PUJA--WORSHIP​ GOD LIKES MOST

PUJA--WORSHIP GOD LIKES MOST

We perform puja grandly at home and in temples. A sum prescribed is paid to the temple authorities and all arrangements are made by them. Beautiful garlands,baskets of flowers, various varieties of fruits and fragrant dhoop sticks and naivedyam or offering  to the deity are   ready! The priest performs archana, you close your eyes, pray, receive prasadam and return! This is the puja of modern day! Can this be called real worship? Things have become so mechanical and casual that priests and people have no time to think what real worship is! Heavy and uncontrollable crowds gather at temples on festival days and it is impossible to concentrate on God for a few minutes at least! God expects something genuinely yours! He wants that which is “clean and fragrant with the perfume of virtue and innocence and washed in the tears of repentance.”  Fruits and flowers are an exhibition of devotion and tend to humiliate the poor who cannot afford such pomp and show! “Install the Lord in your heart and offer Him the fruits of your actions and the flowers of your inner thoughts and feelings--Worship in the mind!” exhorts Sri Satya Sai Baba in one of his spiritual discourses.

God is a lover of simplicity and sincerity! He does not like ostentation and show! A sincere prayer for a second pleases him. But we are unable to do that because of our attachment and involvement in mundane affairs. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, in the Bhagavad-Gita that it is enough if “Patram, pushpam, phalam, thoyam”--a leaf, a flower, a fruit, and some water is offered with a pure, and sincere heart. Outwardly it appears simple. The inner meaning is entirely different! Patram or the leaf is our body! It is not the ordinary flower but the flower of our heart! Phalam or fruit is our mind while toyam is totally different from the ordinary water we use but ‘ tears of joy welling up within you from a sincere and prayerful heart!’ Outward austerities like Japa, tapas or penance and sadhana for a number of years do not impress God! His Grace can be attained through a genuine and sincere appeal arising from a devoted heart! The age of the saints, sages, azwars, nayanmars and various other realized souls is over and the artificiality of modern man has created a great gulf between him and God!

Ordinary flowers fade away the next moment! Of what use is worship with fading flowers? Bhagawan Sri Satya Sai Baba prescribes eight spiritual flowers for worship of the Supreme Being! The first and foremost flower is non violence, non injury to any creature in body and mind. The second flower is 'dama’ or control of senses. Compassion to all creatures is the third flower. Kshama or forbearance is the fourth flower that can adorn God. Peace or Shanthi is the fifth flower. The sixth is tapas or penance. Meditation or dhyana is the seventh and the eighth and the last flower is truth or Satya! “ God will shower grace on you if you worship him through these eight flowers.(SSS12.5.81) Instances galore, signifying exceptional devotion to the Lord, are not wanting in our scriptures.Rukmini out weighed Krishna with a single tulasi leaf overladen with pure bhakthi! Grace of the Lord stupified Sudama when he offered Krishna just a handful of flattened rice! It is not the quantity but the quality of devotion that God wants and recognizes!

Pride, egoism and affectation and artificiality do not impress God! Bhakthi or devotion sanctifies every act of man! Like a piece of paper getting importance when a certificate is written on it, it is the bhava or the thought behind that is important! Outward pomp has no place in God’s worship! “Man does not know the secret of transmuting every act of his life into sacred worship, and so he suffers from disappointment and grief.” (SSS 11.1.’66) Pure thoughts and fine feelings should be entertained by men always and whatever he does should be an offering to God! What is that we can offer God who has given everything​ for our happy existence? Is it not foolish to offer material objects to God? Do you think God is poor and you want to present gold and diamond ornaments to him? “The relation between a devotee and God is only heart to Heart and Love to Love. By offering jewellery you are making  God also a beggar. You should always keep in mind that God is bigger, not a beggar.” declares Sri Satya Sai Baba!

Worship or puja, of late, has become a bargaining from God! People flock to  temples with numerous desires and pray that they should be fulfilled. Businessmen want prosperity, childless couples want children, students desire good marks and pass in examinations. Every single individual has some want or other! They promise God that they would offer something if their wants are fulfilled! Thus all worship has become conditional! There is none who worships God for the sake of God and without any want! “Become His own. He is providing for the Idler, the insane and the shirker. Can he not provide for you? The father feeds the son's, whether they are idlers or shirkers or steady workers in field or factory. (SSS 23.10.’66) Let us perform worship with a pure and sincere heart for the sake of God without any conditions!!