Worship is about coming with a pure heart and complete devotion

Worship is one of the central concepts of Hinduism. Hindus believe it as a way to reach the Supreme Being, and Hinduism offers remarkable flexibility in the ways of worship for its followers.

Hindus believe that the Supreme Being is loving, merciful, powerful and all encompassing; therefore, any form of worship will reach it. This feeling is echoed in numerous Hindu texts.

Mahabharata (Pandavgeeta) mentions, "Just as water that falls from the sky goes to the ocean, all our prayers ultimately reach the Lord." So there is no 'one correct' way, time or place for worship.

Hindus perform worship in many ways. Some think that it is not possible to focus on the Supreme Being while living among people. They opt for renunciation (sanyaas), which means they give up worldly possessions and become ascetics.

For those who want to achieve the grace of God while living an ordinary life, there are many practical ways to worship. It is only essential that people worship with a pure heart and complete devotion.

Doing prayers (pooja), chanting mantras, performing pilgrimages, going to temples and making offerings to the deities are some of the options.

If you can go to a nearby temple that is suggested, but if not, you can worship at home. If you can't worship in the morning, you may do it at a more suitable time. Also, if you can't perform elaborate rituals, small offerings are acceptable.

In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, the human avatar of God, tells Arjuna (9:26) that whoever offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water with devotion and a loving heart, he will accept.

Unfortunately, many mistake this flexibility as polytheism and idolatry, but nothing could be further from the truth. Hindus don't worship multiple gods; we worship one God in many different ways.

We believe that worshipping God as formless (nirgun-niraakar) or in any form (sagun-sakaar) is immaterial. Many scholars have explained that worshipping God in a form helps to focus devotion and eventually one can move toward formless worship.

Also, many of the deities have a certain symbolism associated with them. For example, Ganesha, who is erroneously mentioned as "Elephant god," represents the omniscience and the mercy of God, showing us the right path and removing obstacles in our journey towards Him.

Hinduism offers tremendous freedom in choosing the form of worship. However, worship itself is considered important, as it is a path toward achieving moksha, or spiritual liberation of soul.

Hindus believes that a soul can achieve liberation in many different ways. Knowledge (Jnana-Yoga) is one of them. Rig Veda mentions more than once that there is nothing more holy than knowledge.

Also, performing your duties with 100 percent devotion, without worrying about a reward, is another way (Karma-Yoga). However, this is often difficult to imbibe in our daily lives. Daily struggles of life deviate our attention and distract us from realizing God.

Therefore, Hinduism considers worship (Bhakti-Yoga) as a simpler path for ordinary devotees. It reminds us about the mercy and power of God, reduces distractions and keeps us focused on the path of moksha.

Let's say many people put up posters, flyers and advertisements on your fence. If you want to stop them, what would you do? You put up a notice saying "No posters allowed."

Outwardly, it's ironic that you need to stick a poster of your own to avoid other posters. Similarly, our mind goes through many emotions. To keep these thoughts from sticking to our minds, we need to have a thought of our own.

That's precisely what a prayer does. A prayer, a mantra or a devotional song (bhajan-keertan) helps cleanse our mind from other thoughts that clutter it and reminds us about the ultimate goal of reaching the Supreme Being.

[Reach columnist Shreyas Limaye at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]