Shiva manasa pooja is one of the easiest and shortest and most beautiful hymns on Shiva which helps us to do a mental worship or internal worship.
Wherever we are and in whichever time we want, we can do the mental worship. Mental worship is the process of visualizing the god, then visualizing various offerings and offer them to the lord mentally.
The basic offerings are of sixteen kinds which will be discussed in detail throughout this book.
This worship is one of the best ways to connect with god. You don't need to depend on any external factors or availability of things. You can create things out of our visualization and offer them to god. All that god cares is that you wish to offer him something with love and you are thinking about him with love and devotion while offering mentally.
This kind of worship has an equal importance just like external ritualistic worship (baahya pooja) – external worship.
Even at times when you are not able to do the external worship, it is prescribed that you do internal worship of the lord. This hymn is one of the simplest ways to help you do it.
You can do it two times a day. There are no special rules to be followed. Just chant this hymn with devotion and visualize every offering in each step and offer it to lord Shiva.
I will give you a couple of Dhyana shlokas (verses for contemplation and visualization) of lord Shiva which you can use to visualize Shiva and then slowly visualize various offerings and offer them to lord Shiva as guided by the hymn.
