() is a worship ritual performed by Hindus to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honour a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event.James Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2, , pp. 529–530.Paul Courtright, in Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone (Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Norman Cutler, and Vasudha Narayanan, eds), , Columbia University Press, see Chapter 2. It may honour or celebrate the presence of special guests, or their memories after they die.
The word puja is roughly translated into English as 'reverence, honour, homage, adoration, or worship'.पूजा, Sanskrit Dictionary, Germany (2009) Puja, the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine, is the essential ritual of Hinduism. For the worshipper, the divine is visible in the image, and the divinity sees the worshipper. The interaction between human and deity, or between human and guru, is called darshanam.Religions in the Modern World, 3rd Edition, David Smith, p. 45
In Hindu practice, puja is performed on a variety of occasions, frequencies, and settings. It may take the form of a daily puja done in the home, or it may be performed in occasional temple ceremonies and annual festivals. In other cases, puja is held to mark events in the course of a worshipper's life, such as: the birth of a baby, a house entering ceremony (grihapravesh), the first rice-eating ceremony (annaprasana), a wedding, a sacred thread ceremony (upanayana) for Brahmins, or a ceremony to begin a new venture (with Ganapathi Puja). The two main areas where puja is performed are in the home or at temples, to mark certain stages of life, and during events or festivals, such as Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Janmashtami, and Lakshmi Puja.
Many Hindu festivals involve puja and other forms of worship. These Hindu festivals include Lakshmi puja during Diwali, worship of Ganesha during Ganesh Chaturthi, prayers and offerings during Janmashtami, and worship of Durga during Navaratri.
For example, a chirathu (also known as a diya), clarified butter wicks, bells, flowers, incense sticks, cones, roli or kumkum (a red powder with turmeric mixed in applied to the forehead), rice, tilakam, chandanam (sandalwood sticks), idols, and samagri havanam are some common items utilized in puja. In Hinduism, puja is a satvik work.
Puja varies according to the sect, region, occasion, deity honored, and steps followed. In formal Nigama ceremonies, a fire may be lit in honor of the god Agni, without an idol or image present. In contrast, in Agama ceremonies, an idol or icon or image of a deity is present. In both ceremonies, a lamp (diya) or incense stick may be lit while a prayer is chanted or a hymn is sung. Puja is typically performed by Hindu worshippers alone, though sometimes in the presence of a priest who is well-versed in complex rituals and hymns. In temples and priest-assisted events puja, food, fruits, and sweets may be included as sacrificial offerings to the ceremony or deity, which, after the prayers, becomes prasadam – food shared by all gathered.Puja, Encyclopædia Britannica.Hiro G. Badlani (2008), Hinduism: a path of ancient wisdom, , pp. 315–318.
Both Nigama and Agama puja are practised in Hinduism in India. In Balinese Hinduism, agama puja is most commonly performed in homes and temples. Puja is sometimes called Sembahyang in Indonesia.How Balinese worship their god The Bali Times (January 4, 2008), Pedoman Sembahyang Bali Indonesia (2009).Yves Bonnefoy (ed.), Asian mythologies, , University of Chicago Press, pages 161–162
Etymology
() in Sanskrit means "honour, respect; homage, worship, adoration; hospitable reception." Axel Michaels writes that the etymology of the word is "uncertain". J. A. B. van Buitenen hypothesized that puja evolved from Vedic yajna rituals, but his theory did not gain broad recognition as it only focused on external aspects. The Rigveda in hymn 8.17 uses the word Sachipujanayam (Sanskrit: शाचिपूजनायं) as an epithet for Indra, which alludes to puja in Vedic times. The word puja also appears in the Shatapatha Brahmana, Chandogya Upanishad, and Dharmasutras. The Grhyasutras use puj in the context of rites, as does Sanskrit scholar Pāṇini. However, none of these texts imply puja as a form of devotional prayer worship.
According to Natalia Lidova, puja is unlikely to be of Indo-Aryan and Vedic origin because it lacks a Sanskrit root and it also lacks cognate parallels in other Indo-European languages. Its roots are probably Dravidian in origin, but the evidence for this alternative hypothesis is also largely missing possibly because devotional worship is not as ancient as Hinduism. Collins states that the roots may be "pu" (flower) and "ge" (make), or a form of "making flower sacrifice". However, this proposal is problematic because "pu" comes from an Indo-European root, while "ge" from Dravidian. Like Lidova, Charpentier also suggestsCharpentier, J. (1926), "Über den Begriff und die Etymologie von Pujå." Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte Indiens, Festgabe Hermann Jacobi zum 75, Geburstag. Ed. W. Kirfel, Bonn, pp. 279–297. the origin of the word puja may lie in the Dravidian languages. Two possible Malayalam roots may be 'to smear with something' or "to do with flowers" (from 'flower' and 'to do'). Tamil roots have also been suggested: 'to smear with something' or "to do with flowers" (from 'flower' and 'to do')Varadara Raman, Glimpses of Indian Heritage (1998)' or similar Telugu roots (from 'flower' and 'to do').
According to the Shiva Purana, puja is derived from cognate of two Sanskrit words puh and jayate, puh meaning 'achievement of fruits of enjoyment' while jayate refers to 'something to be born'. Hence puja refers to the rite by which one attains fruits of enjoyment of things like good ideas and knowledge.
Origins Scholarly opinion is divided into two main views on the origin of puja. Within the majority view, scholar Timothy Lubin believes that elements of puja were consciously integrated with Vedic rituals.
According to scholars,Hillary Peter Rodrigues (2003), Ritual Worship of the Great Goddess, McGill Studies in the History of Religions, State University of New York Press, , see Chapter 3. one of the earliest mentions of pūjā is in the Grihya Sutras, which provide rules for domestic rites. These sutras, dated to about 500 BC, use the term puja to describe the hospitality to honour priests who were invited to one's home to lead rituals for departed ancestors. As with vedic times, the general concept of puja remained the same, but it expanded to welcoming the deity along with the deity's spiritual essence as one's honored guest.
The Puranic corpus of literature, dating from about the 6th century CE, contain an extensive outline on how to perform deity puja (deva pūjā). Deity puja thus melds Vedic rites with devotion to the deity in its ritual form. As with many other aspects of Hinduism, both Vedic puja and devotional deity puja continued, with the choice left to the Hindu.
As a historical practice, pūjā in Hinduism, has been modelled on the idea of hosting a deity, or important person, as an honoured and dearest guest in the best way one can, given one's resources, and receiving their happiness and blessing in return. Paul Thieme suggests that, from passages in the Rāmāyaṇa that the word pūjā referred to the hospitable reception of guests and that the things offered to guests could be offered to the gods and their dwellings.Paul Thieme, "Indische Wörter und Sitten", in Kleine Schriften (Wiesbaden, 1984) 2: 343–70. The rituals in question were the "five great sacrifices" or pañcamahāyajña recorded in the Gṛhyasūtra texts (for this literature, see Kalpa).G. Bühnemann, Pūjā: A Study of Smarta Ritual (Vienna, 1988): p. 33; Shingo Einoo, "The Formation of the Pūjā Ceremony," Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik (Festschrift für Paul Thieme) 20 (1996): 74. A different view is found in Smith, Vedic Sacrifice in Transition, pp. 2–5, who attributes the decline of old śrauta practices to a number of factors one of which was the emergence of 'iconic ritual'. The development of pūjā thus emerged from Vedic domestic traditions and was carried into the temple environment by analogy: just as important guests had long been welcomed in well-to-do homes and offered things that pleased them, so too were the gods welcomed in temple-homes and offered things that pleased them. Copper-plate charters recording grants of land to temples show that this religious practice was actively encouraged from the mid-4th century.
Significance In the earliest texts describing Vedic puja, the significance of puja was to host the priest so that he could make direct requests to the gods. An example of a petitionary prayer made during a Vedic puja, according to Wade Wheelock,Harvey P. Alper, Understanding Mantras, , Chapter 3. is as follows:
Indra-Agni, slayers of Vrtra with the beautiful thunderbolt, prosper us with new gifts; O Indra, bring treasures with your right hand; O Agni grant the enjoyments of a good household; Give [us] vigour, wealth in cattle, and possession of good horses. – ÄsvSü
The purpose of the requests is to burn the past karmas to be able to experience oneness with Brahman through the help of the deity. It is a form of bhakti yoga whose final result aims to be the consciousness of god through homage to god. Nevertheless, even with this evolved theoretical spiritual significance, many people use puja as a vehicle to petition for desires and appeals, such as for the good health of one's child, speedy recovery from illness, success in an envisioned venture, or similar goals. In the structure and practice of puja, the mantras and rituals focus on spirituality, and any such petitions and appeals are only added to the end of the puja.
Heinrich ZimmerZimmer, Heinrich (1984), Artistic Form and Yoga in the Sacred Images of India. Translated by Gerald Chapple and James B. Lawson, Princeton University Press. relates puja to yantras, with the rituals helping the devotee to focus on the spiritual concepts. Puja in Hinduism, writes Zimmer, is a path and process of the transformation of consciousness, where the devotee and the spiritual significance of the deity are brought together. This ritual puja process, in different parts of India, is considered to be liberating, releasing, purifying, and a form of yoga of the spirit and emotions.Hillary Peter Rodrigues (2003), Ritual Worship of the Great Goddess, McGill Studies in the History of Religions, State University of New York Press, Tracy Pintchman (2008), "Raising Krishna with Love: Maternal devotion as a form of yoga in a women's ritual tradition", in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Knut Joacobsen), .
Puja in Hinduism sometimes involves themes beyond sacred idols or images (murtis). This may include persons, places, rivers, concrete objects, or anything that is seen as a manifestation of the divine reality by some Hindus. The access to the divine is not limited to renunciatory meditation, as in the Yoga school of Hinduism, or sacred idols, as in Bhakti traditions. For some, the divine is everywhere, without limit to its form, and a puja to these manifestations signifies the same spiritual meaning to those who choose to offer a prayer to persons, places, rivers, concrete objects or anything else.Eck, Diana (1981), Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, Chambersburg: Anima Books.Jessica Frazer & Gavin Flood (2011), The Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies, .
Types of Puja
Pujas can be nitya, obligatory or daily, naimittika, occasional, or kamya, optionally undertaken for a desire.
Pancopacara puja