Mha Puja: Making Self offerings

Mha Puja: Making Self offerings

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Mha Puja literally means ‘body worship’ but it is actually making offerings to self. Mha means a human body and Puja means making offerings in the Nevah language.  Nevah: one of the natives in Nepal has a tradition of making offerings to self on the first day of the bright fortnight of Kartik (October). 

The self-offerings are made in four different ways.

We start with the first three Shastriya offerings and then conclude with the last Tantric offering.

The first Shastriya offering comprises five items of offerings such as flowers, sinha (red and yellow powder), fluffy rice, polished rice, and Jajanka. These five items of offerings represent the five sense faculties and also the five elements such as earth, water, air, light (fire) and ether (mind). Offerings of these five elements also represent the offering of a human life. So, the first offering is a human life offering made to the human Mandala.

The second Shastriya offering consists of flower, fluffy rice, manually husked rice, cut-fruits and hard nuts. All these five items also represent the five life-supporting elements and represent a human life. We make this second Shastriya offering to humans on their heads.

The third Shastriya offering consists of four different fruits and Jajanka (consecrated cotton thread). These five items also represent the five life-supporting elements and a human life. We make this third Shastriya offering to humans on their hands.

The fourth and the final offering is the Tantric offering called ‘Khen-sagan’. It consists of a hard-boiled-peeled and then-fried egg, a small dried and fried fish and a glass of alcoholic drink (distilled millet alcoholic drink or rice beer). Such an egg represents earth, heat and air, fish represents water and alcoholic drink represents ether (mind). Thus, these three items together represent the four life-supporting elements and then a mind thus representing a human life. We make this Tantric offering to humans on the hands: an egg and a fish on the left hand and a glass of alcoholic drink on the right hand.

On the new moon day in other words on the eve of the New Year day, Nevah brothers and sisters engaged in business of trade become busy at closing the one-year account. They see how much money they made, not made or even lost in the year, then they put the entire cash amount they have in the hand to the treasury room where they worship the Goddess of Wealth called Lakshmi. They stop any business of money after the worship to Goddess Lakshmi and they would run the business only the next day morning after making offerings to the Goddess again and receiving the blessing from Her. However, some other members of the Nevah community do not stop the business of money although they also worship the Goddess Lakshmi as other members of the business community do.

Nepalis in general follow three different calendars: 1) lunar calendar called Nepal Samvat for celebrating religious and cultural festivals, 2) Solar calendar called Vikram Calendar for official in-county business and 3) Gregorian (Christian) calendar for international businesses.

Nepal has its own calendar called Nepal Samvat. All Nepalis follow it for celebrating religious and social tradition. We had another calendar before it. A rich Nevah person called Shankhadhara Sakhvah paid the debt of all debtors; then he introduced a new calendar called Nepal Samvat more than one millennium ago. The Nepal Samvat calendar follows the lunar system.

We the members of the Nevah community celebrate a New Year Day making offerings to ourselves to strengthen our mind, speech and body so that we would be able to work with vigor for the whole year even though the tradition of Mha must be probably at least-three millennium old. 

We believe that every human has a guardian spirit in him/her. In other words, every human possess with the divine spirit and s/he needs to revere it at least once a year. 

We do it on the first day of the New Year. It so happened after a new calendar was introduced replacing the old one. Our belief is that such an offering stimulates the hidden spirit in a human, body and then energizes him/her to be active for a year. Therefore, our philosophy of performing worship to self is to empower ourselves for fighting against evil spirits, diseases and for making fortunes in the New Year.

Our rituals of celebrating Mha Puja are primarily for purifying mind, speech and body. Human mind is the driving force in the body. Every person acts only after his/her mind conceives something to do. Speech comes only as the expression of what the mind has set to do. Finally, our body takes physical actions. Therefore, it is utmost important for us to keep those three things pure for a good and humanely living.

It is hard to confidently say when our forefathers had set the tradition of making self-offerings. However, this tradition must be at least more than one thousand year old, as the Nepal Samvat has been more than one thousand years old. The tradition might have set even a few thousand years earlier than the Nepal Samvat in view of a man called Shankhadhara Sakhvah started Nepal Samvat freeing all Nepalis from debt paying their debts to the moneylenders more than one thousand years ago  replacing the existing old calendar before the Nepal Samvat    .

Now, let us talk about how we celebrate the New Year and Mha Puja. The New Year falls on the first day of the light fortnight called ‘Kachala Tho’ in the Nepal Samvat (in the month called Kartik (October-November) in the Vikram calendar). We perform the self-offerings usually at night but could do so at any convenient time on this particular day. We make preparations for this occasion the whole day.

Mandala: First, we draw a Mandala in preparation for making self-offerings. Some people call Mandala a geometrical figure. In fact, it is the view of a human body sitting on an eight-petal lotus flower blossoming on water seen from above.

In preparing a Mandala, first, we draw a circle from holy water; then an eight-petal lotus flower in it with the rice flour; then we draw one inner circle after another of fluffy rice, then of one kind of bean and finally of policed unbroken rice and of mustard-seed oil and then we dip the central finger of our hand in a mixture of amber power and mustard-seed oil and print a fingerprint inside the circle of mustard-seed oil. This is called a Mandala.

The water circle symbolizes a pond. The eight-petal lotus drawn with the rice powder inside the water circle symbolizes a lotus flowering on it. The eight-lotus petals represent “astamangal” means eight auspicious symbols.

Other Mandalas made of fluffy rice, of beans and polished rice, mustard oil and amber powder mixed with mustard-seed oil represent the human body sitting on the lotus flowering on water as seen from above, as these five items represent the five life-supporting elements such as earth, air, water, fire, and ether (mind) thus making a human. 

Drawing Mandala: First, we select a place where all our family members could comfortably sit together in a row either facing east or west.  We never sit facing south or north, as it is inauspicious. Then, we purify the area of about one meter wide and the length as required by a number of our family members we have to sit, smearing it with the mixture of fresh cow dung and red clay. If we find it inconvenient to sit on a floor, we draw Mandalas on a table. If we do not have fresh cow dung and red clay to smear a floor or a table for purification, we might use anything that cleanse a floor or a table for drawing Mandalas.

We draw one Mandala for each family member (expect for the new born child not named yet) including the absentees, and one at the top for the life-giving God called Janmaraj and another at the bottom for the life-taking God called Yamaraj.  All other Mandalas are in between those two-deity Mandalas. These deity Mandalas are not different from the human Mandalas.

Our tradition has it that first, we revere the life-giving God called Janmaraj and the life-taking God called Yamaraj even if it is at the end of the row of Mandalas; then, we make self-offerings.

We believe that Janmaraj represents the past, humans represent the present and Yamaraj represents the future. So, humans are always in between Janmaraj and Yamaraj in other words between birth and death. We are always moving to the future ultimately to the end only to start again. It is a vicious circle of life we are moving around.

We draw about a half-meter diameter circle of holy water for each Mandala on the purified floor partially closing the opening of a holy water pot by an index finger. If we do not have a holy river for collecting water, we use the fresh tap water for drawing water circles; then we draw an eight-petal lotus flower from rice flour inside the holy water circle.

To draw an eight-petal lotus flower, we first draw a circle of about ten-centimeter diameter from rice flour using thumb and index fingers with special drawing skills.  Then, we go on adding one petal after another to the outer area of the circle. For making easy to draw a lotus flower from rice flour, some of us use a perforated paper sheet; on which we spread rice flour; we get the louts flower of the design made on a paper sheet when we lift it. We call it a rice flour Mandala inside the water Mandala.

Then, we draw a circle of fluffy rice balls within the circle of the eight-petal lotus Mandala drawn of rice flour. This is done placing the fluffy rice balls in row close to the inner line of the circle of an eight-petal lotus. Similarly, we draw two more inner circles within the circle of the fluffy rice balls. The first inner circle is the Mandala of beans; it is of about five-centimeter diameter and then we draw a circle of policed unbroken rice in it. Currently, some people make a number of other circles of various small beans inside the fluffy rice-ball circle following their choice to embellish the Mandala.

Then, we draw a mustard-seed-oil Mandala in it. This is the inner most Mandala. This is done soaking a cotton twine in mustard-seed oil and shaping it in a circle of a centimeter diameter or more and print an oil circle inside the polished rice Mandala.

Finally, we put an amber color ‘tika’ inside the oil Mandala. Using the right hand middle finger, we apply amber powder mixed with mustard-seed oil within an oil Mandala. This is called ‘sinha’ Mandala. We need to start the rituals of offerings immediately after it. So, we wait to apply this last ‘sinha’ Mandala until we set everything required for self-offerings.

Decorating Mandala: we place two cotton twines or wicks each of six-inch long and soaked in mustard-seed oil crossing each other at a right angle on the right side of the worshipper next to the Mandala. We set a piece of fruit or bread under the ends of each cotton twine and under the point where the two twines cross. This gives the most auspicious Hindu sign called Svastika.

We set varieties of fresh and dried fruits, one garland of ever-red flower called Goya Svaon (Makhamali), hard walnuts, marigold flowers and a folded twine called ‘Jajanka’ at each Mandala. Then, next to the fruits and flowers, we set one figurine made of dough, and cooked in steam at each Mandala. Each figurine depicts one God or another such as the God of Wealth called Kuber holding a gift hamper, God of perfection called Ganesh; then, we pin incense sticks to the shoulders of such figurines. We set one such figurine at the Mandala to the life-giving God and life-taking God.

Sitting arrangement:  When everything is set ready for making self-offerings, all of our family members sit at their respective Mandala. The patriarch sits at the top of the row, then his brothers, sons and daughters sit following the protocol of seniority, and then sisters-in-law and daughters-in-law sit at their respective Mandalas. The spouse of the patriarch sits at the bottom Mandala next to the Mandala to the life-taking God.

Once, we sit at the Mandala then, it is not auspicious to leave off the Mandala before completing the self-offerings. We, therefore, make it sure that every thing is in place before everybody sits at a Mandala. We select a volunteer from among our family members preferably a woman to attend the rituals of offerings. We make sure that all males sitting at Mandalas put on their headgears called topis and females wrapped in a shawl take out their right hands from their shawl. We all sit cross-legged in the posture of Padmason (lotus posture).

Performing self-offerings: An attendant holds a ritual brass or bronze plate or a container containing five items of offerings such as flowers, sinha (red and yellow powder), fluffy rice balls, polished rice, and Jajanka. These five items of offerings represent the five sense faculties and also the five elements such as earth, water, air, light (fire) and ether (mind) that support the human life.  She also holds a pot of yogurt on her left hand.

The patriarch begins the rituals of the self-offerings.  He first purifies his hands with the holy water taking water from a holy-water jar and sprinkles the holy water to all Mandalas. He then lights the mustard-seed oil lamp on a special auspicious lamp called Sukunda placed on his right hand side. 

Sukunda symbolizes the sun god. It has a built-in image of Ganesh: the God of Perfection. He then lights the incense sticks pinned to the dough figurine placed next to the Mandala to the life-giving God, the person sitting next to the Mandala to the life-taking God lights the incense stick pinned to the dough figurine placed at the bottom Mandala. Thereafter, every one of us sitting at the respective Mandala lights the respective incense stick.

The patriarch first makes offerings to a built-in image of Lord Ganesh on the oil lamp Sukunda. He puts a flower on the head of the God, applies red and yellow powder on the forehead of the God, then offers polished rice, fluffy rice balls, and Jajanka, and then applies the yogurt using the right hand thumb on the right side of the forehead of Lord Ganesh. Thereafter, the patriarch makes offerings to the Mandala to the life-giving God at the top and then the life-taking God at the bottom not leaving his seat.

We need to make the first offerings to Lord Ganesh, as none of the deities would accept the offerings made without first making offerings to Lord Ganesh. He has the privilege of having the first offerings among the deities.

Now, it is the turn of the patriarch to make offerings to his Mandala. The attendant holds a brass plate or a container with items of offerings on the right hand and a yogurt pot on the left hand, and offers them to the patriarch. 

He first takes a piece of flowers from the container, holds it on his left hand, applies red and yellow sinha on it, then offers polished rice and fluffy rice, places a Jajanka on it, and finally applies the yogurt on it and then touches it to his head and places it on his Mandala. He does it three times. The first offering is made to mind, second to speech and the third to body.

Every one of us in turn repeats this procedure of offerings made to Mandala. So, the attendant takes the container and the yogurt to each of us to make offerings to our respective Mandala in turn.

The second self-offerings are to make offerings to our body. The woman attendant does this. A large circular (about one meter diameter) wicker tray full of mixture of flowers, fluffy rice, manually husked rice, cut-fruits and hard nuts has been made ready for making offerings to the family members. She takes the handful of the mixture from such a wicker tray and puts it in a wooden grain-measuring pot called Mana, and then offers it first to Ganesh at the oil lamp Sukunda, then to the Mandala to the life-giving God and then to the Mandala to the life-taking God. She makes this offering only once to each of these deities.

She then makes offerings to our body three times to each of us by turn. All male members take off their headgears to receive the offerings. She first makes offerings to the patriarch. He bows his head on his Mandala. She takes the handful of the mixture including a hard nut and puts it in a wooden grain-measuring pot called Mana, and then, pours it on the head of the patriarch. She makes this process of offerings three times. All the items of the mixture fall on his Mandala. The first offering is to mind, second to speech and the third: the last one to body. This process is repeated to all our family members.

The third self-offerings are to offer the fruits, nuts, and flowers placed at the Mandala to the worshipper sitting at it. The female attendant makes first offerings to Lord Ganesh at the oil lamp Sukunda, then to the life-giving God and to the life-taking God.

Thereafter, she offers the fruits, nuts, and flowers placed at the Mandala to the patriarch. She collects all fruits, nuts flowers and Jajanka placed at the Mandala, and puts them on a tray and offers those things to the patriarch. She also wishes him to be as hard and strong as walnut, as pure and aromatic as a fruit called toshi (bimero), as beautiful and evergreen as the Goya Svaon (Makhamali flower), and as fresh as Katush (a kind of nuts).

Accepting the offerings of fruits, nuts, and flowers, the patriarch first takes out the garland of Goya Svaon (Makhamali flower) out of the tray, and wears it around his neck. He takes a Jajanka (a cotton twine consecrated with mantras) and wears it around his neck. Wearing this twine means protecting ourselves from the evil spirit. He puts back the rest of the items at the Mandala.

She makes these offerings to all of us repeating the same process as she has done to the patriarch.  Once, it is done to all of us the third self-offering completes.

All male members of the family wear their headgear after completing this process. The attendant then applies yellow-and-red-powder paste on the forehead of all family members. Before doing so, she first applies it on the image of Lord Ganesh and then on the Mandalas of the life-giving god and the life-taking god.

The fourth self-offering is the offering of ‘Khen-sagan’. We prepare a pot of home-brewed rice drink, one boiled, peeled and then fried egg for each family member, one each for Lord Ganesh, and two Gods: life-giving and life-taking, and a few extra eggs, and one small dried fish fried (the head of the fish turned to clockwise direction) in oil for each family members and gods.

The attendant brings a tray full of boiled, peeled and fried eggs and another tray full of fried fishes, and a jar of home-brewed rice drink, and set those items near the patriarch.

The patriarch takes an egg and a fish on his left hand and drops them into the jar containing the home-brewed rice liquor, and sprinkles the liquor to all Mandalas by his left hand. This is the symbolic offering of ‘Khen-sagan’ to all Mandalas.

We perform the offering of ‘Khen-sagan’ under the light of Svastika-shaped two-cotton twine set on the right side of each worshipper. So, the attendant lights the Svastika-shaped wicks placed at the Mandala to the life-giving god and then at the life-taking god at the bottom. Then, every one of us lights all four ends of the Svastika-shaped wicks placed on our right side. This is the climax of Mha puja. We need to finish the offerings of ‘Khen-sagan’ before the wicks burn out.

Thereafter, the attendant sets a bronze cup at each family member. She fills the bronze cup with the liquor from the jar. If the fish from the jar flows to the cup means a person getting the fish cup is the lucky family member for that year.

She holds the cup on her right hand, then an egg, and a fish on her left hand, and crosses the hands and offers those items to the patriarch first. The patriarch takes the cup on his right hand and an egg and a fish on his left hand. He first sips the liquor and then takes a first bite of the egg and fish. The attendant adds the liquor to the cup. He repeats the sipping of the liquor and takes a second bite of the egg and fish. Then, she adds liquor for the last time, and he makes the last ritual of sipping and biting egg and fish. This means offerings of the Khen-sagan to mind, speech and body.  Thereafter, he places the cup on the floor and then continues to eat the egg and fish and drink the liquor from the cup. This process is repeated for all of us.

When everyone finishes eating egg and fish and drinking liquor, and light from the Svastika wicks goes off, the self-offering is almost completed. Then, the attendant takes a flower and sweeps the Mandalas from the bottom up to complete the Mha-puja. This is the symbolic sweeping. A groom does the real sweeping from the top to the bottom, and save all those leftover for the next morning to dispose of in a holy river.

Thereafter, we feast on the various dishes we have prepared for celebrating self-offerings. We do not wash the dishes on this night, save those dishes for the next morning to wash believing the remains or leftovers on these dishes might turn into gold next morning. Most probably, our ancestors must have set this tradition of not washing dishes saying those remains might turn into gold in the next morning, as they must be tired very much on that day preparing and performing Mha-puja; so, they made such an excuse for not washing dishes on that night.

The unique thing we do on this occasion is making of offerings to the broom and a large circular wicker tray of about a meter in diameter together, and a pitcher of holy water. These two items never go together at other time. It might be because a broom is for sweeping all sorts of dust and dirt whereas a wicker tray is for winnowing food grain; so, our ancestors do not allow them to go together from the hygienic point of view. We believe that the broom and the wicker tray are the instruments of the Goddess of Wealth called Laksmi. 

November 14, 2008.

Note:

(1) After Nepal became a federal democratic republic in 2007, most of the ethnic groups went back to the original term the former rulers had distorted. Newar is the distorted term of Nevah. So, here, I used Nevah in places of Newar previously used.

(2) The term ‘Newar’ is not an ethnic term but a cultural term denoting the very rich and complex culture of the society of the Kathmandu Valley: John Locke author of ‘Karunamaya’.