26 Jul 2009

The puja

An aunty of Swami Vishwananda tells us about the devotion to God that she could observe from an early age by Swami:
"Swami Vishwananda loved performing prayers from a very early age and joined his grandmother (my mom) in her daily rituals. My dad always helped my mom to prepare her puja but one day my mom was surprised when she noticed that her puja was ready even before she had completed sorting out all of her offerings. She looked around trying to figure out who had been there to so lovingly set up the altar and then she knew it had to be Swami Vishwananda. As a small child, Swami Vishwananda took delight in making murtis with earthen clay and then painting them with great love and care. As a young teenager, he often loved visiting the Shirdi Baba temple in Cure-pipe, always offering a coconut, incense sticks and flowers as prasad. Unlike other youth of his age, he always preferred to keep himself busy by singing bhajans. From early childhood, his love for God was always expressing itself. On holiday in Mauritius, Swami Vishwananda invited me to a puja they were holding at his home and I happily agreed to come. When I reached my sister-in-law’s apartment, I was very surprised to see that it was not a priest reciting all the prayers, but Swami with Ravi and his friend at his side blowing the conch. The three of them were confidently performing all the prayers outside in the yard. When the puja was over, prasad was passed around. It was a lovely puja. I couldn’t believe it, as he was only thirteen years old at the time.