Manasika Puja
Every question on the site tagged Manasika Puja, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
Mental worship, performed entirely within the heart — superior to external worship when physical articles are unavailable, the location is unsuitable, or a practitioner has transcended external ritual, but ineffective if substituted out of mere laziness.
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Why is mental worship (Manasika Puja) considered superior to external worship?
It is superior when physical articles are unavailable, when the location is unsuitable for physical rituals, or when a practitioner has attained a high spiritual state transcending external ritual — it can be performed at any time within the heart, but substituting it out of mere laziness or deceit is ineffective.
The amrit runs off the outside because the lid of the inner pot was never opened
Because, he says, the whole abhishek of the mind that is to be done — that abhishek you have not done. You are trying to pour amrit upon it, but the amrit is flowing away over the outside; it is not able to go inside. To open the lid of the inner pot, so that the amrit may go in and all the inner vikara may come out — for that, stuti, japa, tapa, satsang and svadhyaya must all run together; only then will it be able to happen, otherwise there is no benefit. This, he says, is a true matter and a matter of experience; you will experience it only if you do it, it does not happen by mere talking.
How many lamps does a householder need for all his deities?
With these two lamps the pujan of all the devis and devatas of a grihastha will be done. If you have both time and money, light a separate lamp for each deity — there is no difficulty in that — but ordinarily two lamps should certainly be lit. For naivedya, the naivedya of the principal shakti comes first.
How is naivedya offered when it is placed at a single spot?
Offer cashew and raisins, or cardamom seeds, or whatever food substances and dry fruits you offer, with your bhava. Put neither tulsi patra nor bilva patra in it at first — put nothing at first. After the pujan is done, take water from the separate drinking water given to Mai, circle it around the naivedya with the achamani and offer it five times.
On which floor of a three-storey house should the puja room be?
He answers a listener travelling from the 17th to the 20th that puja may be done anywhere. For a three-storey house he says the puja room should be on the topmost floor. If a puja sthan is made at the place that is on the earth, attached to the ground, that is fine — but nowadays a garage gets built on the ground, in buildings or houses people make a garage below, so where is the ishan kona, where is the agni kona, it all stays in the air.
What are smaran and seva?
For smaran it is said that you do not need to look at the clock — keep remembering him always. From the time the sun rises until you sleep, keep doing his dhyan and smaran according to your capacity. Seva means that, keeping in view the favourable time and keeping restraint over one's senses, seva is done through the karma indriyas — seva of Bhagavan, seva of the divine form.
How is the archan divided among the people present?
After that, seat her upon a high singhasan and clothe her, the speaker says. Now there are five persons, so do her archan with five different substances: for the sahasra archan bring five books, or take PDF printouts in five places — or take out one only, with one person reciting while the others perform the archan.
Can the whole of Shravan be observed through the Shiv Manas Puja?
If the situation is such that we cannot do the physical puja — suppose that for some reason one had to go somewhere in the middle of Savan, or there is some such matter — then you can absolutely do the manas puja, the speaker answers, and from that too you will obtain the fruit.
Does dosha attach if home puja of a shivling stops while one is away for a month?
The speaker says the matter is plain and clear: when you go, go having prayed mentally that your devatas go with you. Wherever you are, you will keep doing their seva and puja mentally. No dosha at all is going to attach in that.
Learned people say bhav predominates everywhere else, then bring in the predominance of kriya only in this one place.
People who are called learned forget bhav in exactly this place, he says. Everywhere else they say bhav is what predominates; and in this place they bring in the predominance of kriya, and start travelling around with the shri vigraha and all these things, worshipping them here and there. Here bhav does not work — here their intellect turns straight into the opposite.
What does the sound of ghungroos during puja mean?
Asked what the sound of ghungroos at the time of puja means, he says you may see it in whatever bhav you wish to see it in; it is a very ordinary matter. If you ignore it you will go forward. If you stop at the ghungroo, then very soon somebody who wears ghungroos will be obtained by you — and then remain in maya.
What is the biggest error people make with a permitted alternative?
Bringing it into the main current. The speaker calls this the greatest irony among Hindus. The alternative given for a difficult time — washing only the toe where there is no water, or only Abhishek, Naivedya and Aarti where full worship is impossible — becomes the whole of the practice.
Do the worshipped shaktis remain behind when you travel?
If you are going, the speaker says, then your worshipped shaktis will all go along with you as well. You will make pranam there, tell them subtly, and they will go; they will walk with you. There is no subject of apujya here in the Kaliyuga, in the present time.
What is the seva vidhan before leaving on a long journey?
No fault will attach, he says. If you are going somewhere, then having offered naivedya, having offered a bhog of dry fruits, having covered it, having made pranam, make a request of the Lord: that we are going to this place and will return in so many days, so we request that we shall remember and worship you mentally and that you accept that same pujan of ours and be pleased; and that you too come along with us, help us in our work, and come back with us when we return. Say that and go — keep the seva vidhan just this much.
May a wife wear the Baglamukhi kavach?
For the rest, having made your sankalp there, sit at the place and do your japa, he says; then you may also do manas upachar pujan and the like. The asana and the mala should certainly be used. Asked separately, he says the kavach of a Baglamukhi anushthan may absolutely be put on one's wife.
How are the body parts touched during the nyasa?
In the nyasa, having said the mantra, the place of the body that has been pronounced is touched. For the guhya parts, they are not touched — only the bhavana is made mentally. Then comes the karanyasa: the fingers of the two hands are made to touch each other.
Which forms should a sadhak without avaran knowledge worship at Ambubachi?
Two forms, since we know two anyway: Bhagavati's form and Bhairav's form — and it is from this one that the many arose; the root is this same Shakti. So carry two: Bhagavati Kameshwari Kamakhya, and whoever it is you worship, Shiva, Durga, Krishna, Narayana, Gayatri, Baglamukhi, any form of Tripurasundari.
Worship still allowed in the year before Varshiki: mental puja, Surya arghya and shradh at a tirth
The speaker says that while worship is stopped for the year because the Varshiki has not been done, one cannot offer dhoop, deep or Naivedya, cannot bathe the deities, cannot do Havan or yajna, and cannot celebrate festivals in full. What one can do is Manasika Puja (mental worship), offer arghya to Surya, and, when visiting a tirth, skip darshan at the main shrine and instead perform the Shradh vidhi there for one's parents. He adds that where the varshiki has not been done this is generally forbidden, so one should follow the tradition of one's own region: do it if permitted there, otherwise do the tirth darshan itself for the sake of the ancestors.
The merit of offering a vastra daily, and offering it by manasa parikalpayami
You are offering your aradhya a vastra daily; for how great that merit is, he says, read the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam and study what importance there is in the daily archan or abhishek of a deity's yantra and in offering them a vastra daily. You may also offer it by saying "manasa parikalpayami" — that we are offering this mentally — and saying that for the purpose of a vastra we are offering a rakta sutra; you will obtain the complete fruit.
Why must puja at Kamakhya be kept gupta?
Keep in mind one more subject, the speaker says: the Kamakhya region is also called a gupta pitha, and here the importance is of gupta puja. There is no importance in performing puja by displaying it — that is, if you do a puja and then put it into reels and make it viral, or put it in your status that you have come to Kamakhya, then it has no fruit. Keep this in mind; it is a written subject, and there is written proof of the Mahanil Tantra that gupta puja carries very great importance. Bhagavati is extremely pleased by gupta puja and, being pleased with gupta pujan, Jagadamba grants siddhis.
In what form may a devi be worshipped when there is no photo or murti?
Asked, since we worship Ganesh ji in supari form, in what form a devi should be worshipped when there is no photo or murti of her, he answers: if you wish to do it in a symbolic form, then in the form of a supari all the shaktis become worshipped.
The teaching that performing puja makes the deities displeased is equally rejected
He says that even in this time of social media, where jagriti is being spread that one should do seva-puja and do it properly, there are still such people saying that the deities become displeased by doing puja-paath — and that he had shared that video too.
Gossip runs before, during and after the puja, and then the complaint is that Shiva shows no kripa
And they say we come every day, he says — and this is what must happen every day. Then afterwards they say Shiva ji is not showing kripa, we worshipped Shiva ji our whole life. At the time of death, he says, the devatas of Jaunpur will come to take them. Discuss the place you have gone to; do seva-puja concerning the one for whose sake you went. Instead, before the puja, after the puja and during the puja, all three, gossip about one another is running.
Those sitting in japa, tapa and puja in a temple are not to be disturbed
Nobody teaches these people, he says, that if ten people are sitting in the temple doing japa, tapa and puja, they are not to be disturbed. If we too have to do it, and to do it with bhava, then do it quietly — not deliberately come and start ringing the bell, and all this forced and crooked business. Do not, in the attempt to show yourself a great devotee, commit such indiscipline in a temple; better, he says, that you do not go at all and call Basaha Baba at home.
Knowing only how to put on a swang, your own life becomes a swang
You know only how to put on a swang, he says — and for that very reason your life becomes a swang, and then you are left weeping that Bhagavan does not come. Bhagavan does come, he says; you simply do not recognise Bhagavan.
The bhavana is held on the asana after snan, remembering Narayana's form
But when, after becoming pure, after snan and the rest, you sit upon your asana and read the pavitrikaran mantra, then always keep that bhavana in remembrance: meditating on that form of Narayana, that we have remembered you, we have read your mantra, now we are pure. Give attention to this bhav.
May the aarti be done standing on the asana used for path?
Asked whether the aarti can be performed standing on the asana on which one sits to do path, he says: absolutely you can do it.
If the shastras prescribe murti puja, may photographs be worshipped?
Whether or not to do puja of a photo is a separate subject, he says; where our bhav lies is more important than that. Of the photo, and even of the shri vigraha, you may say — what praan is in it for you? It is your bhav that is in it. He gives as the best example Raja Jaisingh and Swami Vivekananda: when Jaisingh said, why should we accept God in a photo, Vivekananda said, then do not accept it; and taking down the picture of his father he placed it on the floor and said, spit on this. Jaisingh became angry, asking why he should spit; and Vivekananda said, exactly that bhav which is in this photo — that our father should not be insulted — that very bhav should be yours toward the photo of your own aradhya.
What is the fruit of worshipping God mentally?
It is the finest fruit of all, the speaker answers. However physically clean we make ourselves, if our mind is not clean and our thoughts in it are foul, no fruit is properly obtained. If you do bhakti mentally, with God seated in your mind twenty-four hours, doing his shodashopachar pujan in the mind whenever you wish, singing his mantras, doing his abhishek within the mind — that is the very best.
How does a practitioner in the state of Shunyata complete a dualistic worship?
The speaker points to the whole dialogue of Totapuri and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, available online, and says it will make the matter clear. What follows Shunyata differs from person to person — for one who has become Advaitavadi, the one who is in many forms is known to be established in one.
What is the minimum a householder should do at home during the Navratra?
Those having an anushthan performed should certainly do something at home too — dhoop, deep and aarti morning and evening; and if nothing else, shringar puja after doing the shringar, which the speaker calls the best of all. Those who are not able to do anything, who are aged or afflicted by illness, should at least have a shri vigraha of Bhagavati in the house, a small one of about five or six inches, for whom they can do abhishek, shringar and aarti daily.
What should be done when the required materials are not available?
Do it with whatever means are available, the speaker tells Vikas. Sadhana and anushthan should be performed according to the means available in the place where one lives. By the rule it goes so far, he says, that if there is a lack even of fruit and leaves in that region, then make the offering mentally and complete the pujan that way.
How should the Durga Manas Puja given in the Saptashati be done?
The Manas Puja that has been given is in two ways, the speaker says. One is the ordinary manas pujan, in which there is the pujan vidhi of panchopachar. The other is a paathyakram which is connected with Bhagavati Lalita; its recitation you should do by singing.
What should someone with no Guru do on Guru Purnima itself?
Those who have not performed the Guru Deeksha Vidhan or the Dev Deeksha Vidhan may comfortably perform the Dev Deeksha Vidhan at their own home on Guru Purnima. Those who already have must go to their Guru's place that day — or, if they cannot, invoke him mentally at their own place.
Where is the guidance on the daily worship of Ma Kali?
There is a live session on the points deserving special attention in the nitya pujan of Ma Kali, the speaker says — listen to it once, a great deal has been told in it.
How should Laddu Gopal be kept and served in the house?
If you keep Laddu Gopal at home, keep him in the bhaav in which a small child is looked after. If you worship him as the chief adhishthatri deva, then his nitya pujan should be done first thing in the morning: bathe him, dress him in clothes, then the bhog of makhan and mishri, aarti and so on — and only then whatever nitya pujan of yours follows. At night do his evening puja, and after the night pujan he should be put to sleep, entirely in the bal bhaav. For his pleasure, the path of the Gopal Sahasranama is the very best.
What is the method if the bhog is offered in a single vessel?
If you offer in one place, do not put in the tulsi leaf first. Set the bhog down and begin the pujan. When the pujan is done, before the aarti, or even after the aarti: you will certainly be keeping water beside the bhog vessel — take water out with the achamani and circle it five times around the bhog. Leave the Vedic mantras aside; you may say the Annapurne Sadapurne mantra or "श्री अन्नपूर्णाय नमः", remembering Bhagavati Annapurna: O Bhagavati Annapurna, serve food to all the devatas and all the devis, let all obtain their share of the food, let the naivedya reach all. Pour the water five times there. Then put in one tulsi leaf and, with folded hands, pray that all the devatas accept the bhog — Narayan too will accept it, and the remaining shaktis as well.
How does a mantra muttered in the mind produce nada and reach the deity?
He answers that by speaking aloud we are doing things related to physicality, whereas all these — manan, niti, mantra — are things that run by the mind. All these are the taking of things from within us outward, and the assimilating of things outside into our own within. There is an outer pujan and there is an inner pujan: the outer pujan is needed only until your practice of the inner state comes about. Once your practice is established, there is no need to show the outer; there is then no need of the outer covering.
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