Dev Poojan-(II-75-77)

Vashishth ji said, ‘O Ram, Once when Gauri and Shankarji came to my ashram where me and my wife Arundhati lived, after doing their poojan, I posed a question to them. I asked that you who are the knower of the past, present and future and cause of everything and because of your blessings only I have developed some power to ask you a question, kindly answer it with happiness, without any malice and at the earliest to quell my thirst. O annihilator of all kinds of bad deeds and increaser of well-being of all, what is Dev and what is its poojan?’  I will explain to you what he told me then.

Ishwar replied, ‘ O Brahmin! Listen to the procedure of dev poojan by performance of which a jeeva moves past the ocean of the creation. O best in Brahmins, Pundrikash Vishnu is not the Dev, three eyed Shiva is not the dev, Brahma who came from a lotus is also not a dev and even 1000 eyed Indra is also not a dev. Neither Wind is dev nor Sun is dev; neither fire is dev nor moon is dev; neither Brahmin is dev nor Kshatriya is dev; neither you are dev nor I am dev and neither intellect is dev not the vibration is dev. That which is natural, beyond time, limitless is of the form of atma is the dev. Whatever forms which are seen are not dev as they are nothing. Natural, eternal and limitless awakening is the real dev. That is the representation of dev and that alone is to be praised and poojan of that alone should be performed. Those who do not know that limitless, natural beyond time entity for them alone are various procedures of deities and their poojans are meant. It is like that a person who cannot walk long distance for him short distance walking is suggested, in the same manner, one who cannot do poojan of that natural, limitless unseen dev for them poojan of dev with form is suggested and that alone is good for them. Whatever kind of poojan one does, fruit is also enjoyed as per that only. Those who perform poojan of gross their fruits are also gross and those who do poojan of subtle dev, their fruits are subtle in the form of paramatma too. Letting go of subtle and looking for gross fruits, is like desiring a forest of full of bushes of thorns instead of a forest full of fragrant Mandaar flowers {also known as Crown flower because of crown like structure in the middle, called Aak or Ark in local Indian language and are found in two forms of Shwetark (white) and Raktark (Red)}. What kind of divinity is that, how its poojan is done and what are the fruits achieved from it, listen to it.’

‘O Brahmin, Bodh¹, Samya² and Sham³ are the three flowers. By Bodh is meant the real knowledge i.e. is know a thing as it is and not as it is projected. To see everything with completeness i.e to experience everything as complete is called Samya. When the intellect and desiring entity inside us is removed and we see everything as atma only, it is called Sham. With these three flowers one should perform the poojan of pure Shiva. By doing poojan of the form, poojan does not get performed. Leaving aside atma, one who dies the poojan of the gross form, he experiences grief alone. O brahmin, the one who is knowledgeable and knows everything, treats the outer poojan as a play of children. Atma alone is dev. That alone is Shiv and provider of all well-being. Always perform poojan of that with knowledge. Do not perform any other poojan. That Atmadev, which is awakened, is like Ether everywhere and without any body parts, do its poojan and nothing else can be called poojan. In the triad of person doing poojan, procedure of poojan and the one whose pooja is being performed, poojan of atmadev does not happen’.