So the punya puja 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 puja 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 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. But just walk with your eyes closed, with your left hand outstretched a little bit, and just walk just feel and walk around the house. You will see many parts of your house will feel like a coffin. Some parts may be alive. Usually, I find kitchens are alive. Because it’s the only place something is happening. Everywhere else [is dead]. 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 puja, once in a way, at least once a year, would light it up [energise the house]
So punya puja, 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’re capable of it, no problem. But not everybody is, they need external support. This is the idea of creating consecrated spaces. So punya puja 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 cannot consecrate your home in such a way it’s forever. Because your house is not built through 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’s this insulating material, keeping it alive – I’m saying if nothing alive is happening in the house, you’re 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 puja may deplete in a matter of six to eight 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 at least for two years. Minimum two years, I would say one and a half to two years, it would last much more. But it also depends on you, how you are. However the material is, if you are fine, you can live well.
