Apologies for External Worship

Context:

 It was a clear morning, when I had tried to mediate with a beautiful lamp and some good songs!! Suddenly by the Graces of the Almighty, these thoughts came into my mind and it prompted me to write this article. With the advanced technologies, we can now preserve the knowledge or thoughts with the documents or web pages. Although, one is enlightened immediately after the realization, the divine experience would come out in various forms gradually. Great people like Shankara, Vedanta Desika, Jesus Christ, Kabir Das, Prophet Mohammed, Rumi, Ramanuja, Meera, Sai Baba, Dattatreya, Agasthya, etc.. have all preserved their knowledge in the form of their works. But still, people don�t seem to get enlightenment even after reading those scriptures  because they are all deeply immersed into the ocean of ignorance and illusion. So, from time to time, great philosophers, poets, thinkers and devotees keep coming to this Universe to throw light on the teachings of great people and give an elaborate explanation of their works and explain it in simple words to the people of their time. As an effort to share the knowledge this article has been written. The traditional methods of worship externally, has been condemned in this article, as it is very difficult to worship the actual Almighty for he is beyond the reach of mortals. So, the inner meaning of this whole article is not to criticize the worship, but to convey the message that, self-consciousness is the crux of all these worship methods. If people are given the option , not to do worships, even the common  materialistic , sinful people would happily stop their regular worship methods. So only if a person, who if really enlightened does the normal worships it�s sin, for he is in a much higher stage than the common mortals. For common mortals depending upon their amount of faith and dedication it might take several births before they could become enlightened. So, all common mortals should follow the spiritual practices, as prescribed in their religious books.

Oh!Lord ! Oh!Almighty ! Please Forgive me for

Worshipping you in external things !!

Preparation (Sankalpam):

How can I do prepare myself to do your worship, when nothing can happen in this Universe with your wish? All these mortals and even the heavenly creatures are helpless, for you are the one, who act with all the creatures and mundane things. Please forgive me for my illusion of believing these worlds, time and materials as truth and the ignorance of identifying this world and my Self as entities different from you!! You are the only truth and you�re the one present within every thing and activating everything. Nothing could operate in all the seven worlds within you!! You are present in all the materials used for your worship � the water, the fire, the smoke, the clay, the idol, the flowers, the sandal paste, and the food items!! Then How can I take one form of yours and offer it to another form of yours, when you are the Critical Entity, operating all these worlds!! Please take my apologies and bless your divine wisdom of your omnipotence and the helplessness of this Soul without your graces.

There are 16 different respects or upacharas given to God during the time of Pooja. Each of these verses, describe the omni-present nature of  God and explains the ignorance of the humans to offer the materials or upachara, which are given to him by God himself.

1.      Meditation And Installation : How Can I meditate your form (Dhyanam) , in small idols or lamps, when you are the all prevalent an omni potent? Please take the apologies of this ignorant one and present the divine knowledge. How can I request you to manifest in a lamp or an idol(Avahanam) when U are the creator, protector and destroyer of all the three worlds?? Please take the apologies of this ignorant one and present the divine wisdom of Self-Knowledge.

2.      Seat : How can I dare to provide a seat with gold and gems, when U have  your devotee�s heart as the seat!! Please take the apologies from this mundane soul and present your divine knowledge of Divine Experience.

3.      Water (For Washing Hands): How can I offer water for washing your feet, when U have all the seven oceans washing your feet all the time?!! Please take the apologies this sinful one, and present wisdom of your divine existence.

4.      Water(for washing hands): How can I offer water for washing your hands, when all the waters of heaven and rainfall are washing your hands!! Please take the apologies from this most inferior one and present your divine knowledge.

5.      Water (fro drinking): How can I offer water for drinking to you, when you had drunk all the seven worlds at the time of Universal Destruction and floated on a leaf as an innocent child!! Please take my apologies and show me the right path of become one with you.

6.      Bathing: How can I bathe you with Holy waters and auspicious things like milk, honey, etc.. for all those materials have gained their auspiciousness because of you? They would infact make you more polluted, as you are the purest of pure!! Please forgive this ignorant one and make this soul an auspicious one with the divine wisdom of the Self.

7.      Clothes And  Sacred Thread: How can I offer you clothes, when you have the sky and atmosphere as you clothing? Please forgive this ignorant one & bless me with your divine vision and knowledge. How can I offer you the sacred thread, when you are the one, who had given the holiness for the sacred thread?? When you are actual purpose of all the religious deeds, why would you need a sacred thread to qualify you for the same? When all the deeds are done with you as the central object and to seek your graces, why would you need a sacred thread?? Please bear with this ignorant one and bless me with your divine knowledge.

8.      Sandal Wood Paste: How can I decorate your body with sandalwood paste, for all the three worlds are your body!! Smearing the sandalwood paste on your body would pollute your divine body, which is filled with the nectar of Self-Consciousness. Pease pardon this helpless one and present the nectar of Self Consciousness.

9.      Rice (stained with turmeric): How can I offer you the rice (tainted with saffron powder), when the noble ones of heaven are meditating you and praising you constantly? Their praising is the true �Akshadai� for you. Please forgive this soul and give the true knowledge.

10.   Flowers/Garland: How can I offer you a decorative flower garland, when all the realized Souls of all the seven worlds are the true flowers, which decorating you?? These flowers which, have a very short span of (1 day) would infact make your beauty to be spoilt!! Please forgive my ignorance and make this soul a grateful one by giving your true experience. How can I worship your different body parts, when you have Heaven as one part, this world as another and the Pathalam or the world down this earth as another? Please forgive the idiocy of this Soul and bless it with your divine graces. How can I praise you with your attributes (counting 108 or 1008), when you cannot be seen even by the Lord of Lords?? You can only experienced by great ones, who have become one with you!! Please remove the illusion and ignorance of this Soul and present the divine knowledge.

11.  Incense:  How can I offer you fragrant smoke or incense, when I still have the smoke of all sinful thoughts in my mind? Please forgive this sinful one and remove the smell or smoke of all the sins, which have been tainted on this soul from birth after birth!!

12.  Offering lamp (1 wick & 5 wicks): How can I show you a lamp lit with oil or butter and a wick, when the moon, the stars and Sun are the real lamps offered to you and even those lamps can�t show your form to the sinful souls of this world? Please bless the blind souls of this world with the divine eyesight of your wisdom!! How can I show a lap with 5 wicks, when my mind is still falling prey to the five senses and committing the five great sins?? Please forgive this sinful one and purify this soul from all the five great sins and bless it with the will power to win the five senses!!

13.  Offering Food : How can I cook various varieties of delicious foods and offer to you, when you have hade all the three worlds as your food at the end? Will all the worldly food(s) appease, you, who have eaten all the worlds and drunk all the waters in the Ocean?? For sure they won�t!! Oh! My Lord! Oh! Almighty! Please forgive my ignorance and present your divine knowledge!

14.  Camphor Light: How can show the fire lit of camphor, when you are the real light for all the seven worlds, the Sun, Moon and the Stars? Please pardon my lack of true knowledge and remove all the ignorance within me with your divine light!!

15.  Circumambulation: How can I circumambulate you with my feet, as U stand as a column of fire between heaven and this world? The task of circling you might be possible within one birth as, it might take several 1000 years to complete that task, and for you have all the seven worlds as your body!! Please forgive me & bless this soul with the divine wisdom of your equivalence with the Soul.

16.  Prostration: How can I dare to do prostration to you, without having surrendered totally to you? What would this bodily prostration do, when I still have not surrendered my ego, sins, possessions and all the karmas, which I have been carrying for thousands of births!! Please forgive me for doing a bodily prostration, without surrendering totally and offering my �Self� at your lotus feet!! Please forgive this sinful one and bless me with your divine Union, after which I enter into an end-less bliss and go out of entities like time, space, material and come out of the cycles of birth(s) and death(s) and become permanently inseparable from you!! Please absorb my self in you present the bliss of your experience!!! Please present me a state, which is far away from  mindfulness (Bahava Atheetha Stithi) and make my Self mix and mingle one with you!! Remove my ignorance of separation with you, and make me return back to the stage, which I had come from!! Please return me to the state, when I was totally blissful inside my mother�s womb enjoying your divine form all the time!! Present me a state, when my �Self� resides in the constant bliss of your experience and never returns back to a mother�s womb!!! Please present me with Salvation , which is of the greatest Quality � becoming one with you, never to separate from you again!!!!

Conclusion:

Although I had done so many sins by trying to worship you externally with various phrases and materials, please apologize me for I have  realized that, all the things that are divine are manifestations of the Self and the Self is a manifestation of Thy. Different divine things in this Universe represent different attributes of them!! Shiva represents the divine experience of thy, Vishnu represents the blissful form of thy, Saraswathy represents the wisdom of thy, Matha Parvathi represents the endless mercy of thy, Kumara represents the charm, wisdom and vigor of they, Ganesha represents the omni-present from of thy, Jesus represents the kindness, sacrifice, and love of thy, Krishna represents the righteousness of thy, Sri Lakshmi represents the intelligence of thy, Indra represents the (indriyas) or the senses and worldly pleasures!! This small effort of external worship is to remind me of your divine nature and keep myself away from the two great enemies of Illusion and ignorance. Please forgive my ignorance and accept this Pooja as a small effort towards your experience and Self-Realization. When you are the creator, protector and destructor of all the worlds, how can I afford to do a task on my own will? Everything in this Universe happens only with your will. Having, understood the helplessness of this Soul, please forgive all my sins and present your divine knowledge and bless the right wisdom to understand your true nature.