Forms and Flows of Love - Dunked in Devotion

Yesterday we went into Old Delhi with our driver Mr. Singh, a handsome, elegantly dressed Indian man who drives Uber in a beat up economy car through the heavily polluted streets of Delhi. Like almost everyone else here, he works so hard! All day, every day he is out trolling for fares. Most days he drives for 12 to 15 hours a day. I asked him if he liked driving Uber and he was happily matter-of-fact in his answer. "Some days are good and some customers are good. Others not so much".
On his dash board is a small picture of Hanuman who is his patron saint (his Ishta Devata). Like other Hindus, he believes that God is One but has many forms and faces. Hanuman is one of those forms or faces of God. Hanuman is a kind of super-hero who is able to leap great distances and fly across difficulties due to his great love of God. Most Hindus say that Hanuman and Jesus are the same....2 avatars but the same.
Each morning Mr. Singh spends 2 hours, starting at 5 am, doing a simple devotional puja to Hanuman followed by pranayama (breath-work), Yoga, prayer and meditation. He says this keeps him happy and healthy and grateful for his life. If you have driven in the traffic in India you know that it is really something - a super hero kind of thing - to drive 12 to 15 hours a day and still be happy, healthy and feel grateful for your life.
Getting to know him and hear about his devotional practices a little, as we navigated the insane streets of Delhi, dovetailed with my contemplation about Puja and other externalized rituals of devotion and worship.
There are "forms" or formal practices of devotion such as Pujas and church services. And probably everybody knows how you can do these just "going through the motions". Yoga Asana, for example, is a form or ritual, and it can be practiced as just a good workout or it can be a form of devotion. It just depends on the attitude or focus I bring to it.
But even when I go through the motions of the "forms" of practice like puja and yoga asana, the form itself can - and often does - open a flow of happiness or devotion. Not all the time. But much of the time. If I only waited for myself to "feel" like practicing the forms (puja, asana, meditation, etc.) I wouldn't practice much.
My root teacher, Lee Lozowick, said if you only do one practice, do Puja. I did not understand that teaching for a long time. But being in India, last time and this time, as well as remembering back to the innocence and sweetness of my childhood experiences of ritualized devotion, I have grown to love my practices of bowing to and expressing gratitude to the Sacred. Lee's teaching that if you are only doing one practice make it the practice of Puja, has turned out to be quite expansive since I now see that so much of what I love to do in terms of practice really can be a form of Puja. Simple things like lighting a candle and incense, placing a flower, moving through the beautiful forms and flow of yoga asana. Once my heart and mind open to the understanding of puja, I can see that so much of my day can be an offering.
I am inspired by the transmission of devotion I've received by being here in India.....things like hearing about Mr. Singh's early morning practices of devotion, seeing endless simple shrines on the roadsides and even at the roots of trees, watching the women wash the sidewalk at the entrance to their homes each morning and then make a rice powder yantra (sacred design) to welcome the Sacred into their home and their day.
I am being dunked in devotion. India transmits it to me in a way that I can predict with my logical, rational mind. It’s more like I learn it – or remember it – in my flesh and bones, in my cells.  And I am so grateful.
OK....Got to go. Thanks for reading.