Pushpa Yajna

Puja, that important Indian word, has a truly lovely meaning. It comes from Pushpa Yajna or 8216;flower offering8217; and its generic mean...

Puja, that important Indian word, has a truly lovely meaning. It comes from Pushpa Yajna or 8216;flower offering8217; and its generic meaning evolved as 8216;to honour8217; or 8216;to revere8217;. That8217;s why, even today, we begin letters with 8216;Pujya Mataji8217; or 8216;Pujya Pitaji8217;, literally, 8216;Honoured Parent8217;. Despite our present filial informality, which is much nicer than the old ways, you8217;ve got to admit that 8216;Honoured Father8217; has a grace and power completely lacking in 8216;Hi, Mom8217; or 8216;Dear Dad8217;. In fact, many Indians like to start their letters the old way and then switch to 8216;normal8217; English for the rest of the communication: a neat Eastern solution, I do think.

The importance of flowers goes right back to our old Creation myths. The Taittiiya Brahmana tells of how Prajapati the All-Father desired to create the universe which was then formless fluid. As he thought about it, his feelings first took shape as a pushkara parna, or lotus leaf, that he suddenly saw floating on the cosmic waters. As he began to concentrate his creative tapas fervour or 8216;heat8217;, the first wonder appeared: out of the cosmic waters suddenly sprang a 1000-petalled golden lotus, 8220;radiant beyond compare8221;. This was considered the gateway or opening to the womb of the universe.

In Indian symbology, the water represents procreative power, while the lotus is generative power. That8217;s how we find the lotus all over Indian spiritual and religious imagery. Brahma is shown seated in the lotus growing from the navel of 8216;Padmanabha8217; Mahavishnu. Mahalakshmi stands or sits on a pink lotus, Durga, when she sets forth to battle demons, is given an empowering lotus-garland by Varuna, Lord of the Waters, Saraswati is envisioned seated on a white lotus ya shweta padmasana.

Unsurprisingly, our heart, the deepest home of our soul, is described as the hriday-kamal, or heart-lotus. Variants are hriday-padma and hriday-aarvind. The hriday-kamal is thought of as a core of Light, the God-in-us. And God is untiringly sung of as 8216;the Lotus-eyed8217;: Saroja dala netri, Pundarikaksha, Kamalanayana, Rajivalochana and so on, in lovely litany. No wonder we say 8216;Pujya8217; to parents and teachers. After all, the order of reverence goes: Mata, Pita, Guru and, finally, Deva!