Shiva: Manaspuja.

God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. Everything in the world is a gift from God. This whole world and creation is God's creation. When everything belongs to God, then with what do we worship God? Because flowers, fruits, bills, etc. are all created by God. The scriptures show many types of rituals for worshiping and adoring God. One of them is Manas Puja.

Manaspooja means worshiping God with the mind. Manas Puja is considered to be the most influential and the best of all rituals. Worship done with the mind is considered more fruitful than worship done with material things. Better a poor horse than no horse at all.

It is important to worship God with material things, but without mind worship, worship done with material things alone does not bring special benefits. Because God is hungry for emotion, not for matter. If he was not spiritually hungry, then why give him the knowledge of Navdha Bhakti by eating Shabari's Ethabor? And why did they hold Surdas' hand? Why did he leave the fifty-six victims of Duryodhana and eat the ends of bananas in the hands of Viduraji?

Indeed, God does not need any thing or object. They are spirit hungry. There are no divine objects in the world that can be used to worship God. That is why the scriptures have shown the importance of mind worship.

In Manas Puja, the devotee places his idol on a golden throne encrusted with pearls. Mandakini of heaven bathes her deity in the cool waters of the Ganges. Kamadhenu is made Panchamrut from cow's milk. Clothing is also divine and supernatural. He tilaks earthy sandalwood. He chooses golden lotus flowers from Kubera's flower garden for his deity. The seeker sighs, descending into the infinite depths of his adorable love.

'O Lord! I offer you earthly sandalwood. Lord! I offer you a heavenly flower. I give incense in the form of Vayudev. I light a lamp in the form of Agnidev. O Lord! I offer you an offering like nectar. O Lord! I dedicate all the healing of the world in the form of Sarvatma at your feet. O Lord! Now I have nothing of my own. If my body and mind have dedicated everything to you. You accept it.

A word from a distance brings our distance to the culmination of God's love. The mind becomes concentrated and interesting. It also seems to bring joy in external worship. At the same time our mind seems to be immersed in meditation. In this way both the devotee and the Lord become one.

In Manas Puja, love, devotion, knowledge, meditation, asceticism seem to happen automatically. And leads the seeker to the blissful world of adoration. The seeker reaches the highest peak of spirituality.

In the prevailing ritual of worship, there is a statement of offering sacrifices and other worship materials to God. It takes hard work to collect all these things, but in Manas Puja all those things are achieved in an instant through imagination. It requires only imagination with devotion. God is beyond matter. They don’t really sacrifice anything directly. We only show our devotion by offering them worship materials and offerings. Manas Puja does not require money, labor or time.

It is because of the best and most influential form of Manas Puja that Shankaracharya composed the Shiva Manas Puja Stotra for the spiritual thirsty! His sentimental translation is as follows.

Ratnai: kalpitmasanam hijjalai: snanam cha divyambaram .. yadyatkarma karomi tattadakhil shambhotvaradhanam ..

O Dayanidhe, O Pashupati, receive this jewel-encrusted throne, bath with cool water, divine garments woven with gems, garlands made of musk-embroidered sandalwood, jui, champo and billipat, and incense and lamps, all these mental worship materials.

I have prepared for you five types of dishes including ghee pudding, milk and curd, banana, sherbet, various vegetables, camphor fragrant and purified salt water and betel in a gold bowl encrusted with Navratnas. O God ! Please accept them. Umbrella two leather, fan, clean mirror, veena, bheri, mridang, drum, song and dance prostration various things - all this I dedicate with determination, O Lord! Eclipse this worship of mine.

Hey Shambhu! You are my soul The intellect is Parvatiji. My soul is your fold, body is your temple, all subject offerings are your worship, Nidva Samadhi, my wandering is your ritual and the words I say are your hymn. All the deeds that I do in this way are your adoration.

Lord! Forgive me for all the crimes I have committed with my hands, feet, speech, body, karma, karna, eye or mind. O Mahadev Mahadev Shankar of compassion! Aapni jai ho .. says that doing any good deed regularly for twelve years definitely gives fruit. Therefore, in addition to the prevailing puja ritual, by performing such manas puja regularly before or after it, its fruit is definitely obtained today or tomorrow.

According to the sages, manas puja produces divine energy in the seeker, in its distance the light of wisdom is produced. The seeker begins to experience the supernatural and eventually progresses towards samadhi. Thus, mind worship is so wonderful!

- Harsukhlal C. Vyas