If prayer is a form of seeking, worship is a form of giving. The two, prayer and worship, complement each other. Prayer sets in motion a movement from God to the devotee, in the form of God’s answer to the devotee’s desire. Worship sets in motion a movement in the opposite direction, that is, from the devotee to God, in the form of the devotee’s response to God’s grace. The two movements bring both God and devotee nearer to each other.
The devotee’s heart is filled with gratitude when the prayer is answered, and the grateful heart wants to make an offering. Does God need anything from a devotee? No. Can the devotee give to God anything that is not already God’s? No. And yet during worship the devotee does give and God does receive. What is given to God may take different forms, but what is truly given in worship is the devotee’s adoration, love and gratitude. What is surrendered in worship is the idea of ownership, with the recognition that everything and everyone already belong to God.
The most tangible form of worship, one that everyone recognizes, is ritualistic worship. While the rituals may vary considerably among different traditions, what they share in common is the act of giving. What is given may be as simple as a flower—and that becomes a single item (upacāra) worship. It is possible, of course, to make worship more elaborate, expanding it to 5 items or 10 or even 16. Among the things offered are a seat, water to wash hands and feet, water to bathe, clothes to wear, flowers and incense for fragrance, and food—the kind of things that were offered in ancient times to a special guest. At its core, worship is nothing but welcoming God home and honoring the divine guest with the heartfelt hope that God stays with the devotee forever. If and when God is recognized not merely as a “guest” but as a part—the supremely important member—of the family, worship becomes a daily practice, not something done only on special days.
As a ritual, worship must be done as methodically as possible, following all the rules and chanting of the appropriate mantras. But all of this can amount to nothing if the most important ingredient of worship—the devotee’s heart—isn’t there. When the heart is absent, the worship becomes a chore, merely another task to be completed. For a reluctant worshiper it is easy to think of ritualistic worship as optional or irrelevant. Some even see worship as a hogwash. But to a heart filled with love for God, ritualistic worship is total bliss. It’s a real opportunity to dwell in God’s presence—to actually feel God’s presence not only in the heart but all around. What pleases God most is not the grandeur or the elaborateness of worship but the total surrender of the worshiper’s heart.
What the observers of ritualistic worship see are the external paraphernalia, the chanting of mantras, and various fruit and food offerings. What they do not—indeed cannot—see is what is going on inside the worshiper’s mind. A lot is happening inside! The worshiper is expected to chant the mantras while being aware of their meaning and purpose. Every ritual in the worship also has a meaning and a purpose—and the awareness of that is important. A section of the worship is specifically called “mental worship” (mānasa-pūjā), when all of the external rituals are performed inside the mind in a symbolic way. When the external rituals and the internal awareness remain in sync, the worship provides a powerful experience. Absent the inner work, the worship becomes a dry, mechanical ritual. When worship becomes “work,” it ceases to be a spiritual practice.
But when worship is done with a heart filled with love, it brings enormous spiritual benefit. One need not go far to verify the truth of this. Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual life began in real earnest with doing the ritualistic worship of Mother Kālī in Dakṣineśvar. There are innumerable other examples of saints and mystics who spent long hours in prayer and worship. Worship has the power to turn a devotee into a saint, and a saint into an illumined being.
It is important to keep in mind that worship is more than merely sitting before an altar and chanting mantras while making offerings. The practice of worship includes all the preparations that need to be done before the chanting and the offerings. It also includes cleaning up the worship area afterwards and eating of the consecrated food (prasāda). Doing worship can be an individual activity, but more often it is a collective endeavor, especially in a family setting or in a temple, when more than one are involved in the worship process. All who participate in a worship are not merely “seeing” the worship but also “doing” it to the extent they make conscious effort to follow the process, to meditate during the worship, and to help in whatever way possible.
There is another kind of worship which primarily employs the power of words. The worship through speech (vāṅmayī pūjā) includes recitation of holy scriptures (pārāyaṇa), repetition of God’s name (nāma-japa), and singing of God’s glories (kīrtana). It is believed that even hearing the words of the Vedas and other scriptures, the mere sound itself even if we don’t understand the meaning, is purifying. Of course, if we try to remember the meaning of what is being recited or heard, the benefit is considerably higher.
Perhaps music provides the greatest aid to lifting the mind to spiritual awareness. Music is a universal language which transcends geographical borders and connects people in spite of cultural and linguistic differences. Many of the saints we read about in history were poets and musicians—and their compositions have continued to inspire generations of devotees. A great singer himself, Sri Ramakrishna would often enter deep states of spiritual absorption (samādhi) when he heard devotional music.
While worship before an altar or in a recognizably religious setting is common enough, it is not limited to those spaces. Worship is possible even out in the world in what is generally seen as a secular space. Even the apparently mundane chores as well as the work done to earn one’s livelihood, so long as they are ethical and moral, can become worship for one whose heart is filled with love for God. This is certainly the toughest form of worship, because it is a herculean task to overcome our existing notions of the “material” world and its “worldly” people. Only when I am able to feel the presence of God in my own heart to some extent does it become possible to imagine the presence of God in the person in front of me. Many have found it easier to worship God in others only after a rigorous practice of prayer.
Whatever the form of worship, it is important to keep the heart filled with the awareness of God’s presence. When done rightly, worship energizes the body, purifies the mind, and provides a perspective that make life both meaningful and joyful. Most importantly, worship helps the devotee discover God’s protective and assuring presence all the time and everywhere. What could be better than that?
from Vedanta Blog - Ramakrishna Vedanta Society https://ift.tt/EA9zQXn
