I am wondering what the deal is on puja anyway.
This is what good old Tom Ball, Re-certified Governor of North Carolina says on
his blog and website about TM:
But doesn't the Transcendental Meditation instruction ceremony involve
"offerings?"
The TM instruction ceremony derives
from and retains many elements of the traditional Vedic custom of guest
reception: offering a bath, fresh garments, food, etc. — all done
symbolically during puja as gestures of respect. The puja used in TM
instruction recites the names of the tradition of teachers and honors
them, most prominently acknowledging the latest representative of that
tradition, Maharishi's teacher, Brahmananda Saraswati, or "Guru Dev"
("great teacher").
There is no "offering to gods" or any such thing. It's more like giving an
apple to your teacher — very simple and natural.
I heard that the TM instruction ceremony mentions names of gods?
The secular-type puja performed during Transcendental Meditation
instruction uses the traditional Sanskrit language of honor and respect
that's indigenous to the ancient Vedic culture. Although it may sound foreign
to Western ears, the formal
language is used ceremoniously and not religiously. For example, in this Vedic
performance, when Maharishi's teacher, Brahmananda Sarasvati, is metaphorically
compared to a
traditional deity of that culture, Brahma, the deity itself is not
appealed to or acknowledged one way or another. If you say someone is
"Christ-like," it's a way of expressing high adoration and appreciation. It
doesn't mean that you are engaged in worship or even believe in
Christ.
There are others like former TM teacher Bob Fickes who say the puja ceremony
helps to refine the awareness of the initiator and gives the mantra its
potency. He has said without the puja the mantra won't have the proper
vibration or potency.
Still others, specifically Raja Badgett Rogers has said that the mantra doesn't
work unless there is the offering or dakshina of the fruit, flowers and money,
and it is the offering, the gift, that makes the mantra work and of course the
flowers and fruit are part of the puja.
So to all you TM teachers or former TM teachers, what is the puja actually for
of the above possibilities or is it something different altogether? Or a combo
of the above?
