Puja is the name of the Hindu form of worship, which is from the beginning to the end a symbolical expression of what the seeker has to perform in the path of spiritual attainment. After bathing in the running stream of water, which the Hindu calls the Ganges (whatever be the name of the river he at that time believes that it is the Ganges, the sacred river), he proceeds with flowers to the shrine of the deity. He puts on to the deity the flowers, and repeats the mantrams, and stands greeting the deity with folded hands, and prostrates himself before the deity. Then he rings the bell and repeats the sacred word. Then he takes rice in his hands and puts it at the feet of the deity.

Then the red powder, Kumkum, he touches with the tip of his finger and makes a mark with it on the shrine of the deity and then on his own forehead. Then he touches the ointment with the tip of his finger and, after touching the deity, he touches his forehead with the ointment. He then prostrates himself and makes three circles around the shrine. Then he rings the bell, and thus the service is finished. Afterwards he goes and stands before the sun and does his breathing exercises while adhering to the sun, and that completes the next part of his worship.

However primitive this form of worship, at the back of it there seems to be a great meaning. The meaning of the bath in the Ganges is to become purified before one makes any effort of journeying on the spiritual path.

The purification of the body and of the mind both are necessary before one takes the first step towards the God-ideal. One must not approach the deity before such purification, the outer purification as well as the inner purification, for then alone, when once a person is pure, he will find it easy to attain the desired presence. The meaning of the flowers which he takes is that God is pleased with the offerings which are delicate, beautiful and fragrant. Delicate means tenderness of heart, beautiful in color is fineness of character, fragrance is the virtue of the soul. This is the offering with which God is pleased. He stands with the thought that his self is devoted in perfect discipline to the supreme will of God. His hands folded express no action on the part of himself, but complete surrender.

The meaning of prostration is self-denial in the right sense of the word, which means, "I am not -- Thou art"; whispering the words and ringing the bell is that the same word is rung in the bell of one's heart. His touching the red powder means touching the eternal life and when he touches the deity with that powder it means that from this source he is to gain eternal life. When he touches his forehead with it, it means he has gained it for himself. And the ointment means wisdom, and the touching of the God with it and then to his forehead means that true wisdom can be obtained from God alone, and touching his own head with it means that he has gained it. Then making three circles around the shrine is the sign that life is a journey and that journey is made to attain his goal which is God, that "Every step I take in my life," the Brahman thinks, "will be in His direction, in the search of God." In the second part of the service when he stands before the sun, by that he means that God is to be sought in the light. And by the breathing exercises he welds that link of inner communication between God and himself.

Questions and Answers

Q: Do the Vaishnavas and Shiva-followers and the worshippers of all the different deities worship in the same way?
A: It is almost the same. There may be little differences; not much. Just some differences which will perhaps distinguish one from the other. But at the same time mostly this is the form.

Q: Have they all the same sacred words and breathing exercises?
A: No, perhaps the words of the Vaishnava (followers of Vishnu) differ from the words the followers of Shiva use. Of course, the meaning is the same. And breathing exercises do not differ much. For the reason that the yoga is one yoga for all the Hindus. There are four different yogas, but one system.

Q: Who gives them the words and breathing exercises? Are the priests Murshids?
A: First of all, a Brahman is a priest by birth; a Brahman is a born priest. Therefore the first lesson he receives is in his own family, of the sacred word. But when he takes an esoteric path, at that time he needs the guidance of a Murshid. What the Brahman calls a Guru. And it may be the same word perhaps which he has learned from his parents. Still when that word is given by the Guru, that has a different value again. Perhaps he has repeated that word in his life, but when it is given by the Guru the value of the word is different.

Q: And for the non-Brahman?
A: The manner of their worship is the same. But the worship of the other persons is done by the mediumship of a Brahman, because only a Brahman was entitled to perform the service. Brahmans were the community of priests. And for Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas, and Shudras, which are three different castes of the Hindus, the Brahmans had to perform services. The others had no power to perform the service anywhere.

Hindus are all those who live in Ineia. They have to take Brahman as a medium; through Brahman they are entitled to have a service. Brahman is the one who will perform the service; and they will have to stand there and partake in the service.

Q: Do they know the meaning of all the different actions they perform?
A: Not everybody. An advanced Brahman knows it.

Q: Has it not changed the customs of the other classes?
A: Yes, they do prostrate. But going near the deity, and putting the red powder and the ointment, that they do not do. Sometimes they bring for the Brahman the red powder and the oil, and leave it there. But that is Brahman's work to do.

They have many different marks of the caste. But the caste-mark denotes the third eye, the inner sense.

Q: The Catholic Church . . . ?
A: One thing is very admirable in the Hindu religion. It is so very vast in its ways of worship, and in its doctrines and ideal and forms and philosophy, that it gives a scope for a person of every grade of evolution; he has an answer in the religion of the Hindus, whatever grade of evolution he has reached. For every person Hinduism will give an answer, because it is very vast. If a person will try in the philosophical field, he will find an answer; in worship, in symbology. Therefore it is something which answers the demand of every individual's life. If one takes the whole religion of the Hindus, from the beginning to the end, so vast and deep, and yet so simple that it answers the need of every person. Hinduism is not one religion; Hinduism is many religions itself.

Q: Is that the reason that the Jains and Sikhs have so grown?
A: The religion of the Jains is Buddhistic, and of the Sikhs is a modern reform of Hinduism.

Q: Does the ancient . . . ?
A: There is no direction of life which is not expressed.

Q: . . . . A: It is the spiritual effort of the word. At the same time when the Guru gives it, at that time the Guru has charged this word with his own spiritual power. That is the same thing in Sufism.

Q: What is the meaning in the worship of the Brahmans of putting rice at the feet of the deity?
A: That all the love and light that they will gain from the deity, they will spread in the world, as the seeds thrown in the furrow. The name of the red powder symbolizes eternal life.