Beginner Puja – Day 15 – Shall we dance?

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Sigh! We have JUST finished a beautiful Shiva Puja that included

preparation, purification of all articles of worship, meditation,

establishment of Shiva on ourselves, UNION, offering, singing his

praises… We are one with Him! What is left to do except dance in

celebration?

So we do an arati… and guess what, we have a list of articles that

we offer during arati. Please note, these are the articles offered at

the Mandir. In your home temple, you might want to keep it simple and

offer a few of the items… which is fine. I usually offer incense and

camphor!

But first the list and the order in which the items are offered.

1) Incense stick. Karen – you gotta tell us where you get yours from!

2) A five-light lamp – this is a brass lamp with slots to hold

five wicks that were dipped in oil or preferably ghee

3) Camphor

4) Conch Shell – this is different from the conch shell (call it

A) that we use for blowing (the one I have mentioned in my post). The

conch shell used during arati (call it B) is actually consecrated

during puja but is part of the advanced Shiva Puja. For the purposes

of our beginner practice, you would skip the steps in the advanced

book but would use this conch just as an offering during arati.

5) Cloth – this is again different from the cloth that we offered

during our offerings section. This would be another strip of cloth

that you reserve exclusively for Arati.

6) Umbrella – a small parasol reserved for arati. Please as much

as possible, use items exclusively for puja.

7) Fly whisk – this is a kind of fan. And despite its name, not

used for whisking pesky flies Please see this picture to get an

idea of it looks.

http://www.tiger-tiger.com/catalog/ritualitems/CH101.jpg .You would

gently wave this over the deity.

8) Fan – this is your regular hand held fan . Something similar

to this http://ww.asahi-jc.com/images2/fan8733.jpg At the Mandir we

use one made from peacock feathers.

9) Mirror – A small hand held mirror for the deity to see his

face after all the makeup that we did. (How do I look ? See for

yerself )

10) Flower – yes, we begin and end with flowers.

So we start singing “Jai Shiva Omkara…” – the song is in the Beginner Shiva Puja CD.

We ring the bell with our left hand and start offering the items

mentioned above with our right hand.

Note – for most people, the job of ringing with one hand and offering

with the other is a little tricky in the beginning. But believe me

you get used to it. Another option would be, if you have a small

child in the house, get them involved in ringing the bell. For that

matter try to get your family involved atleast during arati and share

the joy of dancing to the Lord.

We light the incense with the right hand (point it to the tea light

that you have burning during your puja) and while ringing the bell

with you left hand, offer the incense - this is a clockwise vertical

circular motion that you make in front of your deity. Once you have

offered the incense put it back it into an incense holder.

Move onto the five lights. After you light them, again the clockwise

motion and put back in front of your deity. Remember you are ringing

the bell all along.

If there is anyone present during the puja, they could take the five

lights that have offered and pass it around the room for the others

to bow to this fire and get the blessing of Shiva.

Next – camphor. Light it and offer it to the deity like above and place back at your altar.

Offer the conch, cloth, umbrella, fly whisk, fan, mirror and finally

the flower, all with clockwise motion. You would place everything

back into their respective places except for the flower, which you

would offer the deity.

Remember you are ringing the bell with your left hand and offering

with your right hand. You can make it a dance with some fancy

footwork. Now I am not gonna teach you the steps – SIMPLY DANCE as

you feel inclined. (Ya gotta see Swamiji doing the arati)

It sometimes happens that you finish singing the song but haven’t

finished the offering for Arati . Here is what we do at the Mandir –

we continue singing with either “Jai Maa” or “Jai Shiva” – cant

describe the tune here but you would hear snippets of this tune in

the VCD “Across the States with Maa and Swamiji”.

Once you finish offering the flower, you would blow the conch (A) that

you have for this purpose (NOT the one that you offered during arati).

Aah its tricky blowing a conch – just purse your lips and release air

through them into the conch as though you were giving it one long

smack. (Sometimes the results are funny – when I blew it once, Maa

said she thought there was a cow mooing . It takes some practice,

just make sure your neighbors are forewarned and don’t call 911 )

Once the conch has been blown, shout it in joy “Victory to Shiva” – as

in “Shiva Mahadev Ki JAIIIIIIIIIIIIIII”

Sit down in silence for a few minutes….

We’ll talk about “Pranam and bidding adieu” in my next post.

SHIVA MAHADEV KI JAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIII

Nanda

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