Puja and Samskara trats two representative Hindu rituals of contemporary India, Pija (offering service) and Samskara (intiation rituals at important occasions of life). Samskara rites are performed at significant junctures of an individual's life, from birth to death, by the individual's family. Puja rites, rather than being performed in relation to the life cycle of an individual in a family, are more deeply related to the annual rituals of the cult to which and individual or the person's family belongs. Persons may go to a temple and request priests to perform Puja rites, or they may perform them themselves at home.