Two Minute Daily Puja

Each time when you say 'Samarpayami' (literally:  I am offering), please offer two akataas to the  LORD with love and devotion.

Akshatha is uncooked rice, if possible colored with kumkum , saffron powder, termaric and  a little bit of water. Can be prepared well advance for a week and kept near the ALTAR

1	Dhyaanam Samarpayami	Think or meditate on the LORD
2	Aawaahanam Samarpayami	Offering invitation the LORD
3	Aasanam Samarpayami	Offer a seat to the LORD
4	Paadyam Samarpayami	Offer water to wash the feet
5	Arghyam Samarpayami	Offer water to wash the hands
6	Aachamaneeyam Samarpayami	Offer water to drink
7	Snaanam Samarpayami	Give bath to the LORD
8	Maha Abhishekam Samarpayami	Main head bath
9	Pratishtaapayaami	Make Him/Her seated
10	Vasthram Samarpayami	Offer clothes to the LORD
11	Yajnopaveetham Samarpayami	Offer the Holy Thread to the LORD
12	Gandham Samarpayami	Offer sandlewood paste/powder
13	Akshatham Samarpayami	Offer Akshatha to the LORD
14	Pushpam Samarpayami	Offer flowers to the LORD
15	Ashthothtra Poojam Samarpayami	Offer the Holy 108 names of the  LORD
16	Dhoopam Aaghraapayaami	Offer agarbatti
17	Deepam Darshayaami	Offer light
18	Neivedyam Samarpayami	Offer food to the LORD
19	Phalam Samarpayami	Offer Fruits the LORD
20	Taamboolam Samarpayami	Offer beetle nut and leaves
21	Dakshinam Samarpayami	Offer money to the LORD
22	Maha Nirajanam Samarpayami	The main aarati
23	Pradakshinam Samarpayami	Taking clockwise rounds in front of the lord
24	Namaskaram Samarpayami	Prostrations offer them
25	Mantra Pushpam Samarpayami	Both incantations and flowers
26	Praarthanaam Samarpayami	Offering prayers; List your requests
27	Xamaapanam Samarpayami	Offering apologies to lord for any mistakes

Pray Daily
How to Pray

Prayer is a very powerful tool available to man to purify the mind and gain spiritual strength. Prayer is the foundation of success.

In the most carefully controlled scientific study ever performed on the effects of prayer on healing, cardiologist Randolph Byrd, formerly a University of California professor, showed that prayer is a powerful force in healing and that sometimes it can make the difference between life and death for the sick person.
The sages tell us that for a prayer to be effective, faith in the Divine, concentration of the mind, and positive thinking are necessary prerequisites before, during and after the prayer. If one prays for success and at the same time holds thoughts of failure within, the prayer will not be answered. Sages tell us that the mind is the transmitter of prayers. Thus, a prayer transmitted by a restless mind is akin to broadcasting over a broken transmitter. To receive God's answer to our prayers, sages provide the following instructions for prayers:

• Meditate before praying to calm restless thoughts. Keep the body still throughout meditation. "Be still and know you are God."
• According to yogic literature, the nerve center between the eye-brows (ajna chakra) is the transmitter of prayer and the heart is the receiver of God's answer to the prayer. If a prayer is properly transmitted, God's answer appears in the form of subtle feeling(s) arising in the heart following the prayer.
• To pray, focus attention at the center between the eyebrows and say the prayer mentally with the deepest devotion of your heart. Repeat the prayer until it becomes one with your consciousness.
• Always pray to God as His child, who demands the rightful share of all God's bounties. Never pray to God as a beggar.
• Only genuine prayers are fulfilled. "If you pray five hours daily that you might become a Henry Ford, that prayer will not be granted," explains Paramahansa Yog�nanda.

Your Day as a Hindu

Five Constant Duties of a Hindu   Pa�cha Nitya Karmas

In addition to the normal activities associated with one's profession (varna dharma) and stage in life (�shrama dharma), the daily routine of a devout Hindu is to perform pa�cha mah� yag�as (five daily duties) and pa�cha nitya karmas (five constant duties). These are the minimal practices which guide a person in everyday life and ensure peace, material and spiritual prosperity.

• Dharma (Righteousness): Live a virtuous life in accordance with the teachings of the scriptures. Cultivate virtues of purity, self-control, detachment, thinking of others first, truth and ahims�. Be respectful of parents, teachers, and elders. Dharma also means performing all duties associated with one's normal profession, and individual and social obligations. Work must be performed purely for its own sake. This means that all actions must be performed for excellence and not merely for reward (nishkama karma). "Fix thy heart upon thy work, but not on its reward. Work not for a reward; but never cease to do thy work." (Bhagavad G�t� 2.47)
• Tirthay�tr� (Pilgrimage): Regularly visit regularly holy persons, temples, and sacred pilgrimage sites. Such journeys provide freedom from routine life and thereby freshen the mind. Pilgrimages also help to create a sense of togetherness in the family, since all members undertake the pilgrimages together.
• Utsava (Holy Days): Participate in festivals and holy days in the home and temple. Observe fasts on holy days. This practice inculcates God-consciousness, refreshes the mind and creates a sense of togetherness in the family and the community. Hindu sages tell us that occasional fasting prevents bodily diseases, restores the body's healing power, and heals the mind by removing lust, anger, hatred, pride, and jealousy.
• Samsk�ras (Sacraments): Perform various Samsk�ras in accor-dance with the scriptures. Samsk�ras are the religious ceremonies which mark and sanctify an individual's passage through life. They purify the mind by inculcating truthfulness in the mind, and purity and generosity in the heart.
• Sarva Brahm� (God is in all): God lives in the hearts of all beings. Practice this truth, realize it and be free.

Tulsi Puja

The Tulsi plant is found in every Hindu home. It is a species resembling the basil that grows in Europe.

The following episode was written by Huyler as he witnessed Tulsi worship in an Orissan home. It conveys the intimate relationship the Hindu has with Tulsi, and it teaches, through exquisite example, how we may worship Her.

"'O Tulsi, you who are beloved of Vishnu, You who fulfill the wishes of the devout, I will bathe You. You are the Mother of the World. Give me the blessings of Vishnu.' The high, cracked voice of Manjula pierces the damp predawn hush. Joining her voice, other women also sing the praises of the Goddess. They all kneel before a meter-high terracotta planter shaped like a miniature temple adorned with sculptures, and containing a green-leafed Tulsi [photo, page 32]. Rising to her feet, Manjula pours holy water from a small, brightly polished brass pot into the cupped palm of her right hand and sprinkles it upon the leaves of the bush. Her expression is one of adoration but also one that portrays many years of close association, of friendship. For Manjula, the Goddess is incarnate in this herb, representing the duty and dedication, the love, virtue and sorrow of all women. She is a link to Manjula's own soul.
"Manjula's actions are repeated by the other women. Beneath their feet are designs of flowers and conch shells painted directly onto the ground with white rice powder and sindur (vermilion). Placing the brass pot on the ground amid the paintings, Manjula lights camphor incense in a clay pot and waves the clouds of sweet smoke over and around the bush and its container. Holding a clay lamp filled with lighted ghee in her right hand, she rotates it in a large circle three times in front of the tulsi plant. Bowls of fruit (bananas, apples, guavas and the meat of dried coconuts) and hibiscus and marigold flowers are placed on the ground before the terracotta.
"Incense sticks are lit as Manjula once again presses her hands together in reverence, singing: 'O Tulsi! Within your roots are all the sacred places of the world. And inside your stem live all the Gods and Goddesses. Your leaves radiate every form of sacred fire. Let me take some of your leaves that I may be blessed.' With her right hand clasped around the stem of the small bush, she shakes it gently, causing three leaves to flutter to its base. Thanking the Goddess, she places a single leaf between her palms and prostrates herself before the planter. After lying in this posture of absolute supplication for several minutes, Manjula again kneels before the Tulsi shrine and lovingly asks the Goddess if she may be allowed to dress Her. Taking a length of red cotton cloth from a basket, she wraps it around the bush. Then she places bright red hibiscus flowers in the upper leaves and hangs garlands of marigolds around the stem and the planter. Culminating the ceremony, Manjula puts the tulsi leaf in her mouth, taking into her body the spirit of the Goddess. Followed by the other women, she walks seven times around the elaborately sculpted planter, chanting: 'O Goddess Tulsi, You who are the most precious of the Lord Almighty [Vishnu], who live according to His Divine Laws, I beseech you to protect the lives of my family and the spirits of those who have died. Hear me, O Goddess!'
"As the first rays of the rising sun hit the tulsi's top leaves, the ritual has ended. Every morning and every evening of the year, Manjula prays to Tulsi at the shrine on the doorstep of her house, but that worship is usually simple and straightforward, entailing sprinkling the bush with holy water, adorning it with a few hibiscus blossoms, and shaking down a few leaves to eat as part of her prayers. This morning's elaborate ritual celebrates the first day of Kartika, a month particularly sacred to Vishnu and his Goddess-consort Tulsi. By caring for and honoring this sacred bush, Manjula creates a bond with the Goddess. Representing honor, virtue and steadfast loyalty, this humble bush of herbal leaves is the archetype of Hindu femininity, revered by men and emulated with empathy by women. She is Tulsi, Mother of the World." (1)
(1)SELECTION REPRINTED FROM GIFTS OF EARTH: TERRACOTTAS AND CLAY SCULPTURES OF INDIA BY STEPHEN P. HUYLER (AHMEDABAD: MAPIN PUBLISHING PVT, LTD, DISTRIBUTED IN THE USA BY THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS)

Meditate Daily
How to Meditate

Meditation provides the ability to silence the mind and experience the inner self. Meditation restores natural power to the mind just as charging restores power to a worn out battery. Meditation destroys worries, fear, and stress that people experience in the "cut-throat" competitive environment of modern societies. When the mind becomes quiet, the body becomes quiet too and knows how to repair itself. The following simple technique may be used to meditate daily:

• Sit in a cross-legged pose on the floor or on a chair with feet flat on the ground. Keep the spine straight and fully relax the body and mind. Your overall feeling should be as if you are sitting on the beach of a calm ocean, on a starry cool night of the summer. Close the eyes and gently focus attention at the center
  between the eyebrows (ajna chakra).
• Breathe normally (don't force breathing in any way) and say mentally R� (� as in father) while inhaling and M� (� as in father) while exhaling. Practice this meditation technique 20 to 30 minutes twice daily, in the mornings and evenings, before meals.
• At the end of the meditation, with the eyes closed and attention focused at the center between the eyebrows, say the following prayer, as recommended by Paramahansa Yog�nanda:

"I will reason, I will create, I will do everything I set my mind to do, but Oh Lord, guide my creative abilities to do the right thing that I should do."