Pratyaksha Pada Puja with Special 108 Tulasi Archana for THE SPH

What Is It?

Pratyaksha Pada Puja is worship offered not to an image, but to the physical, present lotus feet of the living Guru. The feet are washed, anointed and honoured in the traditional sequence, and the offerer stands in the immediate presence of the Incarnation while doing so.

On this day the puja is completed with a special Tulasi Archana, in which one hundred and eight Tulasi leaves are placed at the feet of THE SPH, each with a sacred name, each an independent act of surrender.

Significance

The tradition holds that all tirthas reside in the feet of the Guru. What pilgrimage across the world is meant to accomplish, contact with those feet accomplishes directly. Pratyaksha, the physical presence, is the rarest of all opportunities, and it does not remain available forever.

Tulasi is the leaf Bhagavan Sri Krishna receives above all wealth. It is said that a single Tulasi leaf offered with love outweighs mountains of gold placed without it. To offer one hundred and eight of them at the feet of THE SPH on Janmashtami is to bring Krishna's own most beloved offering to His living form.

Benefits of Offering

Grants direct physical contact with the lotus feet of the living Incarnation.

Purifies the offerer of accumulated karmic patterns through the touch of the Guru's feet.

Awakens the mood of Krishna bhakti through the offering of Tulasi, His dearest leaf.

Establishes an unbroken personal connection with THE SPH that continues far beyond the day of the offering.

When & How to Offer

This seva is offered on 4 September 2026, the day of the Krishna Janmashtami celebrations, at 4:00 AM ET / 1:30 PM IST. The contribution is $1,008.

Offerers are guided through the sequence of the puja by the ritual team. Names, birth stars and gotras are taken beforehand for the sankalpa and for the archana of the one hundred and eight Tulasi leaves.