Puja Vidhi Slokam List | Pooja Vidhanam Slokas

Creation of Puja Vidhi:

1. The acts pertaining to rituals of puja were created with the help of the ichha-shakti (Energy of will) in the universe: Acts associated with karmakanda such as puja, offering Naivedya etc. are associated with the ichha-shakti in the universe. Depending on the bhav (Spiritual emotion) of the individual while performing these acts, through the specific act, the individual receives the waves associated with ichha-shakti of the respective Deity.

2. Hindu Dharma is based on sagun (materialised) Upasana: Fundamentally, Hindu Dharma is based on karmakanda, meaning, on sagun. The first part of the Shodashopachar puja (Upachar 1 to 8) is the upwards illusory progress of the individual from the Kunḍalini (Spiritual energy), with the objective of attaining the nirgun (Non-materialised). The concluding part of the puja (Upachar 9 to 16) is the actual progress towards the nirgun through Advaita (Non-duality) for the purpose of completing the task.

Importance of Puja Vidhi:

Panchopachar and Shodashopachar teach the individual to abide by Dharma in a ritualistic manner. This shows the scientific depth of the upachars in Hindu Dharma.

The Deity Principle is attracted towards an Idol due to its specific form; whereas, this Principle gets awakened due to the sanskaras (Subtle impressions) such as puja etc.: His Holiness Pagnis Maharaj consecrated an Idol at one place. Due to its form, it already had 2% Deity Principle. He performed puja of the Idol every day. As a result of these regular sanskaras, the Deity Principle in the Idol awakened further and reached 5%. The Deity Principle is attracted to an Idol due to its form; whereas, due to samskaras such as puja, the Deity Principle in it is awakened. If the sanskaras are performed with bhav, the Deity Principle in the Idol enhances.
Obtaining the Deity’s grace: Puja pleases a Deity and hence, it becomes easier to obtain the Deity’s grace.
The Chaitanya (Divine consciousness) in the worshipper increases: By performing puja, the worshipper imbibes the Deity Principle. It reduces the proportion of Raja -Tama components in him and helps increase Chaitanya.
Sattvik waves imbibed from the puja help in performing various activities throughout the day.
Purification of the environment: puja helps increase the sattvikta (purity) of the environment.

Types of Puja Vidhi:

Scriptures have mentioned the following four types of puja. The first two types are at the physical level, what we generally term as ‘Devapuja’, while the next two are at the subtle-level.

Panchopachar Puja (puja of an Idol or a picture): Panchopachar = Pancha (Five) + upachar. Offering the Deity five upachars, that is, gandha (sandalwood paste), phool (Flower), dhoop, deep (Oil lamp) and Naivedya.
Shodashopachar Puja: Shodashopachar = Shodasha (Sixteen) + upachar. Offering the Deity sixteen specific upachars, including the five mentioned above in Panchopachar puja.
Manas Puja: Imagining a sagun Idol and worshipping it mentally.
Para Puja: Worshipping the nirgun supreme Brahman through para mode of speech.