Manaspuja the worship in the mind, of the soul, shiva within!

Just as the essence of nirguna brahman is given in atmashatam, The essense of saguna bragman within is given in shloka 4 of shiv manas puja by adi shankarcharya.

The objective of physical puja is to enable us to do manaspuja ( worship by the mind) within the heart, internally, without going anywhere or without any objects like flowers, prasad etc. The importance of physical puja is that, you can only visualize what you have already done, very easily.

Most of us are still stuck in doing physical rituals, not understanding that it is the starting point, ending point being the ability to perform manaspuja within.

Links to listen to both are here.

Atmashatakam. https://youtu.be/UrZUQh6SpcQ

Manaspuja.

https://youtu.be/nmmKE2TUiH4

The more I contemplate, understand and immerse into it, the more this physical existence gets aligned to the supreme consciousness.

Atma is the self, shiva. The buddhi is parvati, shivas consort. (Here only one part of the mind is taken. The other three are not. Aligned with shiva, there is not identity ahamakara, there is no memory, as all memories are linked to identity, there is no manas feelings as they emerge from chitta and ahamakara.)

The ganas of shiva are the pranas. Ganas obey shiva. In manaspuja, pranayama is automatic.

The physical body the home for all of them, shiva, parvati and ganas. The entite consciousness and its manifestation is now within. Not in a temple, outside.

All the material aspects are created to worship shiva. When i enjoy through my senses, i am actually doing puja or worshipping lord

Shiva within me. (This is opposite of withdrawal of senses from the material world, which is very difficult). This changes the relationship with the material world completely. A profound insight.

Here nidra means deep sleep, not just sleep in dream state, where there is no active mind, hence no dreams, by which we get rest...and feel we had a good night's sleep. In samadhi state too, we don't have awareness of the mind. (We are in samadhi state every night, but we can not control it). This is to make us aware of the nature of the samadhi state. Once mind is silent, all the aspects related to mind, emotions, identity, memory, even intellect dissolve.

In santana dharma, parikrama (circling) of the supreme being has great importance. Here as the Lord resides within, and is the atman or the consciousness itself, when I walk, that itself is the parikrama of the Lord. There is no need to go to temple for parikrama anymore.

Whatever I speak are the stotras, as all languages and sounds are derived from aum. And aum is within, the consciousness, manifested by eternal sound, I can hear at all times, even in sleep.

Whatever actions I take are all worship of lord shiva. There is no karma attached, no good, no bad, as everything is submitted to the Lord.

The manaspuja has opened the doors for anandmaya kosha...