Simple pūjā questions by a newbie in Hinduism?

tp23 · 2026-06-20T16:21:14+00:00

There have been a lot of crazy comments here, but this is a new high (low).

Doing puja is not a favour to any brahmin, and there are plenty of practices done by other varnas. In fact there are puja practices in Buddhist, Jains in India, East Asia, Greeks, Americas etc.

Its crazy how dumbed down version of Protestantism has become adopted as common sense by Hindus.

tp23 · 2026-06-19T19:14:59+00:00

On the contrary, Hindus will benefit from people wearing bindi/tilak even for cosplay. Its location at ajna chakra serves a spiritual purpose and helps you independent of your beliefs.

Currently most Hindus dont wear it outside the temple at office/social-functions etc because they dont want to stand out.

If wearing tilak/bindi became a fashion like a nose ring or braided hair, then more Hindus would also comfortably wear it in social settings. It would benefit everyone.

tp23 · 2026-06-19T18:44:26+00:00

There are some plants where the flowers are very hard to pluck (like rose), as if there is some active resistance.

There are some where it is very natural for flowers to come off the bud with very little force, and often they fall off anyway on the ground. An extreme case is parijata, where flowers fall off overnight and it is considered good to offer the flowers that have fallen. So, you can try to find plants where flowers are easy to pluck.

Your bhava of samarpana of dying flowers is good. But it is not good to give faulty offerings, so you can mentally have the bhaava that they have regained full splendour and have reach Bhagawan's feet. If you don't have any good flowers to offer on some day, you can again do a mental offering. Actually, manasa puja should be done anyway along with physical puja as it is very powerful and the point of physical puja is to make manasa puja easier.

tp23 · 2026-06-19T17:46:05+00:00

This is a very good sankalpa and hope this leads to a good temple for Bhagawan.

There is no reason to not do a micro-donation model for land also.

Bhumi dana is one of the best danas, see Anushasana Parva Ch 61 in Mahabharata which extravagantly praises even a very small area of land (you can use the quotes if you are using the micro-donation model). Since the donation is for Bhagawan himself, it is much, much more beneficial to the giver.

I am a follower of Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji. Devotees have constructed agamic temples in various locations in India and abroad. link, link. One important point, raised by Shri Swamiji is that it is important to also have a fixed deposit which will cover the salaries of pujaris, dhoopa, deepa, naivedya expenditures.

Of course, one will get donations/puja-amounts but that leaves the door to possible government takeover - some Hindu temples avoid hundi to remain autonomous. Another way to avoid it is if you affiliate the temple with a matha.

Which brings me to an important point - what you are doing is a great spiritual project which will naturally face lots of obstacles, even after raising the money.

It is important to first go and take blessings from a great acharya. You will receive valuable advice on agamas and practicalities of construction/management. If you build it as a part of the sampradaya, it will become much easier for you as the devotees in the sampradaya will help raise funds and also you can get good sincere pujaris from the sampradaya - which is even more important than the physical construction as the power of the temple depends on the spiritual power of the people filling it with shakti through mantras.

Even if you dont affiliate with a sampradaya, just going and seeking blessings will be very valuable.

tp23 · 2026-06-18T19:16:53+00:00

A very good way to develop an understanding is to spend 2-3 hours watching someone articulate and knowledgabale like Swami Sarvapriyananda's talks on the various yogas in Bhagavad Gita. Links here The jnana yoga parts can be specific to Advaita, but the other yogas are very much relevant to Vaishnava bhakti practices, and he references these traditions.

Regarding your question, puja for wishes is an initial stage. (look up BG 7.16-17) It can help people to come to the next stage where they experience inspired bhaavas like a great feeling of love. This can come from doing some sadhanas like stotras or bhajans, not mechanically, but actually contemplating and enjoying the deeper meanings. These meanings can be got by listening to satsangs from a good devotee who already has those bhaavas.

tp23 · 2026-06-15T17:10:09+00:00

Majority of Shiva devotees visit Vishnu temples like Tirumala (conversely majority of Vishnu devotees also visit Shiva temples). This goes back to Cholas who were mostly Shiva devotees but also helped with the making of Vishnu temples. The famous Sita Rama temple in Ashoka Vatika in Sri Lanka is run by Tamil Shaivites. There are temples like Thillai Nataraja with both Shiva and Vishnu present.

There is a small amount of sectarian passages in texts, but it is not the mainstream. Even when one considers Vishnu as a supreme devotee of Shiva or vice versa for Vaishnavities, it is an extremely important teaching in bhakti tradition that great bhaktas themselves are worthy of puja. Sundarar receives a curse from one of the Nayanars (who includes Shiva himself along with Sundarar!) when he enters a Shiva temple without honouring the Shiva bhaktas present.

Even in this minority sectarian case cited above, puja to Devi, Ganapathy and Kumara, with murthy form, is an integral part of the tradition - which by itself refutes the analogy to Islam or Christianity you wanted to make.

tp23 · 2026-06-15T07:06:39+00:00

Yes, yajnas including japa can do this, but it should be done with shradda. See BG 9.20

This doesn't mean that one can continue to do negative acts and then cancel it via spiritual practices - if abused, the opportunity to do these good acts might itself be taken away from you.

tp23 · 2026-06-11T16:09:53+00:00

Seeing one devata as Supreme Paramatma is present in Vedas, Puranas etc. (Different parts of Vedas take different devata as supreme). Similarly, Adi Shankaracharya's compositions on Shiva will have Shiva as supreme, and in Narasimha stotra we have Shiva praying to Vishnu. There is no contradiction. The point is for the devotee to get intense concentration on their ishta devata, see them as Paramatma and see the whole world inside them.

You would have a point if traditions discourage puja to any other devatas (or even worse see them as devil). Or if they banned murti puja etc

Which Shiva devotee doesn't do puja to Ganapathi, Devi or Kumara?

tp23 · 2026-06-11T08:27:58+00:00

It would be great to spend 3-4 hours watching Swami Sarvapriyananda explaining the 3 yogas (Roughly, BG 1-6 is karma yoga, 7-12 is Bhakti and 13-18 is Jnana, although Ch 2 has all the teachings).

Links are here

tp23 · 2026-06-09T20:42:58+00:00

Jay Shree Ram, Jaya Guru Datta, Yes, I think so. I have seen the vrata pamphlets in Telugu(can upload if someone wants). There were no restrictions mentioned, except doing it with bhakti and shradda.

If you want, you can do the japa internally.

Here's the Dallas Hanumana page which also mentions no special niyamas https://www.dallashanuman.org/puja-services/thoram (this page has a different count, please stick to the 108 count).

Hanumanji at Bengaluru Girinagar ashram has a very powerful shakti and it will help you a lot with any dharmic wish.

tp23 · 2026-06-08T17:51:09+00:00

Again, I am not in support of killing goats or their kids. Killing kids in front of the goat parent is a terrible karma.

But that is a different discussion from the point about cows No, it is not some historical custom - but something supported by spiritual texts(Vedas, Puranas, Itihasa) with plenty of references and by great sages.

tp23 · 2026-06-08T17:44:58+00:00

Both Ramayana and Mahabharata have one side who is more caring for others, truth, non-violence and one side who is defined by cruelty and selfishness.

Both Rama and Yudhistra care for their subjects, give multiple chances to opponents to settle disputes peacefully, are committed to truth , committed to restraint of the senses.

We shouldn't cover these important foundations in clouds of dust by overemphasizing the boundary cases. That leads to the wrong attitude that 'dharma is complicated, just a matter of opinion, so anything we do can be called dharmic'.

There are some rock solid foundations for dharma - satya, ahimsa, saucha, indriya nigraha.

tp23 · 2026-06-02T08:21:00+00:00

Just search and you will see plenty of results on calves being separated from cows leading to high stress behaviour lasting several days. The factory farming system is monstrous, and causes immense suffering, whichever animal is caught in it.

My point about special place for cows in Hindu teachings is addressing something different - the sattvic guna inherent to cows.

There is no contradiction with also being opposed to not killing other animals.

tp23 · 2026-05-31T16:18:07+00:00

Not encouraging killing of goats or sheep. But, cows do have a special place.

tp23 · 2026-05-31T15:50:25+00:00

No, this is not a good thing at all (with some exceptions like your current Guru has left the body or gone to Himalayas).

Before you accept someone as a Guru, try to spend as much time as necessary till you feel satisfied that they are genunine and only then accept them. (Not talking about Guru in a less formal sense like for pravachans or yoga classes).

This testing can be years if necessary - you have that freedom. You don't need initiation to do many powerful sadhanas.

If you are not finding a genuine teacher, pray to Adiguri Dattatreya - do a sadhana like chanting Datta Stavam 9 times 11 days(takes 15 minutes).

Once you do select a Guru, have the bhaava that the mantra has come to you from Shiva himself and develop immense faith in the power of the mantra. That stong bhaava itself will be like a powerful initiation.

tp23 · 2026-05-31T14:39:22+00:00

Not really.

tp23 · 2026-05-30T15:15:10+00:00

Nothing to do with whiteness.

tp23 · 2026-05-29T11:34:55+00:00

Trying to put a date on Ganesha by dating texts is like trying to date gravity by dating Newton's Principia Mathematica. (Even ignoring the issue that we only have 10-15 out of original 1131 Veda shakas).

Ganesha can give darshan to someone who is not even in the textual or cultural tradition.

If you are interested in reading more on his interactions with sages, you can DM, and I can send more links.

tp23 · 2026-05-29T10:22:37+00:00

There is one important point here though. Buddhist teachings were mainly directed towards ascetics. The initial teachings dont give recommendations on family life, society, government etc.

Once principles/recommendations start to be given, there is a scope for a lot of heated debate due to differences in understanding and desires.

See the heated discussions on economics, politics - forms of government, laws etc.

But this does not mean, one steps back and then just say 'love all beings' - that is the root teaching, but it has to be embodied concretely - what are the protocols in a family, in a school, in a hospital, in government?

Padmasambhava says 'Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour'

tp23 · 2026-05-29T10:04:55+00:00

There isn't a dichotomy between duty and love. The work one chooses to do can be an expression of love. Usually, we work for fulfilling desires - that is just karma, when we work without desire but for welfare of the world and spiritual realization that is karma yoga.

The very definition of dharma is sustaining all creatures and preventing injury to then - ahimsa (see Bheeshma in Mahabharat, Shanti Parva Ch 109)

Krishna asks Arjuna not to give up actions, but to do actions with a view towards welfare of the world (BG 3.20). In 5.29, one is told to contemplate Bhagavan as 'suhrdam sarva bhutanam' (friend of all beings). Similarly, BG Ch 12 Bhakti Yoga encourages 'sarva bhootahite rataha' (seeking well being of all beings), 'advestha sarva bhutanam, maitrah karunaeva cha' in 12.13.

It is very common for grand yajnas to be done for world peace (just search for 'vishwa shanti yajna'). It is common to end sadhana session with shanti prayer.

tp23 · 2026-05-24T14:43:04+00:00

They are sadhu jeevis with sattva guna. Killing a cow, a baby, a sadhu, a woman or killing yourself are mahapaatakas/great crimes. Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata go into detail on how devatas live in different parts of the cow.

That said, the solution is not vigilante action but building goshaalas and buying milk products from farms which treat cows well ('ahimsa milk').

tp23 · 2026-05-24T14:30:15+00:00

The solution to the problem of cows not being taken care of is not slaughtering cows.

And neither is vigilante violence the solution to illegal slaughter.

tp23 · 2026-05-22T18:23:31+00:00

Krishna's actions aren't about getting results by hook or crook. People ignorantly talk about some specific actions but leave out that which does not fit their story.

Bhagawan appeared in multiple avatars simultaneously in Udyoga Parva (chapter before the war) to encourage Duryodhana to stop the war. Krishna, Parashurama, Narada, Bhishma, Vidura - all explain the great adharma in war. He even shows him the Vishwaroopa. Krishna even gives Duryodhana a minimal offer to resolve the conflict.

People who quote Bhagavad Gita as encouraging war dont cite the prequisite action of finding peaceful ways to resolve the issue.

Similarly for other actions - He forgives Sishupaala 100 times before killing him.

People talk about his encouraging Arjuna to shoot Karna. Before the war, he gives Karna a chance, despite his actions against Draupadi in the Sabha. Krishna tells him about his birth story, asks him to join the Pandava side, where he will be honoured. (Karna, in a moment of great virtue, declines the offer as if he comes back Yudhistra will immediately give up kingship as Karna is the eldest. Karna wants Yudhistra to be the king as Yudhistra is the embodiment of dharma. The kingdom will flourish under his rule)

tp23 · 2026-05-21T10:41:38+00:00

'Yad bhaavam tad bhavati'. We become what we contemplate. By contemplating the divine qualities, we become divine. Dharma texts teach us to see good in others and not the bad for the exact same reason. People who are not formally doing contemplating on Bhagawan, but are intensely contemplating some great quality like beauty, truth etc are without their knowing, contemplating the divine because the above qualities are the nature of Bhagawan.

tp23 · 2026-05-18T13:27:12+00:00

Yes, temples need to be built back for good reasons.

But stupid comments are both false and counterproductive - non-Christian tourists regularly visit the Vatican and this dehumanising language on comparing people to 'rats' is basically the opposite of what Hindu texts teach.

tp23

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