Life is Beautiful, Live it the fullest
Friday Ratri Puja and Visarjan Puja
Bhatmaam has arrived and drinking hot Kaapi!
Friday Danapaar Puja
Live streaming of Friday afternoon puja
Thursday Ratri Puja
Thursday morning Ganesh Chaturthi Puja
Here is the live stream of the Colaba Ganapati puja from Millburn, NJ.
Ganapati Bapa Morya!
Other Ganapati Posts:
When in Mumbai, we attended a puja at my aunt’s place in Jogeshwari. There we enjoyed a delicious south india lunch, served on banana leaves. Freshly made, warm puran polis, dribbled with home-made tuup (clarified butter), was one of many desserts. The catering crew were making it in the back. Enjoy the video.
And see this older post, where I describe how our extended family comes together to make Sanzori, a variant of the puran poli. So much fun.
Here is Shilpa’s (Aayis Recipes) excellent recipe for puran poli (also called Obbattu).
And another recipe for Puran Poli from Sailu’s Kitchen.
Some of my Other Videos:
What is a Puja?
I generally translate puja to mean a devotional service. But based on a query in my previous post, Pratik provided a beautiful and succinct explanation. Considering no single word or phrase comes even close to incorporating this meaning, I recommend not translating it, but using the word puja as is, in the english language. Interestingly, this meaning is not unique to Hinduism (or Sanatana Dharma) and applies to all religious beliefs.
Pratik writes:
Pu comes from the word Poorna in Sanskrit meaning complete, Ja comes from Aja meaning born. So Puja is that which is born out of completeness or fullness.
It signifies that you feel complete and happy, and you are grateful to the Divine for bestowing that completeness in life. In fact the offering that we give symbolizes all the good things bestowed upon us by the Divine. It (is) like we are imitating the Divine in gratitude.
Beautiful, no?
Arun Shanbhag 