Every Hindu Should Know Eight Steps of Worship

There are 8 types of worship according to Sanathana Dharma shastra.. Every Hindu should know what is meant by worship through these eight steps which are literally followed in our prayer .

1. Sravanam : Listening to good keerthans, manthras, prayer, naama japa, listening to stories of puranaas which are known as sravana – listening ( remember your ears).

2. Darsanam : Seeing the picture of divine power, nature, all living and non living being realizing that the divine power exist in each and everything. Pilgrimage to temple, visiting great scholars and great avathaaras who have devoted their whole life for human welfare and also seeing all the divine people who came to the earth for serving the people and god’s creations. This is darsanam ( remember your eyes).

3. Keerthanam : Chanting manthras, keethanas, namaas, telling stories, giving upadesas, guiding people, appreciating good actions, and satkarmaas, are all known as keerthanas ( Remember your tongue).

4. Smaranam: Remembering the divine power and the guiding force existing in all the 1.6 million type of animals, 4 lakhs type of plants 80,000 type of trees and one million types of micro organisms. Remembering that we are only the tools in the hands of the divine power. Remembering that every second, we are under the guidance of the divine power. That is smarana ( remember your mind).

5. Archanam : offering the flowers, manthras, fruits, leaves, etc ( whatever you have a part of that) to god is archana. Even thinking that you are doing archana is also archana.

6. Vandanam : Bowing the head, saluting and doing the namaskaara to the divine power/ god and elders, scholars, gurus, parents, guests. All these include in vandana ( Remember your hands).

7. Sevanam : Serving the deserving people, animals and all living beings as your own family members and implementing the applied spirituality principles of Lokaa: samasthaa: sukhino Bhavanthu . Serving the aged, orphans, sick, people and animals. Nara seva is narayana seva says our Rishies ( Remember all your karmendriyaas).

8. Samarpanam: What ever we have as our own, offer a part of that to the deserving people that is samarpanam. Samarpanam has to be done with a good intention and selfless vision. In India we have annadaanam, vastra daanam, netra daanam, bhoo daanam, koopa daanam, raktha daanam, and so on. All theseare samarpanam to god itself.