I have to either do puja more often, or trim it

[Jainarayan]

It’s bad enough I have to use little cue cards lest I completely forget what I’m doing.

It’s actually pretty short but I always manage to forget or mess something up. Sometimes it’s a tulsi leaf I forget, sometimes I trip over my own tongue, etc.

Tonight I forgot a couple of slokas. There is a sloka I have after each offering for the light, incense, fruit and flower, and naivedya. Such as:
om sri krishnaya namah pushpam samarpayami
turīya guṇa sampannam nānā guṇa manoharam |
ānanda saurabhaṃ puṣpaṃ gṛhyatām idam uttamam || (Please O Lord accept this flower of various pleasing qualities with great pleasure).

I can’t believe I blew past each samarpayami and forgot those little slokas. They’re probably not that important but it highlights the fact that I don’t do puja often enough to remember them.

Thank goodness for the kshamapana prarthana.

 

[Vinayaka]

Jai, I do mine daily, and have for the last 10 years or so. Still, some days. I just stop in the middle, and wonder what the heck is up. You'd think I'd know it by heart by now. On Oct. 15, I'm switching it all up, lol. So that'll happen every day for awhile.

 

[Jainarayan]

I feel much better now reading that.

Part of my problem is having OCPD and always changing the layout, adding and removing parts.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Offer a flower with devotion. I do not think mantras are a necessity. It is elaboration. Good, if you do that. The shortest I do is "Sab Hindu devi-devatāon ki jai" (Hail all Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism). Sometimes it comes at the end of my puja, othertimes it is the whole of my puja. But I mentally remember each and every one of them. Please note that I am a maverick Hindu and not a conventional Hindu.

 

[Jainarayan]

I think you’re right. One of the reasons I avoid doing puja is because I try to make it a little too elaborate. Then I get upset because I don’t have the time to do it, so I don’t. I think I’ll cut it down so I can do a tiny one before work daily.

 

[Vinayaka]

I think you’re right. One of the reasons I avoid doing puja is because I try to make it a little too elaborate. Then I get upset because I don’t have the time to do it, so I don’t. I think I’ll cut it down so I can do a tiny one before work daily.

I love the mantras, personally. If you get really into them, it brings out a deja-vu of sitting in a powerful temple, or the subconscious vibration of earlier experiences. It can make my puja quite powerful. Sometimes Boss, who often sleeps through my early morning puja will say, 'Wow, you must have done a strong puja this morning. I can feel it."

So there's a happy medium there somewhere. Serious, but not so serious it's a distraction. Relaxed, but not so relaxed it becomes a joke.

 

[Aupmanyav]

 

[Jainarayan]

I love the mantras, personally.

I do too, which is my problem. I'm a collector... books, movies, mantras, deities.

"I present to you, Tanileer Tivan, The Collector"

That would be me.

 

[Vinayaka]

I have retained some of the concentration from the days of being a pandaram. There is something quite different about having an audience at a public temple, versus being on your own, in terms of the intensity.

 

[Islington]

I feel much better now reading that.

Part of my problem is having OCPD and always changing the layout, adding and removing parts.

Adding and removing parts? Lego puja?

 

[Jainarayan]

Adding and removing parts? Lego puja?

Pretty much.

 

[Aupmanyav]

We say here 'Dil da mamala hai' (it is a matter of one's heart).

And after a 32 year singing career, this:

 

[SomeRandom]

Maybe you could make yourself a little book? Gather all the things you need, organise them in a way that's useful to you, type it all out, print. Most stores that do photos could even do the rest for you, for a couple dollars.
I made an entire folder for like 5 bucks at my local office works. Me ma has a book from the Sai Baba peeps that outline which mantras for which days and so on and so forth.

 

[Jainarayan]

Maybe you could make yourself a little book? Gather all the things you need, organise them in a way that's useful to you, type it all out, print.

That's exactly what I do... and what I keep changing. I print on 4x6" blank postcard stock. I have stacks of them. Some I've even had coil bound because they were so large. They do make nice books.

 

[SomeRandom]

That's exactly what I do... and what I keep changing. I print on 4x6" blank postcard stock. I have stacks of them. Some I've even had coil bound because they were so large. They do make nice books.

Maybe several books then lol
I dunno. Your pujas sound very complicated. Which is fine, if that is how you like it. But maybe you could ask someone in your group on ways to help you organize it, as it were. Or maybe just lay out all your cards before each puja, arranging them how you like each time.

Puja need not be a serious study mission though. I usually just read some of the Sai Baba book or just you know pray. My Hindi is quite atrocious so I don't even try Sanskrit.
Just sort of wander through it, like I do life.
But then I am rather casual in general, so......

 

[Aupmanyav]

Perhaps Jai could put the 'day' on the sheaf's. So like, 'this is what it will be for Thursday'.
Monday Shiva, Tuesday Hanumana .., and so forth. Divide the days for deities (well, you can accommodate only seven ).

In the 'nine deities' image that I posted, if Lords Vishnu, Rama and Krishna are taken as one, you get exactly seven (and that include Lord Buddha as well being an avatara of Lord Vishnu).

 

[Vinayaka]

That's exactly what I do... and what I keep changing. I print on 4x6" blank postcard stock. I have stacks of them. Some I've even had coil bound because they were so large. They do make nice books.

I found that cumbersome, so I've always had the rule ... it it ain't memorized, don't do it.' The priests in temples who use books often work with another priest. While one reads (from that old tattered book) the other one does all the actions. Am example is in sahasranama archana.

I practice memorisation at the computer usually, with words and sound together.

 

[Jainarayan]

I found that cumbersome, so I've always had the rule ... it it ain't memorized, don't do it.'

I actually like that. Short slokas are easy enough, like “yani kani ca papani... “ and the kshama prarthana (there is a long one also) but longer ones are probably unnecessary for home puja.

 

[Jainarayan]

Your pujas sound very complicated. Which is fine, if that is how you like it.

Actually they have been, but no I don’t like it. I’ve felt they had to be more involved. See, I read too much. I always felt creepy if they were short and “cheap”.

 

[Vinayaka]

I actually like that. Short slokas are easy enough, like “yani kani ca papani... “ and the kshama prarthana (there is a long one also) but longer ones are probably unnecessary for home puja.

Personalities and learning styles do vary, but the fact that it was short seemed to motivate me to memorise. Now it's around 20 minutes. So over about 40 years, my personal puja has increased by maybe 19 minutes. lol.