Offerings

In both Buddhism and Hinduism, the disciple makes various offerings to the deity or guru in a ritual called puja. In Tibetan Buddhism there are seven traditional material offerings: water bowls, flowers, fragrant incense, lamps, scented water, fruit or other food, and music. Besides these, the disciple is encouraged to offer those things he most cherishes in the world. By concentration, he multiplies his offerings. Thus, offerings are both material, or outer, and mental, or inner.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna states: “He who offers to me with devotion only a leaf, or a flower, or a fruit, or even a little water, this I accept from that yearning soul, because with a pure heart it was offered with love.... Give me thy mind and give me thy heart, give me thy offerings and thy adoration; and thus with thy soul in harmony, and making me thy goal supreme, thou shalt in truth come to me” (9.26, 34).

Sources

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 36, no. 25, June 20, 1993.