PRAYERS IN DAILY LIFE

 श्री  गणेश  मंदिर   -  शिक्षा वाणी

Sri Ganesh mandir - Serene Sunday Reflections

4^th August 2019 : 

PRAYERS IN DAILY LIFE

KEYWORDS :: Hymn, Mantra, Sthothra, Bhajan, Prayer, Chanting, Worship, Hindu Home

 

Last week we reflected on the Energy in Manthra in Temples and drawn a parallel to Prayers in Daily Life in Homes. Heart of Hinduism is in the Homes of Hindus. Prayers is the Life of Hinduism. Thus Prayers in Daily Life is most important to every Hindus. Prayers are the asset that traditions from the past transferred to us and we are responsible to pass it to the next generation. There are uncountable prayers around uncountable God/Godesses apart from hymns / manthras / sookthas / suthras / anushtups / chanda  etc. in the Vedic Texts. We shall now see only the Daily Prayers and reserve our discussions on scripters one by one in the later weeks.

Hinduism doesn’t prescribe a style of Prarthana (Prayer / worship / adore / honour / pay respect) to individuals at home. It is all the tradition and culture imbibed from past or picked up from relatives or friends and at times it is prescribed by their mentors / GURU. Home worship may have a family chosen (deity – Kula (family) deva (God) or an Ishta (favourate) Deva) shrine / a few pictures / murti on a shelf in the living room / kitchen or a dedicate room to worship and be in Dhyana (devotion in prayers).

A scaled version of the temple Puja (worship process) could be a half an hour in the morning / evening or both times after bath and chanting manthras related to cleanliness like Sapta Sudhi etc.. Children are learned by practice and no special training is generally done on this. The sequence in puja could be Gayatri Mantra, Santhi mantra, Ganesha Vandanam and followed by decorations and offerings and then sthuthi (praising); all these are through japa (prayers).

As part of the Puja at Home,  light, flower, water and incense, and/or fruit / the food before eating is offered to God/Godess and believed it as the Prasad (Sanctified), during this prasada offering at times ‘Sahana vavathu sahanau bhunakthu…’ is chanted (to have the concept that God too is living and eating with us). A puja thali (plate) consists of a Diyaa/lamp, Haldi/Kumkum, Sweet meats or fruits, Water, Bell, incense, and Perfume sticks. All these ingradients are offered with specific mantha / chanting / sloka / sthuthi / sloka / sthothra /  Aarti (circumblation of light around the puja is generally with Prayers. This will be continued with the japa (prayers in silence) and or Bhajan (group singing).

After the pooja is done, Kumkum / Vibhoothi (Sacred Ash) is put on the forehead and Prasadam (Nivedhyam) (a bit of the sanctified food is consumed) with appropriate Prayers like (brahmarpanam …). Then do an athma pradakshina with chanting kani-yani-cha-papani….. followed by sashtanga pranamam by laying on the floor stretching folded hands towards the puja place. May read more at http://www.drtps-shiksha.in/pdfs/Nithya%20Slokah.pdf

All these activities have a scientific / philosophical / spiritual meaning and deep understanding is what one has to learn, for want of space we will not get into those details. Could read https://rare-news-collection.blogspot.com/2009/03/

Just now we reflected by discussing the Bhakti (devotion) path to attain the blessings of God. The other major path as per Hindu Philosophy is Gnana (Wisdom path) which we shall reflect in the coming week.

----- Next Week 11^th August 2019 - Importance of Gnana ------

More from DrTPS  at (www.drtps-shiksha.in /  https://rare-news-collection.blogspot.com/)

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