know when I am kidding around.

 

But in the case of Shiva’s footbath, only I wasn’t fully joking. You

see, the idea is to imagine the person dearest and closest to you and

that you are giving their feet a bath. What would you do? You would do

what is loving and reverent and right for you! Not merely sprinkle a

few drops of water and say, “you’re done”. So what I meant by that

pedicure statement was, “give off your best” .

 

Berijoy’s next question was on the offerings to the deity. She wanted

to know,” Do we use both hands or just one for this?”

 

Well, Berijoy, one hand is sufficient assuming that you are using only

small cups to hold the offering, unless your deity is a very large

life size idol that we see in temples and you are offering a huge

volume of stuff, in which case you would need the use of both your

hands.

Always, always use the right hand!

 

Berijoy also had a question regarding the water bath after the

five-nectars bath. I had mentioned that we had used the water bath to

clean away anything remaining from the previous offerings. She wanted

to know “how exactly do we clean him? Sprinkle water on or what?”

In this case too, if you are pouring all the offerings on the idol

directly, wash with as much water as you need and you could towel off

the idol afterwards. If you are pouring the ingredients into a bowl,

then you could just take a little water and sprinkle on the deity to

signify a bath.

 

Henny also had a question on the water bath. She asks,” do we then

remove the cup with the ingredients we just offered and replace it

with the cup with clear water to symbolize that he is clean? Or do we

let both cups stay on the altar?”

 

I would let them both stay at the altar.

 

Berijoy’s next question was on the drinking water offering. Yes, this

water is different from the water that you use to give him a bath. So

you would reserve a separate cup for drinking water.

 

Both Berijoy and Henny had a question on the food offering. Berijoy

wanted to know “what food and where do we put it?” And Henny wanted

to know “Would you offer cooked food (a little bit of what you

yourself are going to have, bread for instance) or fruit/vegetables

or is anything ok?

 

You would use the food that you had prepared fresh that day to offer

the deity. And yes it would be food that you had prepared for

yourself and family. Just make sure Shiva gets it first and that you

eat His leftovers as Prasad. If you weren’t cooking anything in the

morning, then you could replace with fruit. As to where you would put

it, find a convenient, artistic location in your altar near your

deity, and place it along with your other offerings. You would NOT

offer food that has already been tasted, or offered the day before,

or leftovers – only new, freshly cooked food or fruit.

 

Note – you could take a sample of your food and keep it at your altar

during puja. Once your puja completes and you are ready to eat, take

that sample, put it back with the main dish and stir well so that the

prasad is mixed thoroughly and is available for anyone that eats your

food. Just a thought!

 

An aside here – Maa has always recommended cooking in reverence. Which

means we chant a mantra during the preparation and cleaning of the

food and during the actual cooking of the meal. Maa says the

vibration with which we prepare the food has great effect on the

people that eat the food. So in silence, in reverence and with a

mantra – that should be the motto when cooking.

Henny asked,” Why do we not have to 'disengage' ourselves and

establish divinity in the object we are going to offer to?”

 

Well, Henny, if you remember we had purified the offerings long before

our union – meditation and japa. So yes, at that point we were

disengaged or in duality if you will. Did that answer your question?

Please let me know if we need to clarify further.

 

Henny had a question on the cloth offering. I had suggested that we

could offer even the new clothes that we plan to wear. She asks,” I

would want to do that with all new clothes! Just one question,

though: if the garment is too large to place on your altar, you would

just hold it up as an offering and then put it aside. Am I correct in

the assumption that you would not lay anything on the floor? So you

would have to have a little table or something to put the item on? By

the way, if you have a new anything, could you offer it to Shiva

before using it?”

 

Yes, Henny, you could hold it up as an offering and put it aside. As a

rule of thumb, we do not place anything on the ground (I wonder why)

but we have at a minimum something underneath – a plate, a table or a

cloth.

 

And yes, you could offer a new anything to Shiva before using it. It

is a beautiful gesture and a way of saying – this is yours, thank you

for lending it to me. How will we then be attached to anything? When

everything is His to begin with? OK I am getting philosophical here …

 

Henny’s question on Sindoor – the red powder that you get from an

Indian Store. She wanted to know,” If you have a picture of Shiva can

you put this on the picture, or is a lingam preferable?”

 

Hmmm, you could put it on a picture too. But Sindoor can get really

messy, so make sure you use it sparingly or else you would leave

Shiva blushing red . It is definitely preferable over a lingam as you

could wash it off in the evening during clean up.

 

OK all, we covered quite a few questions there and we are ready to

move on to the next few verses from the Beginner Shiva Puja book.

 

See you in my next post.

 

Love

Nanda

 

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