In India the students used to perform a puja to their teacher, sometimes at the beginning of long vacation breaks and sometimes at the beginning and ending of the school year. I don't know how it is done now but I doubt that this traditions has continued much, except in village life. It always included a dandavat pranam along with simple gifts to the teacher. Children did the same for their parents only more often.
Parents are the first guru. School teachers are the second. Guru-deva depends upon the sampradaya but can be either the second or third guru in a person's traditional life. Parents and school teachers are gurus but not more. Even the local pandit is only an acharya not a guru-deva. The Mahabhata clearly shows that martial arts teachers are gurus. Guru signifies "gravitas" both of the teacher and of the nature of the teaching. Therefore from a Indian viewpoint there is nothing that makes a puja a relgious practice as such. Puja is not yajna. It is an offering not a sacrifice. Puja retains the form of the traditional offerings because it is based upon a standard Indian cutural paradigm. Whether or not it is performed for a deva depends upon the declaration of intent at the beginning of the offering ritual. Which brings up the question of The Force. Vaj: If I am going to empower some one or some thing with a certain enlightenment-energy practice, I always unite, mentally with visualization and with mental mantra, with that force. It's this assumption of the acquired force that makes the empowerment work and flow. The proper identification with the force you're merging with is unmistakable once you're used to that presence. Are you talking about Power (shakti) or The Force? Which of these do you mean by enlightenment-energy? You say you are an exponent of the Nath sampradaya. Does this mean you are an Natha diksha guru? Shouldn't you be calling yourself Vajranath again instead of -dhatu? Maybe VajraGuru or NathaGuru would be better. However, if you are initiating people into The Force then maybe Obevaj would be more accurate. It is my deeply inquiring mind that brings up such grand questions. No offence meant, as Kirk would say. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: > > > On Mar 25, 2009, at 10:53 AM, do.rflex wrote: > > > In my teacher training course, Maharishi explained that in essence, > > the initiator 'becomes' Guru Dev when the mantra is imparted from > > that deep level and given to the initiate. It's a very gentle and > > sublime, but powerful experience. For me personally while teaching, > > it has varied unpredictably in intensity. > > > > Some times while reciting and performing the Puja I have > > transcended and felt that I was losing track of where I was in the > > recitation - however at the same time noticing that the Puja > > continued flowing like a river as if all by itself. > > > > --Apparently some TM teachers don't seem to have experienced that. > > I have no definitive explanation for that. > > > > As a TM teacher trained by MMY, I have always had serious > > reservations about introducing TM wholesale into public schools > > claiming it's strictly a non-religious relaxation technique. To me > > personally, it's blatantly dishonest. > > > And MMY's explanation is, in fact, a good one. The idea of the 16- > fold worship is for the worshipper to unite his consciousness with > the object of the worship--in this case the Guru-God as embodied in > the discarnate human, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. The level of > unification can occur at different levels, but the goal is always to > unite with the god or goddess being invoked. It sounds to me like you > simply had a very clear and innocent experience of this state. > > If I am going to empower some one or some thing with a certain > enlightenment-energy practice, I always unite, mentally with > visualization and with mental mantra, with that force. It's this > assumption of the acquired force that makes the empowerment work and > flow. The proper identification with the force you're merging with is > unmistakable once you're used to that presence. >
