The traditional 16-step puja is called the Shodashopachara Puja in Sanskrit - shodasha meaning 16, and upachДЃra meaning offering given with devotion. In any puja, the devotee treats their Ishta Deva as a revered guest in their home and heart, welcoming them with hospitality, serving them with love, and finally sending them off courteously back to their abode, seeking their blessings throughout the process. It is considered to be an especially powerful form of worshipping the Divine because it combines physical, verbal, mental, and vibrational aspects of worship. Puja literally translates to adoration or worship. In Hindu practice, puja is considered to be a technique or discipline for fostering the spiritual growth of a devotee by facilitating action ( karma), devotion ( bhakti), knowledge ( jnДЃna), and focus and introspection ( rДЃja or dhyДЃna), all of which is offered with humble and loving surrender to the Divine. It is this Divine cosmic principle which is worshipped in rituals like puja in oneвЂ™s favorite form/s (Ishta Deva/ Ishta Devata) of the devotee. Visarjan is also done without water when the Deity is released from the form that it was invoked in, so is a generic term used to conclude a puja for deities that do not have a permanent pratishta. Murti are also considered to house the power or energy of the Divine, which is infused as life-breath into the murti during a ceremony called prana prathishtДЃ, and withdrawn at the end of ceremonious worship, when the murti is immersed in water during what is called a visarjan. Hindus do not consider God to be limited to the murti, but it is a sacred symbol that offers a medium for worship.В The murti or image thus serves as a powerful tool for contemplating the nature of the Divine. TheyВ are focal points designed to be aides in meditation and prayer. a photo or bimba or flat engraving) serves as an embodiment of the Divine, invoking the idea of that form and its attributes in the mind of the devotee.

In these ritual forms of worship, a murti (deity literally, manifestation which is three-dimensional) or two-dimensional image (ie. Rituals include homa or havan, yajna, and pujДЃ, all of which draw together all the five senses thereby centering the attention of the devotee performing the ritual and calming the devoteeвЂ™s heart and mind through adoring focus of the chosen deity (deities) being invoked and worshiped in the ritual. Hindu rituals, from the elaborate to the very simple, are conducted both at home and at temples. Some rituals are to be undertaken for specific results. Such rituals are meant to be acts of worship and devotion to the one Reality in its various manifestations. The karmakДЃnda of the Vedas includes instructions of rituals.

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