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Eternal India
encyclopedia
PERCEPTIONS
Bell
:
There is a bell within you, of
which the temple bell is but the echo, the
outer image.
It rings when the doors of the inner
temple open wide. In the silence of the
inner altar, the bell brings the aware-
ness of the circle of the love that spreads and spreads
from one horizon to another, until the circumference
merges in the Love that is God.
Doorva
: Doorva
grass,
offered to Ganapati, is con-
sidered to be life-energising
to a devotee. Thoughts, like
these blades of grass, should
be humble and ego-less.
L a m p
The lamp, the wick, the oil,
Are essential to make the lamp bum
bright
Take one away-there is dark turmoil!
Have all in good trim-there is good
light!
You must know, your body is the lamp;
And your mind the oil; the tongue, the v
So, keep them fit, and lit with Peace,
Joy and love of the Soul.
Coconut
: When you take a
coconut to offer in the
temple, you take it after
removing the fibre; then you
offer it to God, breaking it into halves. This is the
symbol
of destroying the ego to remove the fibre of desire-for-
sense objects and surrendering to the Lord.
Kalasha
:The
Kalasha
represents the human body. Its
mouth is Brahma (Creator), its
base is Vishnu (Sustainer) and in
the middle is Shiva (Destroyer).
Its water contents stand for purity
and love for the Divine. The green
leaves indicate the life principle immersed in the
Divine. Thecoconut symbolises the fruition of
fulfilment of life when the human body is transformed
into a Temple of God.
Aarathi
:
Aarathi
is just one
more prayer, with which the
pooja
should close. The
camphor is itself a fragrant
substance, and one's essence is
the fragrance of
the spirit.
When it bums, it gradually fades out in illumination,
giving warmth, and illumination to those around. So
too, one should so live (bum oneself out), that one is
the
source of comfort and inspiration to others with whom
one comes in contact.
Install light in your heart and be a light to others
around you.
POOJA
(WORSHIP)
Through Bhakti flows Divine Love;
Through Divine Love flows Grace;
Through Divine Grace flows Wisdom;
Through Divine Wisdom flows Nectar of
immortality.
Prayers have psychotherapeutic effect
on the persons saying their prayers.
Vibhooti
: Since it is materialized out of
nothing and since the ash is specifically as-
sociated with Shiva, it is reverentially
known by devotees as Kailasa
vibhooti,
the
sacred Ash of Shiva who resides on Mount
Kailasa. It is named
Vibhooti
because it
burns away all sins.
Vibhooti
is a constant
reminder of the evanescence of the body
which ultimately is reduced in cremation to a
potful of Ash!.
Prasadam
: Any substance, generally
food, offered to a deity or saint and that is
then distributed among the devotees.
Prasadam
or
Prasad
is said to contain a
small fraction of deity's or saint's
shakti
or
spiritual energy and blessing.
“O my God, the whole world has given me up,
and I rest my life on Thee alone. Thou art my trust
all-in-all. That brings peace to my being. In all the
three worlds there is no stay for me. I cast my
burden now on Thee alone. Like a bird perched on
the branch of a tree, I have no place or point of
support except Thee.
We bow down to Thee, O Lord. Do with us as
it pleases Thee. We do not know how to speak to
Thee: we but prattle like children. Do Thou listen to
us. we pray. We are, without Thee, like unto or-
phans forlorn and forsaken. Oh, protect us, save us,
lift us up. O Lord, Thou art the uplifter of the fallen,
the shield of the weak. With love we come to Thee.
Do not cast us away.”
--Tukaram
“Whatever you do, whatever you eat,
whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever
you give, whatever you practise as auster-
ity, O Kaunteya, do it as an offering to Me.”
— Swami Chinmayananda
“The Holy Geeta”
Chap. IX/27.
Food Prayer
harir daatha harir bhoktha
harir annam prajaapathihi
harir viprashareeraasthu
bhunkte bhojayathe harirhi
You are the Food
You are the giver of the Food
You are the enjoyer of the Food
Therefore I offer all that I consume at thy lotus feet.
Peace Chant
May my speech be one with my mind, and may my mind
be one with my speech.
O thou self-luminous Brahman, remove the veil of igno-
rance from before me, that I may behold thy light.
Do thou reveal to me the spirit of the scriptures.
May the truth of the scriptures be ever present to me.
May I seek day and night to realize what I learn from
the sages.
May I speak the truth of Brahman.
May I speak the truth.
May it protect me.
May it' protect my teacher.
Om..Peace-peace-peace
Rig Veda
Shaanti Mantra
Om, O Gods, may we hear with our ears what is
auspicious. You adorable one, may we see with our
eyes what is auspicious. May we sing praises to you and
enjoy with strong limbs and body the life allotted to us by
the Gods. Om Peace, Peace, Peace
During the Vedic period prayers were
offered to a variety of entities that included
natural phenomena like
Ushas,
planetary
bodies like Sun, Moon, etc., gods like Rudra,
Indra, Mitra, Varuna, etc., the elements like
Aapaha,
Prithvi, Agni,
Vaayu
and
Aakasha,
or certain forces like Savitri, Gayatri etc.
These prayers were in the form of supplica-
tions, eulogies, benedictions, invocations or
simply requests for conferring some worldly
benefits like progeny, food, riches or com-
forts. It is indeed interesting to find a
Sookta
that is addressed to no deity in par-
ticular that contains the seeds of agnosti-
cism.
"Kasmai Devaya Havisa Vidhema"
To which God, shall we offer the oblations.
— Rig Veda (Prajapati Sookta - 10th
mandala Hymn 12)
The epic period in contrast to the Vedic
period has a plethora of personalised gods
and god-heads that are projected as Om-
niscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. The
prayers of this period are remarkable for
their devotion in easily understandable lan-
guage.
The period of
Kaavya
literature is
marked by a hallowed tradition of commenc-
ing any literary work with a
Mangala
which
in essence is a prayer addressed to a chosen
deity.
“I welcome devotees by whatever path
they come unto me, and I give them firm
faith in that path itself,” says the Lord.
Prayer to the Blessed Lord : “Please be-
stow on all your devotees purity of heart,
simplicity of mind and ceaseless devotion to
Your dancing Divine Feet.”