Not being a teacher, just a simple meditator, I still was lucky enough to
witness/participate in a few pujas. They were always sublime, extraordinary and
I loved them. Robin used to perform them on special occasions and they were
beautiful, like being rocked or caressed in some delicate way by this ancient
tradition of thanks and grace - worth 20 minutes of my time any day.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray27" wrote:
>
>
> Hey, Tom Ball was a good friend of mine back in the day. I think he
> threaded the needle pretty well here.
>
> And just like Tom to address it pretty much head on. I like that.
>
> Ah, the Puja. Just thinking about it makes me what to pull out my set,
> each piece wrapped in an ochre colored bag, I had specially made.
>
> I haven't sung the Puja in some time, but Michael, you have been
> inspiring me to get back in that mode.
>
> And yes, I always felt the Puja did just what it was supposed to do -
> prepare the ground for the imparting of the mantra.
>
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson wrote:
> >
> > 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?"
> > Â
> > 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. â"
> 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").Â
> >
> > There is no "offering to gods" or any such thing. It's more like
> giving an apple to your teacher â" 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?
> >
>
