12 Aug 2011 QA 9

Guruji, what is the significance of Devi Puja?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It was good no? Devi Puja is so nice. See the corn is hard, but when you put it in the popping machine with a little butter and little salt, what happens? The corn pops up and becomes popcorn, fluffy and very nice. Similarly within everyone, every individual, the energy (Shakti) is there. In Puja, what happens? Shakti blossoms, gets up lifted and opens up. There is no place that is devoid of Shakti. But in many places it is sleeping. Here in Devi Puja it awakens it up. Devi energy (shakti) is there within all of us. Devi is not somewhere else, not in some other world. It is within us - Devi Shakti. To make that Shakti grow stronger is called Puja. If we sit deep in meditation, the glow within the body will brighten, and will expand and spread outside. That is Devi Puja.