The puja is one of the most fundamental acts of reverence in the Hindu faith, though the term may also be used in a Buddhist or Jainist context to describe similar ritual practices.  The steps of a puja vary quite a bit, though the ritual is usually comprised of meditation, chanting, scripture reading, and an offering food and other things such as flowers, known as Samarpayami.  At the core of the puja ritual is an intimate interaction with the particular deity being revered.  It must be asked; however, just what is an intimate interaction?  Do we define this interaction solely through the physical words and offerings made to the deity?  Most importantly, what happens when the interaction occurs over the interface of a computer screen?  Indeed, the unprecedented growth of the World Wide Web has begun to change the ways in which religion is conceived and practiced.  In addition to the wealth of information regarding any type of religion imaginable, the internet has created online communities which hold prayer groups, and other types of group ritual, all while participants sit in front of a computer completely removed physically from one another. 

Although the phrases “religion online” and “online religion” seem synonymous,  it is important to note the distinction between the two terms, a distinction which not only differentiates betweens how humans approach religion on the internet, but also a distinction that has been open to increased scholarly debate regarding their respective definitions.  Religious studies scholar Lorne L. Dawson has provided the most succinct definition of the two, writing, “In its most basic sense, we can understand that ‘religion online’, “describes the provision of information about and/or services related to various religious groups and traditions.  This includes the many thousands of Web sites established by congregations, mosques, temples, and synagogues as well as the larger religious institutions of which these are a part.  Commercial sites selling a variety of religious books, products, and supplies fall under the same broad rubric of religion online” (Dawson, 2004: 7).  ‘Online religion’, on the other hand, “invites internet visitors to participate in religious practices.  These practices may range from online prayer, meditation, ritual observance of Catholic Mass, Wiccan Sabbath, to spiritual counseling, online Tarot readings, astrological charts, and runecasts” (Dawson, 2004: 7).  However, these distinctions are by no means absolute.  In addition, proven examples of the former notion are far more difficult to find than the latter.  While much has been written on the so-called “technopagan’s” during the internet’s beginnings as a mass communication tool in the early to mid-1990s, increased ethnographic research has shown that far less actual “online religion” was occurring than previously thought. 

Online Puja’s, the focus of this paper, provides an interesting look into the phenomenon of online religion.  In India, when a woman is warned of possible bad luck by an astrologer, she may seek to pay homage to a deity in order to change her fortune.  As S. Srinivasan explains, “In the old days, she might have taken her astrologer’s advice literally and made the 1,450 kilometer journey to a temple on the southern tip of India to pay respects to Shani- the Hindu god she was said to have angered” (Srinivasan, 2002).  With the inception of such sites as prarthana.com, however, anyone with access to a computer and a credit card can choose from a list of four hundred temples and arrange for a puja to be performed on her behalf.  Dawson explains, “In this way, millions of Hindus living in diaspora outside India can arrange for various religious rites: marking a birth or a death, help in securing a job, or aid in averting illness.  In return they receive a package in the mail from the temple, certifying that the ceremony has been performed and providing a sample of the food blessed and placed on the altar as a sacrifice to the god or gods.  Likewise, the devotees of different gurus, temples, and religious organizations in India can go online to participate virtually in a variety of festivities and rites” (Dawson, 2004: 3).  In many ways, this type of ‘pay-for-puja’ is consistent with Hindu practice.  In Hinduism, one person can perform a temple prayer for another and family members often perform prayers in the absence of a relative. 

In the ever-growing phenomenon of “convenience through technology” however, prarthana.com and similar sites have created an even easier method for one to pray: the creation of “virtual puja’s”.  Images of various deities are shown on the webpage, and, usually through a program such as Shockwave, the prayer-seeker can offer traditional Samarpayami’s such as flowers and sandlewood paste to the deity, ring a bell, and light a Dhoopam Aaghraapayaami or fragrance offering, in an easy-to-follow, cartoon-like interface.  In addition, prarthana.com features a downloadable program which performs puja’s for various deities in addition to an accompanying audio file which recites the prayers while the Shockwave video is being played.  While the traditional “online puja”, where a payment is made electronically in exchange for having the ritual performed at a separate, but still physical location, seems too ambiguous to place in either the “religion online” or “online religion” categories, the virtual puja provides a concrete example of “online religion”.  Here we have the representation of the deity not carved in stone, but made of up pixels and code.  The flower pedals fluttered upon the object is done not with a gesture of the hand, but with a click of the mouse.  Few other online religious phenomena could fit Stephen O’Leary’s famous phrase “Cyberspace as Sacredspace” so well. 

While we have not been entirely decisive on just what we believe is material or immaterial (if anything) it seems as if the virtual puja’s have found an interesting niche in the world of material objects.  But wait; is the virtual puja really that radical of a departure from traditional notions of the puja? Hinduism rests on the concept of maya, which describes the illusory nature of the material world.  As Daniel Miller explains, “Wisdom has been accredited to those who claim that materiality represents the merely apparent, behind which lies that which is real….The aim of life is to transcend the apparently obvious: the stone we stub our toe against, or the body as the core of our sensuous existence.  Truth comes from our apprehension that this is mere illusion” (Miller, 2005: 1). 

The virtual puja’s has raised questions regarding the legitimacy of this ritual:  Is the Hindu tradition being trivialized or strengthened by these internet rites and services?  As Dawson notes, “indirectly, the Internet may be changing many of the basic religious/ spiritual sensibilities of users, but sometimes in ways that actually mark a return to an historically earlier understanding of religious experiences and life” (Dawson, 2004: 4).  If we use our somewhat controversial notion that things can be more or less material, we can place the virtual puja somewhere towards the “immaterial” end of the spectrum.  One does not have to interact with the physicality of the flowers, the bells, or the statue itself.  Instead, this new type of cybermateriality creates a puja which serves the same purpose, but allows the participant to be even less mediated by material objects, certainly a goal of the faith itself.  The representation of the deity cannot be touched, it can only be clicked.  The flower pedals cannot be placed upon the lap of Vishnu; one can only watch the pictures move on the screen.  This is cybermateriality.  The image of the deity is nevertheless still material on some level, whatever we decide that level to be.  The participant uses the interface of the computer screen to connect to the deity, just as the traditional puja adherent uses the stone statue.  If truth comes from the realization that materiality is merely the surface, however, the virtual puja provides even less of a material interface that one must sift through in order to truly revere the deity.  By doing this, perhaps the virtual puja’s are an acceptable permutation of the traditional Hindu practice. 

Perhaps we can look at another example of materiality and religion where the notion of ‘degrees’ of materiality is also present.  The Masowe weChishanu Church, an apostolic Christian Church in Zimbabwe, have created a unique brand of Christianity with an extreme commitment to immateriality.  As Matthew Engelke explains, “They want a religion in which things do not matter.  Material culture in its various forms constitutes the single most important obstacle in developing a spiritual relationship with God.  But as we might expect, the commitment to immateriality makes what things the Masowe do use in religious life all the more important” (Engelke, 2005: 119).  The Masowe reject the building of any sort of church building or the use of any sort of ritual aids, even the Bible itself, which is seen as an impediment to worship.  The material objects used in other churches, the Masowe argue, are simply acting as spiritual crutches blocking a direct dialogue between oneself and God. 

Virtually the only piece of material used in the weChishanu Church is the muteuro, usually a small stone or pebble imbued with sacred power by a Masowe healer (Engelke, 2005: 129).  Indeed, these pebbles are used precisely for their mundane material nature.  As Engelke explains, “Having rejected the Bible, weChishanu objectify their faith in something that in and of itself has no social or cultural value.  What better way to undercut the importance of material culture than to hold up as its archetype something you find in the dirt?” (Engelke, 2005: 131).  Now, it is clear that the pebble and the water which is also used in the healing are still material objects.  It becomes clear that the Masowe believe some things are more material than others.  In other words, a scale of materiality exists between ‘immaterial’ (whatever that is) on one end and ‘material’ (whatever that is) on the other. 

The primary objective of the Masowe is to bypass the material world in order to create as clear of a connection with God as possible.  Since materiality is merely an obstacle to overcome, the church uses mundane objects such as a small pebble in order to demonstrate that prayer and healing are on another, immaterial, plane of existence.  The virtual puja is doing much the same.  Hinduism, like the weChishanu Church, acknowledges that materiality is simply an obstacle for one to overcome in order to find the truths of ones existence.  The interface that one is interacting with, whether through a computer, through an online order to a temple on another continent, or through a stone statue is just that: an interface.  The true purpose of the puja is to move beyond the material object and conduct a ritual offering to the deity in exchange for help or guidance to many of life’s problems.  

Certainly an argument can be made that these virtual puja’s are just an insignificant product of internet culture.  After all, less than 1 percent of Indians own a personal computer, though cybercafe’s are flourishing in the nation.  However, to relate the virtual puja phenomenon to Indian culture is simply to misunderstand their role.  The virtual puja is designed to aid the diasporic Hindu, one who has taken home in the West, usually the United States, and is now faced with the problem of not being able to visit, with any ease, one of the countless shrines in India.   Furthermore, the websites such as prarthana.com are based out of the United States, not India.  The virtual puja ensures that the diasporic Hindu community is able to practice the traditional rituals of India but in a new and convenient format.  Though the material interface of the religious ritual has changed, the steps, purpose, and language used during it are the same.  What has changed is the subject/object interaction, from the materiality of the stone statue of Vishnu to the cybermateriality of the code and pixel based image of Ganesh.

Regardless of whether or not the popularity of virtual puja’s increase, this new form of “online religion” provides a host of questions regarding our traditional understandings of materiality, the emergence of new forms of cybermateriality, and the future of online religion as a valid form of spiritual practice.  The virtual puja can be used to address a wealth of different questions about just how cyberspace is changing our ideas of material culture.  Indeed, the internet must be considered as a new and dominant force in changing the ways we perceive materiality. 

works cited

Dawson, Lorne L., Cowan, Douglas E. Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet. New York: Routledge. 2004

Engelke, Matthew.  “Sticky Subjects and Sticky Objects: The Substance of African Christian Healing.” In Materiality. Ed. Miller, Daniel. Durham: Duke University Press. 2005.

Miller, Daniel (editor). Materiality. Durham: Duke University Press. 2005

Srinivasan, S. “Religion Online: Hindus Turn to the Internet for Prayer.” Associated Press (June 27). Retrieved from Worldwide Religious News (www.wwrn.org)