What is Guru Pūjā?
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This pūjā is from the Vedic tradition, from the Advaita Parampara - lineage of advaitees - non-dualists; where the goal of our life is enlightenment and not just darśan or seeing God. Experiencing the Divine inside us is the goal.
The root of the word pūjā is the Sanskrit word pūj, meaning worship or ‘to adore’. Pūjā is thus an act of worship or adoration. Performed daily, Guru pūjā is a personal way of remembering, honoring, and thinking of one’s Guru. It is an avenue through which we can concentrate and focus our thoughts on Him, thus imbibing Him in a joyful manner. It is an opportunity to express gratitude towards Him for everything He so compassionately bestows upon us. By consistently recalling and thinking of the Guru, we move forward in our spiritual journey. Through the steadfast practice of Guru pūjā, one develops a deep and intimate relationship with the Guru.
We start the day with Guru pūjā, an offering to the feet of the Guru, by remembering the Guru śakti - energy. By remembering our Master who liberates us from this bondage through His words, through His presence, through His body language or any of His other mystical ways, we offer our gratitude to Existence itself. This is the essence of Guru pūjā.
When we do the Guru pūjā or when we chant the Guru pūjā mantra, we tune in to the consciousness of the Master. By worshipping Him in our inner space - mānasa pūjā - and worshipping ritually with the paraphernalia of worship - bāhya pūjā - we tune in to His consciousness.
By performing the Guru pūjā, we start the day with a fresh and ecstatic mood. If we remember the great Truths in the mantras used in Guru pūjā all through the day, we can experience the same ecstatic mood in all our activities.
While we are asleep, the connection with the Guru gets disconnected, and our consciousness starts expressing our old memories. When we are in the waking state, one kṣaṇa takes birth from another kṣaṇa. Kṣaṇa is the time period between one thought and the next. If we start the day with Guru pūjā, every kṣaṇa is with an ecstatic mood. During sleep, the kṣaṇa stops and we go back into our causal body, or the space where our engraved memories or saṁskāras are recorded. When we wake up, we will be in the mood of those memories. So, the moment we get up from bed, if we remember the Guru pūjā mantra, the whole day, the ecstatic mood is maintained.
The Guru pūjā brings us back to the Truth. It is a shift from our consciousness to that of the Master.