Satyanarayan Pooja

I heard of this Pooja first time from my friend Bhawna who is quite religious, she was discussing it with a few other friends who were also North Indians. Quite the norm among the northies is what I gathered from the talks, much to my surprise this very same pooja was my first event after marriage. At the time all decked up in finery and very conscious of every movement of mine, the only thing that actually sunk of the pooja was that there was a story attached to it and during the pooja you read it.

Almost a year now into marriage and much more relaxed with my in laws, I realised that this pooja was done at home without pundits as and when good things happened or in the anticipation of good news. So recently when my sister in law’s marriage got fixed Satyanarayan pooja was done at home and my mother in law steer headed it.

All this was very intriguing to me and so I hesitantly at first suggested to Shaiwal, if it would be possible for us to do it as well. The idea was welcomed with great enthusiasm although I was a bit concerned because it was for god and I didn’t want to do any mistakes. My mother in law with her infinite wisdom assured me, it was not a matter of doing it right or wrong but a matter of doing it with the right intentions and purity of thought.

So this Saturday, we got up early and prepared for the pooja, I made Panchamrith from unboiled milk, curd, sugar, honey and a drop of ghee and Panjiri from ghee, atta and sugar. These two are the main two prasad’s it seems. Then we got laddoo’s, banana’s, sindoor and rice and from the internet a print out of Satyanarayan Katha (the story). We didn’t have a photo of Satyanarayan god and so we downloaded on the laptop and made that the desktop wallpaper.

As Shaiwal and I started the pooja, I realised two things, one, god and anything related to god soothes me and makes me feel good, two the Satyanarayan god is Vishnu and since Guruvayurappan pictures are also of Vishnu the two look the same, so I was not accosted by the feeling of doing something unfamiliar but instead the same feeling of praying to the lord whom I have been from childhood.

Well we finished the pooja and then distributed the Prasad among friends as well, so that was our high point of the weekend.