For many people, who are not Hindus, Puja is something like a mystery. Many people can't understand what this thing actually is. When they come to a Puja and see all the flowers, coconut, diya, incense stick and a lot of other things, they can't simply understand what is going on

The first thing a lot of Hindus do is to start from Om. This is important mantra in India society. Puja can be done for personal chitta (conscious) gain, special occasions and in temples too. Pujas can have mantras chosen for the specific task.
@sambhashan_in @krsnapresthaa

Most of which is from Vedas or Upanishads. We all know that just some normal lines repeating over and over again without any conscious state of mind is just a mindless activity. Mantras needs to be connected by Atman (soul) and with entire conscious state which helps in

achieving mindfulness. We make mudras during the Puja. It could be Gyan mudra or Anjali mudra. Puja is also a meditation (dhyana yoga) if done consciously. The gyana mudra helps us gaining intellegence by continuously focusing on Ajna chakra.

Anjali mudra (see image) does help in receiving outside energy of surroundings and nature. In our tradition God is universe. God is typically used as a translation in english.

There are a series of rituals like offering flowers,
sweets, fruits and other things along with chants.
These chanting during offering is usually a verbal
description of the actions being performed. Why would
the universe bestow blessings

on us of we ourselves
don't connect to it. We must connect our mind to the activity. Isn't this meditation?

The five senses of human body heavily influence our state of mind. These senses are: visual, taste, smell, hear, touch.

महाभूतान्यहंकारो बुद्धिरव्यक्तमेव च ।इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचराः ॥६॥
इच्छा द्वेषः सुखं दुःखं संघातश्चेतना धृतिः ।एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥७॥
"Then, above the senses, there is the mind, which is within and which can be called the sense within.

Therefore, including the mind, there are eleven senses altogether. Then there are the five objects of the senses: smell, taste, form, touch and sound. Now the aggregate of these twenty-four elements is called the field of activity. If one makes an analytical study of these

twenty-four subjects, then he can very well understand the field of activity. Then there are desire, hatred, happiness and distress, which are interactions, representations of the five great elements in the gross body. " - shrimad Bhagwatam 13:18

But there two aspects of Puja. One is Sadgun (meterialism) upasana and the other is nirgun upasana. Sadgun upasana is done with idols and a sense of will power. This is associated to karmakanda and naivedya, meaning actions and offerings of fruits and food.

Nirgun means non materialized or thinking universe is an absolute true form. In Hinduism Ishwar (source of universe) is represented by Shunya (zero). This is where advaita vedanta plays a deep role. Kundalini, meditation, yoga etc. are the vital part of nirgun upasana.

Do read full entire blog here https://www.sanatancosmos.com/post/what-is-puja

Added tweet:
Correction: please note that atman is not equals to soul. Soul is a concept of individuality whereas atman is non dualism. We all are interconnected like web.
"I have only used that word for translation purpose and not for exact concept "
Thank you