Talk:Archanāṃ or Pūjā

By Vishal Agarwal

This means performing a ceremony to worship Bhagavān using simple articles like a lamp, bell, flowers, fruit, water, coconut, etc., while chanting prayers. As opposed to the expensive ingredients required for the Vedic yajña, arcanā is a very simple and inexpensive affair and therefore accessible to all.

One of the ways of worshipping Bhagavān is doing ārati by waving before the mūrti a whisk, flowers, light, cloth, and water. These represent offering the five gross elements:

• Air – symbolized by the whisk
• Earth – represented by flowers, the most beautiful product of earth
• Fire – represented by the lamp
• Space – represented by cloth (woven with gaps)
• Water – directly offered

The purpose of waving them before a mūrti symbolizes the fact that He alone is the Lord of this entire universe, and all that we have is offered in His service.

Pūjā is done to invoke the devatā-s to protect us and fulfill our worldly and spiritual needs. Some salient features of this form of bhakti are:

1. Pūjā makes us sensitive and aware that not everything is in our control.
2. It can be in the form of focusing the mind on the iṣṭa-devatā.
3. Typically performed in front of an image or mūrti of the devatā.
4. The traditional method involves 5, 16, or 64 upacāra-s (steps), but it can also be done simply with available offerings.
5. Pūjā can be performed at home, in a temple (maṇḍira), or even anywhere as needed. Daily pūjā transforms a house into a maṇḍira.
6. It can be done individually or in a group.
7. One should try to do at least one pūjā every day, whether alone or collectively.
8. The physical nature of the ceremony — involving speech, mind, and bodily action — is beneficial for those who need external aids to focus mentally on the Lord.