The House Puja

When I was about 9, my parents bought their first house in Topeka, Kansas, And before we moved in, the parish priest from the Church of the Assumption dropped by to bless the house. I stood with my parents and my two siblings in the blistering Kansas sun as the priest sprinkled a bit of holy water and said some prayers that I didn’t understand (back in those days, it was all Latin). Then, he didn’t even stay for dinner!

Fast forward to last week, when I got an invitation to a house puja. This was a satyanarayan puja, a Hindu blessing of the house. Like the old Catholic version, the prayers were in a language I didn’t understood. And there was some holy water. There were also flowers and prasad (sweet food in this case) offered to the gods who bless homes. And there were about 30 friends and family members to help, many wearing saris that were just beautiful.

After the ceremonial part of the evening, we shared the prasad and then had a fabulous meal of delicious Indian food and very good company. And I couldn’t help but think that the Hindus really have the blessing thing down!

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