Questioner: Could you explain how the Bhairavi Punya Pooja works? It seems different from traditional pooajs.
Sadhguru: The thing is – what this Punya Pooja is… maybe we can use an English term, so that everybody looks at it differently. Punya pooja is like a – you know what is ‘punya’? What is referred to as punya and papa – unfortunately these things are badly misinterpreted over a period of time.
Punya and papa means – those type of actions, actions which take you down, actions which you know, increase the effervescence of life within you, or actions which move you towards the inertia of life. Or in other words, actions which move you towards life, actions which move you towards death. When I say death, not just physical death – you can die in so many ways. So, the many fantastic phenomena happening in the process of life everyday, everyday every moment it’s happening – most of the humanity is dead to it. They are dead to the moon, dead to the sunrise, dead to the sunset – only when something becomes acute, or they have to get up in the morning, early morning and go for their work – then sun gets in their eyes, and of course you put the pads, so that you can’t see it! Something like this.
Punya and papa means – actions which move you towards life, actions which move you towards death
Why this has happened is – the psychological space has overtaken the cosmic space. Or, your own silly creation in your head has overtaken the creator’s creation. This is all that has happened.
And anyway, the pooja is about getting you into an energetic space where you become alive to these things. So, the Punya Pooja is to enliven the house. The space in the house should become alive. If you have lived in such a way in your home, that every moment you are ‘on’ with love and light within you, then no Punya Pooja would be needed. But today you have built homes which are so large. It’s very difficult to make them alive, just by living. If you just had a one room house, and you lived in great sense of love and joy, you can easily keep it very alive. But today, your house has 10-15 enclosures – it’s very difficult for any human being to keep it alive. Once in a way, if you do not enliven it, slowly if you enter certain parts of your home, you will see it feels like a coffin.
I want all of you, today – you know your house well enough, where you need to open your eyes you open – just walk with your eyes closed, with your left hand out stretched a little bit. And, just walk, just feel, just walk around the house. You will see many parts of your house will feel like a coffin. Some parts maybe alive. Usually, I find kitchen are alive. Because, it’s the only place something is happening. Everywhere else [dull].
If you live in a very very alive way, you can enliven something. But when you have 12, 15, 20 enclosures in your house, it’s very very difficult for anybody to enliven all that.
Punya Pooja is a way of consecrating your home
So, Punya Pooja, once in a way. At least once a year would light it up. That is, you have the space around you alive, and it supports you. Can’t I live beautifully in a coffin? You can. If you are capable of it, no problem. But not everybody is. They need external support. This is the idea of creating consecrated spaces.
So, Punya Pooja is a way of consecrating your home. Entire home, every part of it. So that there is some sense of aliveness and energy. But we can not consecrate your home in such a way that it’s forever. Because your house is not built to that geometry. It doesn’t have that kind of material to hold the energy forever. If we enliven an Indian home, easily one or two years it will stay alive. An American home, particularly largely with wood and inside all those dampening, what is this, insulating material – keeping it alive… I’m saying if nothing alive is happening in the house. You are a depressed person suppose. You have a whole bunch of depressed people in the house, nobody is really alive. If it is so, this Punya Pooja may deplete in a matter of 6-8 months. It will not stay for very long, because the material used does not support that.
If the house was built with brick or stone, we could make it alive, and easily make it stay that way for at least 2 years. Minimum 2 years, I would say 1.5 to 2 years, it could last much more. But it also depends on you. How you are. However the material is, if you are fine, you can live well. Because now, most of the American homes are woodwork – you know that’s not a good word. It’s woodwork, so it doesn’t have the same capacity to hold. And, another thing is, it’s recirculated air. Nobody opens a window, or a door. It’s all the time same air being recirculated, or very minimal amount of movement of aliveness.
If you have lot of plants around you, trees around you, and if you keep the windows open – they will take care of the Punya Pooja for you to quite some extent. They can. But most of the houses are shut off, and recirculated air is going on all the time. People are not moving about joyfully. Either they are staring at their computer screen, or they are depressed, or they are sleeping – inertia of various levels. And various levels of stresses and tensions. It slowly builds up in the space, and it can overwhelm a person.
Any number of people will find, if they are feeling sick, particularly if they are feeling psychologically, you know, kind of oppressed – you will see, if they just walk out of that space, they will feel great. If they move to another place, they will almost become healthy. Many times, many many times for most people – not everybody who is having psychological problems are pathologically ill. Most of them are victims of the situations in which they exist, various types of situations. Energy situation is one of them, and an important one.
If your Shambhavi Mahamudra is such that it is an explosion within you – then if you just walk around the house, maybe the space will get fixed
We have taught you a kriya – how to keep ‘this’ [self] bodywork, within this boundary, how to keep it enliven all the time. But the larger woodwork of your home, how to keep it alive – if your kriya is too fantastic, if your Shambhavi Mahamudra is such that it is an explosion within you – then if you just walk around the house, maybe the space will get fixed. But, if it’s not like that, if you are not like that – then it’s good to make use of the support of Punya Pooja. It’s a wonderful process through which it could be done.
