As usual, I am tres irritated by any disturbances in my schedule.
The new nurse has come today.. mostly I am ignoring her. Anyway its not like I am supposed to keep her entertained.

I just came home from ISKCON. Today I understood the meaning of Blessing.
Today the pujari took a conical golden crown and blessed us all by capping it over our heads. I got 3 turns at it. Whoa.

We even got the watery prasad.. the kheer like thing.
"Why don't they do this everyday?" I ask my aunt.
"They do do it everyday. But whenever we have been coming the Life Member puja has been on so we've had to miss out on it."

The special Life Member Pooja is a special pooja for life members on their birthdays. They get a special cordoned off area in front of the main deity.. Rasbihariji.. and special attention from the Pujari.

Anyway coming back to blessing. What is blessing?
Blessing has a sub-concious psychological effect on the Blessee. Thats the importance of it.

People get blessed. They believe they are blessed.. especially if they get the turn of the crown thrice. They exit the temple feeling good, blessed and lucky. They believe that they will have a blessed and lucky day. And generally they have a better day.. because they feel lucky.. they see blessings along the path. Then they think the pujari ji's touch worked and they go back the next day. Its a positive feedback loop.. any anyway the prasad is yummy.

So all this makes sense and it quite smart and important. Its a really good strategy to make masses happier. And generally life is good.. to a larger extent.

We really underestimate rituals.