Prayer pays, it brings positivity, calmness and happiness to life

Prayer and puja may or may not be the same thing. In a broad sense, we see no difference between puja and prayer. But, essentially, prayer is just a part of puja, and puja is not a part of prayer.

Moving away from definitions, it would be better if we get into the worth of prayer and puja as most of us perform them but with different kinds of notions about them. We pray to gods/goddesses so that our wishes are fulfilled and our grievances redressed. You can blame your luck or karma if your wishes are not fulfilled.

In a puja, it is more elaborate, and one has to do a kind of “transaction”. Here, gods and goddesses are offered from drinks to food to clothes to jewellery. In his book, Devlok, Devdutt Pattanaik, says, “You treat the idols like living entities”. An atmosphere is created in order to “breathe life into idols”. And then, the why part of doing all these acts starts: Requests for wish fulfilment and seeking forgiveness for your lapses.

Devotees are faith-drunk, and they get tremendous satisfaction and peace of mind in undertaking rituals. After a prayer/puja, they feel their day is made and they go about doing their daily chores happily and energetically. They are less tense, and they can keep worries away. However, their wishes may or may not be fulfilled as a direct result of such acts. But the very fact that it can sustain their hopes keeps them positive and constructive. Therefore, one can assert, that itself is a huge gain.

Mahatma Gandhi used prayer as a tool of strength in his struggle for freedom. He used to say, “Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.”