Reverential Attitude towards Material

Our tradition, imbibes a revertential attitude towards material. We look upon, and rightly so in keeping with the upanisadic vision, we look upon material as lakshmi. As brahman.

Material is worshipped and rightly valued in our cultural and traditional lineage.

A book is worshipped as saraswati, coins and cash are values as lakshmi. The home itself is worshipped, and homas are performed for the home. Before starting construction we do bhumi pooja. Then we have a festival called as 'ayudha pooja' in tamilnadu and southern states. We take all the instruments, vehicles etc. and worship them.Clothes and so on, new clothes , before wearing , we keep near Pooja altar, apply some turmeric or kumkum and only then we wear.

Farmers worship the crops, and the harvest. Rivers and water bodies are worshipped. Cows, birds and animals are also worshipped in various ways. There are temples for rats, snakes, and many animals are vAhanAs or vehicles of the lord. Matsya , kurma and varAha are in fact avatAras.

Food is worshipped before eating, we worship food.

Coming further, we do not at all shy away from worshipping the forms of gods and humans. Mother and father are worshipped by children, every person is valued , for their role.

During the marriage ceremony, both the bride and groom are considered as a god and goddess. During sandhya vandanam worship, we invoke the various devatas in our body parts.

We regularly worship the lord, ishvara in various forms. Forms such as shiva, visnu, bhagavathi, shAsta, muruga, ganapathi and so many more are worshipped.

Most famously , we do love to keep a picture of the gurus, our beloved gurus in the pooja room, and worship. When we meet them, we do pAda puja, and worship them.

The sun and the heavenly bodies are equally worshipped. Lord shiva is worshipped as all 5 elements space, air, fire, water, earth.

To all that is here, sthula, sukshma and kArana, matter and energy, known and unknown we say namaH. Time is worshipped, the lord is worshipped as kAla devata.

Both the worshipper and the worshipped is one non dual atman that is brahman.