This book is compiled with the goal of explaining to children of Bengali origin, who have immigrated to the United States, the hidden history, significance and meaning of the mantras used in common Bengali Hindu puja rituals. A book like this is desperately needed as both the language used in the rituals (Sanskrit) and the script in which the rituals are transcribed (Bengali), are both foreign to these children and their parents. Unlike the children growing up in India, children in the west are constantly challenged by theirneighbors, peers, friends and teachers to explain the basis of Hindu faith and belief which claim to belong. This I never faced when I was growing up in India (1920s).
“We were born as a Hindu and died as a Hindu”. No questions were asked. Thus, I felt strongly to share my thoughts with my beloved grandchildren, growing up outside India, before it is too late. I was born in a priest family. I started to perform puja rituals soon after receiving my sacred thread at the age of twelve. Now I am 86 years old.
Priesthood was our family trade. But, like all other professional priests, I had no knowledge of Sanskrit, the language of Hindu Puja rituals. We were trained to hear and remember (sruti and smriti) and stay away from explaining. In addition, in my childhood days under the British rule, learning of Sanskrit was looked down and Sanskrit scholars remained obscure.
So I moved to science and technology for a better future. Yet, the soul of my ancestors never left me and I had to perform pujas upon request from time to time. Pro Rally 2001 Pc. The community was satisfied with the ignorant professional priest as they devotedly watched Hindu rituals while praying in their own ways. God listened. The problem came with my grandchildren, the budding new generation of the twenty-first century.
