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If I'd been asked about Dhan Teras a year ago I'd have been quite clueless what to answer. I don't know much about it even today but I found myself doing Laxmi Puja on November 10, 2004, in full regalia! Those practiced and experienced in puja rituals could not have made better arrangements!! Yet, I had been blissfully unaware that I was making such lavish preparations for Laxmi Puja till I found myself doing just that on Dhan Teras. Once Maharajji's plot became clear to me I went along and played my part to the hilt. A series of seemingly unconnected events came together to end in this grand spectacle!
October: Jivan Mausaji teaches me how to perform arti while I'm at Haldwani, making me bathe all the Gods, dressing them, putting fresh tikka on them with sindur, chandan and rice, offering them fresh flowers, lighting the arti, then taking the Light to all corners of the house while ringing the bell, to banish Darkness. Before this, I had never taken any note of puja rituals in my life. My aunt packs a puja kit for me to take back to London. She also gives me Maharajji's calendar for 2004 and the Prarthna Priti.
1st week of November: Cleaning the cupboards in my kitchen I discover a storage box in which I'd stored puja items given to me by a friend in New York almost 5 years ago. These items had been given to me for a show-and-tell demonstration of Divali celebrations at my sons school in New York! Inside I find a silver Laxmi diva among other things. I polish the silver diva and place it alongside the items given to me by my aunt for puja.
November 8 : My grandmother in law, mother in law, and father in law arrive in London to stay with us for a short visit. They love the Kheer and Gajjar Ka Halwa I've prepared for them so I decide to make some more the next day.
November 9 : I make Kheer, Gajjar ka Halwa and on a strange whim coconut oil from fresh coconuts!
November 10 : I get up very early and bathe as my hair needs washing badly. With a houseful of guests to attend to I would not have had time for it later. By 7.30 am I'm washed and bathed and dressed in a pretty lehenga and choli. I smile warmly at Maharajji's picture in the calendar and realise that it is Dhan Teras, a day to pray to the Goddess Laxmi. In a flash the unearthing of the Laxmi diva falls into context and realisation dawns.... I realise that Maharajji has me completely prepared for Laxmi Puja, all washed and ready!
As taught by my uncle, I begin by bathing all the Gods and annointing them with fresh tikkas. I offer Kheer and Gajjar Ka Halwa to be blessed as prasad to the Gods and light arti with the coconut oil I'd prepared myself! From the Prarthna Priti I recite the Hanuman Chaleesa which I know well now and look to see if there is any other prayer I can attempt. To my pleasant surprise I am able to recite The Durga Chaleesa too. After the prayer recitation I take my arti thali to all corners of the house sounding the bell and casting off any dark shadows with Light and Sound and offer prasad to everyone.... My first puja performed with aplomb and without a glitch!!
Did I do it or was it Maharajji ? I'm getting a sense of what my uncle means when he says.....He does everything. Everything is Him.
From Rachna Jhala, London, UK |
