Puja

“ These offerings, as well as the female, must next be purified by the repeating of incantations. To this, succeeds the worship of the person’s guardian deity; and after this the worship of the female, with all the ceremonies included in the term puja. The female must be naked during the worship.... ”

“ Strict fasting is observed till the worship is over. Young boys, though their mothers may permit them to eat their food, will not touch anything lest the goddess Sarasvati be displeased. When the head of the house finishes his puja all the others assembled there stand up with flowers in their hands reciting the praises of Sarasvati to the dictation of the master and offer the same to the goddess. Thus concludes the Sarasvati puja and a sumptuous feast in honour of the goddess follows. People who are rich present clothes on this occasion, to married women. ”

“ A figure of the Goddess of Prosperity is painted on a brass or copper vessel and placed in the hall or court of the house under a small leafy canopy erected for the occasion. The Brahman priest is invited to repeat the form of the worship and the oldest married lady of the house who has observed a fast during the whole day performs the puja of Varalakshmi, soon after sunset, with sincere devotion. ”

“ Sivarātri.—Worship of Siva on the last day of Māgha. Fast and vigil at night, and pūja. (2) Upākarma.—The regular day for putting on a new sacred thread, after having cleansed away the sins of the year through the prāyaschittam, in which ceremony the five sacred products of the cow (milk, curds, ghī, urine, and dung) are partaken of. It is done on the 15th of Srāvana. (3) Nāgara panchimi.—The serpent god is worshipped, and bathed in milk. On the 5th of Srāvana. This festival is common in Southern India. (4) Gōkulāshtami.—Fast and vigil at night, to celebrate the birth of Krishna. ”

“ This chhátri is traditionally said to be the spat where Vikramâditya used to perform puja before going to bathe. He used, it is said, to rub oil on his body at Telkupi, and perform his puja here; the manifestly absurd story is firmly believed by the people. ”

“ Idol is brought home, a life is inspired in the idol and then it is worshipped. After few days with equal devotion final puja is performed and then the idol is immersed in water. Permanency of Soul and body treated only as a garment is expressed in this practice of Idol worshipping. ”

“ But no bell calls the Hindu to worship. She worships when she will, not necessarily in groups; she rarely passes a temple without worship, most often just silent prostration: sometimes she will creep in and ring the bell that hangs beside the bull, her timid call of ceremony on the god: or she will run in to leave a flower, or to comfort her heart, poor soul, with prayer for the moment’s need. ”

“ Some of the ceremonies only survive in a symbolical form, as those connected with religious studentship. [255]
Among the most important duties of the new householder is the regular daily offering of the five great sacrifices (mahā-yajna) , which are the sacrifice to the Veda (brahma-yajna) , or Vedic recitation; the offering to the gods (deva-yajna) of melted butter in fire (homa) ; the libation (tarpaṇa) to the Manes (pitṛi-yajna) ; offerings (called bali) deposited in various places on the ground to demons and all beings (bhūta-yajna) ”

“ Adored, the strengtheners of Law, unite them, Agni, with their Dames: Make them drink meath, O bright of tongue. 8. Let them, O Agni, who deserve worship and praise drink with thy tongue The meath in solemn sacrifice. 9. Away, from the Sun's realm of light, the wise invoking Priest shall bring All Gods awaking with the dawn. 10. With all the Gods, with Indra, with Vayu, and Mitra's splendours, drink, Agni, the pleasant Soma juice. 11. Ordained by Manu as our Priest, thou sittest, Agni, at each rite: Hallow thou this our sacrifice. ”

“ Who seized a goat, the patriarch of the flock,
And bound him firm with sacred munja grass,
And bore aloft, while Buddha followed where
A priest before the blazing altar stood
With glittering knife, and others fed the fires,
While clouds of incense from the altar rose,
Sweeter than Araby the blest can yield,
And white-robed Brahmans chant their sacred hymns.
And there before that ancient shrine they met,
The king, the priests, the hermit from the hill,
When one, an aged Brahman, raised his hands,
And praying, lifted up his voice and cried:
"O hear! ”

“ THE main feature which distinguishes the religion of the Brahmanic and Epic Period from that of the preceding age is the great importance which came to be attached to sacrifice. In the earlier portion of the Vedic age, men composed hymns in praise of the most imposing manifestations of nature; they deified these various natural phenomena, and they worshipped these deities under the name of Indra or Varuna, of Agni or the Maruts. And the worship took the shape of sacrifice, the offering of milk or grain, as well as of animals or of libations of Soma-juice to the gods. ”

“ Whatever may have been the thoughts which first prompted these kindly ceremonies, they were thoughts belonging to far præ-Christian ages. The change of sacrifice from its early significance is shown among the Hindus, who have turned it to account for purposes of priestcraft: he who gives water or shoes to a Brahman will find water to refresh him, and shoes to wear, on the journey to the next world, while the gift of a present house will secure him a future palace. ”

“ For they are holy aids at sacrifices: all Gods approach the place of congregation. Bring these, desirous, to our worship, Agni, swift the Nisatyas, Bhaga, and Purandhi. 5. Agni, to these men's hymns, from earth, from heaven, bring Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Agni, And Aryaman, and Aditi, and Visnu. Sarasvati be joyful, and the Maruts. 6. Even as the holy wish, the gift is offered: may he, unsated, come when men desire him. Give never-failing ever-conquering riches: with Gods for our allies may we be victors. ”

“ But you have seen Hindu dances— religious Hindu dances—haven’t you? You know the significance of the image of Natarajah, how in the night of Brahma nature is said to be inert and cannot breathe nor move nor dance till Shiva wills it; how Shiva rises from his stillness of meditation, crushes the dwarf of night and inertia, and, dancing on his prostrate body, sends through all matter the pulsing waves of awakening sound, preceding from the drum; how, in the richness of time, still dancing, he destroys all names and all forms by fire: and how then all emotions and a new rest come upon the earth. ”

“ The ceremonies of the worship are the same as those on Sundays. In fact, in almost all the observances in connection with the sun the same ceremonials are to be gone through. Very often a Brahman recites the pātha directing [24] his hosts or hostesses to perform certain ceremonial gestures. On the last of the number of days which the devotee has decided to observe, the vrat is celebrated and Brahmans are feasted. This celebration of the vrat is known as vratujavavun.103
The special occasions for Sun-worship are the Sankrānti days and the solar eclipses. ”

“ While allowing that the Indian always was and is to-day a pagan, and that his worship of the countless manifestations of nature must be called superstition, let us admit that this worship is, nevertheless, the honest faith of men who “look not beyond the evidence of the senses,” of which its unquenched and never-to-be quenched altar fire is the eternal symbol, to many a serious student a holier thing than priest-made creeds. ”

“ The Land of the Lord Buddha, where the myriad pagodas lift their golden flames of worship everywhere, and no idlest wind can pass but it ruffles the bells below the knees until they send forth their silver ripple of music to swell the hymn of praise! ”

“ Here in India, where shrines are many, and there is no false shame about entering and praying—doors wide—nay, where the Godling sits by the wayside, and where it is a common thing to see a woman stand on a highway, head against some outer wall of a Temple—the moment’s contact a prayer, or bowing to the Earth on some crowded pavement—it is curious that not one of her devotees or friends has any knowledge of what is within her House of Gods—whether it is empty or has the whole panthology. ”

“ Thou disturbest
Our holy ritual.
He lifts his knife against Buddha, but Siha draws his sword and knocks the knife out of the priest's hand.
GS.Keep peace, bold priest!
Pr. The vengeance of the gods will be upon you.
[60]
B. If there be gods they must be potent, noble,
And great and holy; and if the gods are holy,
They do not need the offering of a victim,
They do not want the life of this poor trembling lamb.
Pr. The gods are kind; they take the lamb in place of this poor stricken man. We must do penance for his sins, for the sins of his wife, for the sins of his children. ”

“ I myself have seen, within the area of one acre of land in South India, the instruments of these varied forms of worship, from a greasy, round stone, before which the lowest classes prostrated themselves, to an image of one of the supreme gods of Hinduism. There is not a phase of worship, however high or mystic, or however mean or degraded, which has not its devotees in this land. ”

“ The daily worship. The rich religious people in India have the idols in their houses for the daily worship. There is a room entirely for the accommodation of the idols, like the “baby rooms” in this country. In it there are a throne, bed, seats, furniture, plates, dishes, cups, tumblers, bells, wash-tubs, clothes, and ornaments, of the lifeless gods. In the morning, the family priest comes in, awakes the idols from their sleep, brings them down from the bed, washes and wipes them, repeating some prayers and ringing the bell at the same time. ”

“ Instead of a money-hunting priest sitting beside a butcher's block and exacting a prescribed fee from each pushing, jabbering, suppliant of a bloodthirsty goddess, herself only one of the many jealous gods and goddesses to be favored and propitiated--instead of this there was a converted Indian minister who told his fellows of one God whose characteristic is love, and whose worship is of the spirit. ”

“ With such notions of the worship that is acceptable to the gods, the commands of the Bible sound strangely to the Hindu. When told that God is a Spirit, almighty but invisible, he asks, “Do you pretend to say that we are to worship God?” When you answer that you do, he triumphantly exclaims, “Here is a man who says God is invisible and intangible, and yet that he is to be worshipped! ”

“ Domestic Ceremonies. — Garbhadhana (ceremony to cause conception) ; Pumsavana (ceremony to cause the birth of a male child) ; Simantonnayana (arranging the hair of the pregnant wife) ; Jatakarman (ceremony on the birth of a child) ; naming the child; the first feeding; the tonsure of the head; the initiation; the four vows for the study of the Veda; the bath of completion of studentship; marriage; and the five sacrifices to gods, manes, men, spirits, and to Brahma.
Grihya rites, also called Pakayajnas.—Astaka, or rites performed in winter; Parvana, or new and full moon rites ”

“ In the good old times of Ancient India, whenever a king or any great personage celebrated a religious sacrifice, several learned persons from remote parts of the country came, on invitation, to take part in the celebration, their primary duty being to assist in the religious rites. ”

“ On solar eclipse days, most of the Hindu sects bathe and offer prayers to God. During the eclipse the sun is believed to be combating with the demon Rāhu, prayers being offered for the sun’s success. When the sun has freed himself from the grasp of the demon and sheds his full lustre on the earth, the people take ceremonial baths, offer prayers to God with a concentrated mind, and well-to-do people give in alms as much as they can afford of all kinds of grain.110
The Chāturmās-vrat, very common in Kathiawar, is a favourite one with Hindus. ”

“ Above the six circles, into which the Hindus divide the human body, is “the window of life, and the passage of the soul, which is the top and middle of the head, and in that place is the flower of the back of one thousand leaves: this is the residence of the glorious divinity, that is, of the world-deceiving queen, and in this beautiful site reposes her origin. ”

“ Ritual, ceremony, sacrifice, professional benefit—these are their predominant interests. The priestly ceremonies are conceived to possess a magical power of their own; and the fixed laws of ritual by which these ceremonies are regulated tend to eclipse, and finally even to swallow up, the laws of moral righteousness under which the gods live. A few generations more, and the priesthood will frankly announce its ritual to be the supreme law of the universe. Meanwhile they are becoming more and more indifferent to the personalities of the gods, when they have preserved any ”

“ WITH lauds at break of morn the priest invoketh Agni, Dawn, Dadhikras, and both the Asvins. With one consent the Gods whose light is splendid, longing to taste our sacrifice, shall hear us. 2. Three are thy powers, O Agni, three thy stations, three are thy tongues, yea, many, Child of Order! Three bodies hast thou which the Gods delight in: with these protect our hymns with care unceasing. ”

“ In addition to the observance of penances and fasting, Hindus of all castes, high and low, make vows and offerings to the gods, with the object of securing their good-will or appeasing their anger. By the lower castes, offerings of animals—fowls, sheep, goats, or buffaloes—are made, and the gods whom they seek to propitiate are minor deities, e.g., Ellamma or Muneswara, to whom animal sacrifices are acceptable.1 The higher castes usually perform vows to Venkatēswara of Tirupati, Subramanya of Palni, Vīrarāghava of Tiruvallur, Tirunārayana of Mēlkote, and other celebrated gods. ”