Guest guest Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Dear Nanda: First, thank you so much for your fantastic Beginner Shiva Puja class! I've gotten through all the material, and have a few questions before I attempt to perform the puja and hoping you might be able to answer. First, altar location. In order for my altar to be placed on my north wall, it would have to be placed directly under some bookshelves attached to that wall. It feels claustrophobic to me not to have some space above the altar -- as if the shelves are suffocating Lord Shiva. Is this preferable to placing the altar in a more pleasant location in the room while not facing in the correct direction? Second, the cloth offering. You had said this was to be new, unused cloth. But, I would like to use a beautiful piece of sari fabric that was worn by my guru, Ammachi (therefore, prasad). Would this be a bad offering, even though the person who had previously worn the fabric is a saint? Nanda, thank you again for all the hard work you put into creating the puja workshop. There would be no way I could have learned to perform the puja with just the puja book alone (as wonderful as the puja book is!). Rosetta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Hi Rosetta, Glad to know that you are ready to start doing puja. Re your questions: 1) The altar wall - this has been asked by many people before, all obviously with the same situation. The BEST option is the North wall or the East Wall, and it will be great to the extent in which we can accomodate this option. However if it is really impossible, then place it where convenient. I believe Grace has asked this question in the beginner puja workbook and Swamiji has asked her to keep her altar where convenient. In puja, as in many things , we try to give the best we can and go according to the prescriptions as much as possible, but if we are not able to follow , we do the best we can , hoping the best will become better yet. 2) Re the question of the cloth, it is a tricky one , and I have forwarded to Swamiji. My personal take is that any prasad given to me should be used by me, or in this case worn by me , so that I may benefit from my Guru's holy vibrations. Do keep us posted on your puja progress. Jai Maa Nanda , "rosaroja24" <rosaroja24> wrote: > > Dear Nanda: > > First, thank you so much for your fantastic Beginner Shiva Puja > class! I've gotten through all the material, and have a few > questions before I attempt to perform the puja and hoping you might > be able to answer. > > First, altar location. In order for my altar to be placed on my > north wall, it would have to be placed directly under some > bookshelves attached to that wall. It feels claustrophobic to me > not to have some space above the altar -- as if the shelves are > suffocating Lord Shiva. Is this preferable to placing the altar in > a more pleasant location in the room while not facing in the correct > direction? > > Second, the cloth offering. You had said this was to be new, unused > cloth. But, I would like to use a beautiful piece of sari fabric > that was worn by my guru, Ammachi (therefore, prasad). Would this > be a bad offering, even though the person who had previously worn > the fabric is a saint? > > Nanda, thank you again for all the hard work you put into creating > the puja workshop. There would be no way I could have learned to > perform the puja with just the puja book alone (as wonderful as the > puja book is!). > > Rosetta > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Dear Nanda: > 1) The altar wall - this has been asked by many people before, all >obviously with the same situation. The BEST option is the North >wall or the East Wall, The altar is right now on the east wall. Does this mean, during the part of the puja that we snap fingers that we adjust for the direction of the altar -- that is, facing East, I would be snapping to the left first for North, etc.? Sorry if this question seems silly ;-( > 2) Re the question of the cloth, it is a tricky one , and I have forwarded to Swamiji. My personal take is that any prasad given to me should be used by me, or in this case worn by me , so that I may benefit from my Guru's holy vibrations. Nanda, what you say makes sense. I guess my thinking was that I couldn't imagine a more sacred cloth offering than the one that had been worn by my Guru. I have never worn or otherwise used the cloth personally. I also thought that use of this special cloth in puja might enhance the sacred mood of the puja itself, and also call to mind my Guru as part of the worship of Shiva. Thanks for taking time to give your advice!! Rosetta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 > The altar is right now on the east wall. Does this mean, during the > part of the puja that we snap fingers that we adjust for the > direction of the altar -- that is, facing East, I would be snapping > to the left first for North, etc.? Sorry if this question seems > silly ;-( Hi Rosetta, Actually it is a very good question. When we snap our fingers during puja, we start with the North. Therefore, in your case, you would snap to the left first. HTH Nanda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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