You are just fooling yourself. It's only to please yourself that you do puja, not to please God. Upanishad clearly says those who think this is God and they are doing worship and practices. It is the prana of the prana. So, go within and look inside, that is important.
*Chapter 4 - The World Of Immortality*
*Day 17*
People think this is God or this is Brahman, they are incorrect. It is that which cannot be reached through words. You say "Conversation with God".
How can you converse with God tell me? It's your own mind talking to yourself. You say "I am talking to God", or "Oh God told me this". Upanishad says it's rubbish.
It is that which cannot be expressed or reached through words, or words cannot reach it because of which words are getting expressed, that is Brahman, Divinity.
It is the Consciousness. Do you know how the words come and how speech gets generated? When the Consciousness is uniting itself with the intellect and the mind.
A part of the mind generates energy in the body, that energy moves as wind through the voice box and a sound gets generated.
Consciousness the self in conjunction with the intellect and mind generates energy in the body, which moves through the wind pipe, through the voice box and produces the sound.
So, every sound is coming through the consciousness. There are similar verses meaning that one who thinks, that which is beyond the mind, that which is beyond the sight, which cannot be seen through eyes but which is seer itself.
Taking your attention to the object in the scenery to the seer. In the world in all the temples and churches everywhere, everyone makes God an object of sight or object of mind or spirit or somewhere outside.
They said retrieve back to the source where you are, where the mind is. That is not how people keep statues in temple and worship. In Upanishad they say statues are not God.
Many people think God is there or there are so many Gods. No, there is only one God, but for celebrations and for your fun, to have a sense of connection, you can worship that one God in as many forms as you want.
They said okay create a hundred and eight names and addresses hundred and eight forms, and each one can have your own form because you can feel your own connection.
We all want to be unique and we want to have a very unique connection with God. So, have your unique connection. Choose your own form and feel God in that form, but he is not there.
Don't think it is in that object. That is why it appears very strange for some people in India. The Hindus worship an idol and then immerse that Idol in water after a few days.
You worshipped that idol as God a few days ago, and now you are going to throw it in water? You are throwing God? No you are not throwing God.
You are symbolizing that which cannot be symbolized, just to create a celebration. Then you say that God was in my heart all the time.
You tell God to come (manifest) for some time, and you play and whatever God gave you, you give the same to him. You say, you gave me water as rain so I am going to give you water.
You gave me rice so I am going to give you rice grains. You gave me flowers. I am going to offer you flowers. All that you offered me in creation I am going to offer you that.
You take the sun and the moon around me every day. I am going to light a piece of camphor, lamp or candle and take it around you. It's just a play, nothing more than play.
If any of you are thinking that you are doing puja to please God, please forget about it. He doesn't want your coconut or flowers. You are not going to please him.
You are just fooling yourself. It's only to please yourself that you do puja, not to please God. Upanishad clearly says those who think this is God and they are doing worship and practices. It is the prana of the prana. So, go within and look inside, that is important.