Kathmandu: Today, the Newar community is celebrating Mha Puja by gathering all family members together for worship.
In the Newar language, “Mha” translates to the body. This festival holds significant religious and cultural importance, as individuals worship their own bodies, considering them as the embodiment of the divine, and pay homage to the consciousness residing within.
It is believed that the universal divine energy and cosmos exist within the human body, with the Supreme Lord residing inside. The tradition is observed with the belief that one must recognize and understand oneself to initiate self-salvation. According to legend, ancient times witnessed a massive divine calamity in the Newar community that caused heavy human casualties.
Following this, surviving members initiated the tradition of worshiping the body for self-protection, as per popular belief.
Every year, according to the Nepal Sambat calendar on Kartik Shukla Paksha Pratipada, the head of the Newar household performs the ritual worship for all family members, offering eggs of a duck or chicken as sagun (auspicious offering).
Since inner peace cannot be attained without physical peace, the body is worshiped using tantric rituals on the day of Mha Puja. There is a strong religious belief that performing this ritual prevents injuries throughout the year and brings mental peace.
To perform Mha Puja, individual mandalas are created facing eastward for each family member. The mandala is crafted by drawing a small circle of edible oil in the center, followed sequentially by concentric layers of unhusked rice (akshyata), puffed rice (lava), black soybeans, lentils (mas), paddy, turmeric-colored rice powder, water, and rings of colorful flowers.
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