Honoring All Forms and Vehicles of the Divine

India is an over-the-top, out-of-the-closet country of God lovers. At home, in my experience, it is predominantly not cool to be overly religious or overly devotional. But here? There's no apology or buffering. At home, when I am teaching, I might say something like "Open to grace" or "Open to something greater than yourself".  I don't use the word "God" so much in order to honor everybody's different beliefs and to avoid activating what I humorously refer to as people's PTRSD (post traumatic religious stress disorder). So many people have had a bad time growing up in coercive fundamental religious sects and in my classes I like to respect diversity and make my classes welcoming to everybody including agnostics. I imagine I will continue in this way - in order to practice welcoming and hospitality - but I wonder if something is lost, by being so careful to not offend. 

Here, there is no sense of overt devotion being offensive. Our driver, on the first day we met him (not after several a days when he was sure we would not be offended) told us he had prayed to God for good weather and good conditions. "OF COURSE! Why not?!" he said ..."Of course! Without God NOTHING works". Can you imagine an Uber driver telling your that when he picks you up?

A prevalent aspect of this widespread devotion is the practice of Puja, a devotional worship to one or more deities, or to host and honor a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event. It might honor or celebrate the presence of special guest(s), or their memories after they die. The word puja means reverence, honor, homage, adoration, and worship and includes the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine. For the worshiper, the divine is visible in the image, and the image sees the worshiper. The interaction between human and deity, between human and divine is called darshan. 

I grew up in a very devotional Roman Catholic family and my wonderful dad was particularly devotional. We definitely practiced or observed a form of puja in the ritual of the mass (what sometimes I refer to as the "bells and the smells"; the bread and the wine; etc.) And there were always many images at church and at home, of the sacred. We had a kind of darshan practice involving images of Jesus, Mary, and innumerable saints). So India is a kind of devotional homecoming feeling to me. 

Puja rituals are done on a variety of occasions and may include daily puja done in the home, to occasional temple ceremonies and annual festivals. Puja is not mandatory. In some temples pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day; in other temples pujas are occasional. And many people, from rickshaw drivers to Ashram residents, have emphasized to us that the main temple is one's heart where God dwells in us and as us. And that the most important puja is one that is done inwardly, a darshan of the heart.

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