WHAT ACTUAL PUJA IS AND WHAT IS THE METHODOLOGY TO DO REAL PUJA? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUJA OF gods AND PUJA OF GOD?
WHAT IS MEANT BY PUJA?
Before, understanding the actual पूजा, it would be better to have a look over the meaning drawn by men of today from the term ‘पूजा’ and their ways of performing it. Ordinary people think that if, they bow before an idol, burn an incense stick and at the most make a particular sound, they have done पूजा of gods. They think that पूजा of gods and पूजा of God are one and the same thing. Well educated people of today sacrifice logic wherever the term God appears. They, in the name of पूजा, go to a place in the house et cetera, where idols of शिव, दुर्गा, विष्णु, हनुमान et cetera are placed, bow before these idols, burn an incense and move that, before each of these idols, request for their own and their families’ welfare and finally request for forgiveness of their sins. This is all they do in the name of पूजा. Today, many people bow before road side temples et cetera, while travelling.
Now, let us try to understand what is meant by पूजा. According to our scriptures, to deal with the other persons in accordance with their behaviours with us and the society at large, is पूजा. This meaning is very much prevalent in today’s society, for example, when, a child, crying out of hunger comes to his mother and his mother does his ‘पेट पूजा’, that is, feeds him. Similarly, when a thief comes into a house, people of the family do his ‘पीठ पूजा’, that is, they beat the thief. There is a mention in our scriptures that people of a society should do पूजा of women, which means that women should be given due respect and should be provided with beautiful clothes and ornaments. This means that the word पूजा refers to dealing with others in accordance with their social status and their behaviour towards the society.
Why should we do पूजा?
Everyone does पूजा for fulfillment of his desires. His desires may be worldly or non-worldly. In short, पूजा is done to draw some benefit or pleasure. In the world, there are so many things, which give us pleasure or benefit. But, by paying deep thinking over this issue, we will realize that maximum benefit is drawn by us from air, water and food. Do we not realize that- without air, not only man but all the creatures of the world can exist only for a while only, without water, only for a few days? Imagine that a king of many countries is lost in a desert and is crying out of thirst, then, he will be ready to give whole of his kingdom for a glass of water. Similar is the importance of food.
Now, give a thought that does पूजा done at different worship-places affect in any way the purity of water, air et cetera? Now, every country of the world is worrying about the deteriorating condition of purity of our environment namely water, air et cetera. It is high time to understand that prevalent way of doing पूजा is not right. Then, what is the right way of doing पूजा?
Before understanding पूजा of gods, we must understand as to who or what are gods? By the term ‘gods’, we mean souls like parents, knowledgeable persons et cetera or inert objects like water, air et cetera, who or which give and do not take anything in return like mother, father, sun, air, water et cetera. There are thirty two types of gods. Here, we do not think appropriate to dwell on all of these. God refers to an intelligent entity, who creates these gods Here, creation refers to bringing gods in their present condition. Mother, father, knowledgeable persons et cetera are living gods and their पूजा can be done by dealing or behaving with them in accordance with their behaviour towards the society. But, how to do पूजा of non-living gods such as air, water et cetera?
Before, obtaining answer to this question, it would be better for us to know as to how these non-living gods do welfare to us. We experience all our lives that without these non-living gods, we cannot survive. God has created these non-living gods in their purest forms but, man, out of his selfishness to meet his worldly needs, has created different sorts of factories, means of transportation et cetera and thereby has polluted these non-living gods. It is certain that no पूजा except ‘हवन’ can offer a solution to the problem of growing pollution in our environment.
How ‘हवन’ is पूजा of gods?
Our Rishis and Maharishis, who can be called scientists in modern terminology discovered the system of ‘हवन’ to tackle the problem of pollution. The system adopted in हवन purifies water and air. It has been seen earlier as to how much purity of water and air is essential for our survival. Why should we believe that method adopted in doing हवन, actually, purifies water and air?
Before, we answer this question, let us give a thought that when we say that we should do पूजा of our mother and father through offering them food, then, do we satisfy them by rubbing food on different parts of their bodies? In order to meet their bodily needs, food is not rubbed on different parts of their bodies but, is put in their mouth from where it goes into stomach, where, it gets digested and then, is transferred to different organs of their bodies in very minute form according to the needs or requirements. As such, पूजा of living gods is meeting their physical needs, for example, feeding them through their mouth. Towards पूजा of non-living gods, what can be done by us is to keep them pure and healthy. Similar to living gods, what can be the system through which non-living gods can be purified or in other words, what can be the system through which they get energy? Fire is said to be the mouth of non-living gods, that is, fire acts as a mouth of non-living gods for providing them energy out of the materials fed to it. In हवन, we put in fire the materials, required for keeping the non-living gods pure.
As per science of materials, matter never gets destroyed, it gets transformed only. Accordingly, what is put in fire never gets destroyed, rather, gets minute and because of minuteness, the materials put into fire, get extended a lot, in qualities and space. On getting minute, they become more powerful and are spread through air in the atmosphere giving life-force to all. In this way, these materials are able to bring purity in the atmosphere. The rain, which falls from such un-polluted atmosphere affects the vegetation and the vegetation gets richer in quality as well as in quantity. There is a chain effect, which starts from हवन-हवन removing pollution from the atmosphere causes better quality of rainfall to pour, richer rainfall is the cause of better vegetation, better vegetation helps all creatures to lead healthy lives. As such, हवन is the only mean by which we can honour all our living gods and keep the non-living gods pure and healthy. Without focusing on this mantra, we cannot achieve ‘welfare of all’. As such, हवन is पूजा in the real sense. Up to the time of ‘महाभारत’, all the natives of ‘आर्यावर्त्त’ instead of worshiping any idol, had the routine of performing हवन in the morning and evening.
Now, we dwell upon पूजा of God. पूजा of God comprises of three steps-स्तुति, that is appreciation or praise, प्रार्थना, that is, Prayer and उपासना, that is, Communion. स्तुति refers to praising God by citing His qualities. By doing स्तुति, we accept the existence of a supreme living entity, higher than us. It helps us in recognizing the fact that there is a greater entity in the universe than our ‘souls’. प्रार्थना or prayer is done to a person, whom we consider having the potential to resolve our issues. Once, we know that there is an entity greater than us, then, we cannot abstain from making prayers to that entity for resolving our issues. Last step in पूजा of God is ‘उपासना’ or Communion. उपासना refers to imbibing the qualities of God according to our capacity. A person cannot be called a theist until and unless he does all the three steps enshrined in the worship of God.
Hence, we see that there is a great difference between पूजा of God and पूजा of gods. पूजा of gods, in the names of various prevalent religions, cannot be done in different ways by mankind. The English word ‘Religion’ is wrongly considered to mean the same as Hindi and Sanskrit word ‘धर्म’. धर्म cannot be separated from self and it remains the same for all humans.