An apparent way to pray

Digital devotion has found a new facilitator in smart phone apps that help devotees to perform pujas at home. From procuring the materials to appointing a pundit, these apps are proving to be a smart way to offer prayers

Performing a puja can be quite an arduous task given how precise the requirements of the offerings can be. Procuring the items itself is as much a challenge as it is to get a pundit at the right time to perform the puja. That's the reason why several web portals offering online puja services have become much sought after by devotees around the country and the world. And now, to even better fit into our touch-screen lives, several smart phone apps on android phones are making their presence felt. The applications provide everything from a comprehensive DIY walkthroughs for rituals, to an e-pundit service and even a 360-degree e-darshan of the deity of one's choice.

With hundreds of these apps now available on platforms such as Android, Apple and Microsoft, we take a look at how they work and what you need to know to make sure your next home puja goes hassle-free.

Leave it to the pundits No matter the nature or the purpose of the puja, the requirements are almost always too specific to be compromised with. And God indeed lies in the details, because it is imperative that the dharba (sacrificial grass) be placed in a certain position and the prasad only be offered at a certain time. Meeting your requirement of an expert is an app called Where’s My Pundit. Its co-founder Ronak Agrawal says, “We came up with the idea when the e-commerce sector was booming and the spiritual/devotional services market was considerably untapped. We know from experience how difficult it is to find a pundit on short notice. Also, exorbitant rates, short-cut pujas and lack of punctuality were common complaints against pundits. So we wanted to provide a simpler and better option.”

Speaking of how it works, Pundit Sameer Bhadeka, who is associated with Where’s My Pundit says, “I belong to the family of pundits and have been in this profession for 9 years now. I have been associated with this app for 11 months now. It’s a very convenient medium for both the pundit and the customer. Firstly, it saves us the travelling time. We too learnt a new technology that we otherwise wouldn’t have learnt. It’s a great boon for NRIs especially. Recently, I conducted Laxmi puja for an Indian family in the US and the process lasted for over two hours.”

The app provides three types of e-puja services. Bilateral Puja is an online puja service that provides you guidance through video conferencing. The entire puja set-up, including samagri arrangement is done at both the ends. The app’s pundit shows how to perform the puja, the devotee follows the process step by step. Another form is the Yajmaan’s Edge, where the devotee performs the entire puja only from their end. WMP’s Edge is the third service where the pundit conducts the entire puja for the customer, who only has to repeat the shlokas and mantras during the puja.

Deity specific Born2Win Technology Solutions has over 10-15 religious apps, each dedicated to a specific deity. Vishwas Dwivedi, founder, says, “I am from a family of pundits and I know how elaborate the procedures are. Some deities are more popular than the rest in certain areas. For example, Durga Puja is famous in Bengal while Ganpati is famous in Maharashtra, so we thought why not have different apps for different deities. We even have an app which helps in invoking Shivaji Maharaj, which is in Marathi and is popular in that community.” The services include recorded audio or audio-visuals of the pujas which the users can watch and emulate.

The temple network A number of apps have tie ups with some of the most famous temples in the country to make the whole concept of e-darshan much more accessible to devotees. The E-Puja app has a network that includes 3,600 temples across India. Chetan Merchant, chairman, says, “We specialise in remedy puja. All the temples listed on our app are over 1,000 years old. For instance, there are temples for people who want to get married early, there are temples for legal remedies, conceiving a child, acquiring wealth and so on. There are over 150 remedies that we offer. Once the user selects a remedy temple, we book and the priest and the puja is conducted on their behalf. The prasad reaches the customer in an official envelope with their name, which adds to the credibility of the puja being conducted.”

Pandal hopping While pandal hopping is a much looked-forward to part of festivals such as Durga Puja and Ganpati, the serpentine queues are best avoided. The Kolkata-based Puja App meets this need gap by allowing one a chance to visit the pandals of their choice, on their smart phones. Telling us about the service, Miranda Chatterjee says, “We provide a 360-degree video walkthrough of all the prominent pandals during Durga Puja. People can select which pandal they want to visit and they can have a darshan experience. The service is free for all. We have plans of launching the service in most major cities this year, especially Mumbai and Delhi which are also famous for their pandals.”