Rites of Worship
Many people are afraid to do pūjā, specific, traditional rites of worship, because they feel they don’t have enough training or don’t understand the mystical principles behind it well enough. To this concern I would say that the priesthood in Hinduism is sincere, devout and dedicated. Most Hindus depend on the priests to perform the pūjās and sacraments for them, or to train them to perform home pūjā and give them permission to do so through initiation, called dīkshā. However, simple pūjās may be performed by anyone wishing to invoke grace from God, Mahādevas and devas.
Love and dedication and the outpouring from the highest chakras of spiritual energies of the lay devotee are often greater than any professional priest could summon within himself. Devotees of this caliber have come up in Hindu society throughout the ages with natural powers to invoke the Gods and manifest in the lives of temple devotees many wondrous miracles.
There is also an informal order of priests called paṇḍara, which is essentially the self-appointed priest who is accepted by the community to perform pūjās at a sacred tree, a simple shrine or an abandoned temple. He may start with the mantra Aum and learn a few more mantras as he goes along. His efficaciousness can equal that of the most advanced Sanskrit śāstrī, performing in the grandest temple. Mothers, daughters, aunts, fathers, sons, uncles, all may perform pūjā within their own home, and do, as the Hindu home is considered to be nothing less than an extension of the nearby temple. In the Hindu religion, unlike the Western religions, there is no one who stands between man and God.
Years ago, in the late 1950s, I taught beginning seekers how to offer the minimal, simplest form of pūjā at a simple altar with fresh water, flowers, a small candle, incense, a bell and a stone. This brings together the four elements, earth, air, fire and water—and your own mind is ākāśa, the fifth element. The liturgy is simply chanting “Aum.” This is the generic pūjā which anyone can do before proper initiation comes from the right sources. People of any religion can perform Hindu pūjā in this way.
All Hindus have guardian devas who live on the astral plane and guide, guard and protect their lives. The great Mahādevas in the temple that the devotees frequent send their deva ambassadors into the homes to live with the devotees. A room is set aside for these permanent unseen guests, a room that the whole family can enter and sit in and commune inwardly with these refined beings who are dedicated to protecting the family generation after generation. Some of them are their own ancestors. A token shrine in a bedroom or a closet or a niche in a kitchen is not enough to attract these Divinities. One would not host an honored guest in one’s closet or have him or her sleep in the kitchen and expect the guest to feel welcome, appreciated, loved. All Hindus are taught from childhood that the guest is God, and they treat any guest royally who comes to visit. Hindus also treat God as God and devas as Gods when they come to live permanently in the home.
But liberal sects of Hinduism teach that God and devas are only figments of one’s imagination. These sects are responsible for producing a more materialistic and superficial group of followers. Not so the deep, mystical Hindu, who dedicates his home to God and sets a room aside for God. To him and the family, they are moving into God’s house and living with God. Materialistic, superficial Hindus feel that God might be living, sometimes, maybe, in their house. Their homes are fraught with confusion, deceptive dealings, back-biting, anger, even rage, and their marriages nowadays often end in divorce.
They and all those who live in the lower nature are restricted from performing pūjā, because when and if they do pūjā, the invocation calls up the demons rather than calling down the devas. The asuric beings invoked into the home by angry people, and into the temple by angry priests, or by contentious, argumentative, sometimes rageful boards of directors, take great satisfaction in creating more confusion and escalating simple misunderstandings into arguments leading to angry words, hurt feelings and more. With this in mind, once anger is experienced, thirty-one days should pass to close the door on the chakras below the mūlādhāra before pūjā may again be performed by that individual. Simple waving of incense before the icons is permissible, but not the passing of flames, ringing of bells or the chanting of any mantra, other than the simple recitation of Aum.
NANDINATHA SŪTRA 48: PATIENCE AND STEADFASTNESS
All devotees of Śiva exercise kshamā, restraining intolerance with people and impatience with circumstances. They foster dhṛiti, steadfastness, overcoming nonperseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness. Aum.