Smelling the Flowers

When we offer flowers to the Gods during puja, one important element of ettiquette is that we don’t smell them ahead of time. The first smell of the flowers is reserved for the Gods.

In order to have flowers for pujas, I started growing my own in my areogarden (I LOVE these things)

Even though it’s so high up, the cat has finally figured out how to get up there and he sits on the flowers and smells them. Sigh.

At first I was upset because the Gods are supposed to have the first smell, not the cat. But then I thought, well the cat IS God.

It reminds me of one of my favorite stories.

A man was having a picnic. He spread out his food on a cloth outside and a wild dog came running over and stole his bread.

The man got up and ran after the dog, shouting, “My Lord, My Lord, you forgot the butter!”