I've been studying the proper practice of puja (worship) for the past month. Tonight is our written exam, so today I am studying for the test and getting together all my puja materials.
I am surprised at how challenging the class has been for me. When I decided to take the class I imagined I would be able to slide right through it. For the past several years I have been doing a daily personal Siva puja that I had put together based on what I knew and what I had observed in India, so I imagined I knew something. From my current studies I now know that I knew almost nothing about puja. I am also delighted to discover that studying puja is an excellent sadhana for me right now.
The basic puja theory has been easy enough for me to grok, but my sanskrit pronunciation is atrocious - and we want to use correct sanskrit for the puja (ritually very important). For all of my years of studying and reading sanskrit words I've never really learned to pronounce sanskrit correctly. When I was studying ideas and practices the sanskrit was just in my head -more visual then aural - I seldom spoke sanskrit out-loud and when I did it was mostly asana names without much attention (lazy sanskrit). Now as I try to pronounce the sanskrit correctly I get tongue-tied and stumble through it. I think the process might be easier if I didn't have years of bad habits; but I'm loving the challenge and looking forward to deepening my sanskrit pronunciation and understanding.
But pronunciation isn't the challenge for this evening - it's a written puja theory test. ;-)
I am so grateful for all my wonderful teachers;
"Long life and health to our wisdom masters ..."
Shanti Shanti Shantih
- Yogakriya
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