In hinduism,
darsahana is said to bring good fortune, well being, grace and
spiritual merit to the devotees. As the deity gazes on the devotee
without blinking, darshana, in essence, can be considered the
exchange of vision that is essential to Hindu worship before
images. The act of opening an image's eyes is said to "vivify it in
essential preliminary to consecration and worship" (Fuller). It is
the passive act in which the devotee and the deity exchange vision
allowing for the devotee to absorb the power of the deity when he
or she looks at the image. This allows for the symbolic interaction
between the deity and the devotee. When a devotee looking into the
image, they are essentially seeing the deity's shakti rather than
the deity itself.
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During the
puja, the deity is bathed, decorated and offered
food. Although the
deity does not need these offering, the puja is essentially
designed to please the gods. If the puja is done right, the gods
respond by protecting the devotee or even the whole community
making it flourish. If the puja is not performed properly, the
deity can withdraw their protection causing distress and misery to
the worshippers. At the end of the puja, some of the offerings made
to the
godsuch as flowers,
water are offered to the worshipper in the form of prasada which
allows the devotee to absorb some of the divine power and grace. In
some sense, taking care of the deity's symbolic needs, brings the
to a more human level which the devotees can identify with. Lord
Krishna who is usually portrayed as a child is willingly dependent
on the devotee, expressing a mutual relationship between the god
and the worshipper. In some cases however, devotees and worshippers
usually perform puja in order to win boons from their deities. Puja
is an act of respectful honoring where the objective is to please
the deity in the hope that the deity would help and protect the
worshipper. THe fundamental function of puja is "embodying the
deity and disembodying the man" (Fuller).The camphor flame usually
shown towards the end of the puja symbolizes both the deity's
embodiment during puja by appealing to the physical senses, as well
as the deity's transcendence of its embodied form. When the devotee
touches the flame and then their eyes, they are essentially
transferring the deity's power and benevolent protective grace into
their
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