Patra Pooja: An important ritual to worship nature

Ganesh Festival is a festival of offering fresh leaves of 21 different plants to Lord Ganesh. Also after three days, entire Vidarbha will follow the festival of Mahalaxmi and in Ashvin Month, Navratri, the nine-day festival of Durgapuja is ahead. The worship of God or Goddess is incomplete when people do not offer the leaves of different plants to the deities. This worship of God or Goddess is known as ‘Patra Pooja’. There are number of questions in people’s mind like ‘What is the significance of Patra Pooja?,’ ‘What message can we draw from this? Should we offer One (for example Bilva Patra) or 108 or more?’, ‘Is it proper to pluck that many leaves and thereby harm the trees/environment?,’ ‘What is the logical answer/ thinking about it?” Dr Naveen Chandra Bhat, Associate Professor, Matru Sewa Sangh Institute of Social Work and vedic scholar of ancient scriptures while talking to The Hitavada elaborated the importance of Patra Pooja. Dr Bhat explained, “Patra Pooja is an important feature of worshipping any God/goddess in our Hindu Dharma. We do it in many festivals like Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Jayanti or Chaturthi, Ramnavami, Shivratri, Devi Navratra etc.

Virtually, Patra Pooja is an important part and feature of worshipping any God or Goddess but the only deviation is that different fresh leaves are used for different Gods and Goddesses. Of course, some leaves are common. I do not wish to delve deeper into this aspect regarding which are common leaves and which are not and why it so.” “There are some common fresh leaves which are used for worshipping. Some of them are Malati patram, Bhringaraja patram, Bilva, Durva, Badari, Dhatura, Tulasi, Shamipatram, Apamarga, Bruhati, Karaveer, Arka, Arjuna, Vishnukranta, Dadima, Devadaru, Maru, Asvatha, Jati, Ketaki, Agasti, Padma, Champaka, Amra, Sevanti, Parijataka, Vata, Amalaka, Mandar, Bakula, Tamala etc. A cursory glance will make us understand that right from grass (Durva) to leaves of small plants to huge trees are used for Patra Pooja,” he added. Dr Bhat mentioned, “All have medicinal properties. That itself proclaims the significance of Patra Pooja.

Constant contact with these leaves can definitely help us improve our health conditions and in a way our ancestors developed a beautiful system of being in the vicinity of these plants/trees in the name of worshipping God or offering leaves to God. Moreover, let us remember that for plucking such leaves we come in contact with nature and knowingly or unknowingly we start loving nature. We love plants and trees. No need of organising special awareness programmes for imbibing importance of trees and nature. It was achieved naturally and with simple mechanism. Now-a-days, we have a lot of pomp and show to create awareness about importance of trees and nature.

The most needed attitude and willingness to nurture nature was handed down from generation to generation. Salute to this noble traditions. A small child learns within the family environment a great lesson on taking care of trees and nature. How can anyone who grew in such traditions think of cutting trees or undertake activities that are harmful to nature?” Replying to a question about offering one or 108 or 1008 leaves to God, Dr Bhat pointed out, “It is irrelevant question. Whether you offer one of more than hundred leaves, the basic thing is that you have to rest assure the availability of ample quantity of leaves or trees nearby the area.”

He stated, “Now-a-days, a lot of discussion goes on especially in social media about this aspect. Many so called environmentalists advice about using less number leaves for Patra Pooja with the logic that more number of leaves means more damage to trees and thus to nature. Few of them criticise the concept of plucking leaves for worshipping in Hindu Dharma. They question the validity of such traditions and draw easy conclusions of how Hindu traditions are harmful to nature. There exists a missing but most important dimension involved in Patra Pooja. Probably, the so called environmentalists keep mum on this dimension either purposefully or due to lack of knowledge. We, the devotees too, are mostly unaware about this significant aspect.

Our ancestors were intelligent enough to incorporate Patra Pooja in important festivals/worship so that the generations to come up venerate nature through nurturing trees. Our ancestors were much diligent but our generation conveniently forgot their message/advice. And the so called environmentalists take advantage of our ignorance to paint Hindu traditions in bad light.” Illustrating number of references and shloks in ancient scriptures like Mahabharat, Anushashan Parva, Skanda Purana, Mahabharata, Dharmashashtra, etc. Dr Bhat explained, “Hindu Dharma Shashtra insisted on Patra Pooja but it also insisted on planting trees and taking care of them like own children.

But, who cares to read our Dharma Shashtra Granthas or scriptures? and unfortunately we are busy in plucking leaves but find less time and interest in planting and harvesting trees/plants. It is clearly mentioned and can be easily understood that we must plant trees first and then pluck leaves for worship. To put it in short, if you pluck leaves from some other people’s trees, without planting them yourself and offer them to God, then definitely the owner of the trees will get the blessings of God and not you because the leaves are available due to the efforts of that person and not you.”