Prayer rooms

[ScottMalaysia]

I know that when a Hindu house is built, it is blessed. Does a prayer room receive any special blessing? And what would cause a prayer room to lose its blessing and require it to be re-blessed?

[devisarada]

I know that when a Hindu house is built, it is blessed. Does a prayer room receive any special blessing? And what would cause a prayer room to lose its blessing and require it to be re-blessed?

Namaste Scott,

IMHO there are special mantras to be uttered when a prayer room is opened. Certainly praan pratishta, the invoking of the deities within the murtis/pictures must be done.

The prayer room is then kept clean and free from meat, alchohol and other tamasic substances. Negativit of any sort should be avoided in the prayer room. One should of course only enter the prayer room after one has had a bath. Once the deities have been invoked, I do not know if they will leave, and if they do, under what circumstances.

I would suggest that if you feel that your prayer room has been seriously defiled in any way, that you consult a pundit, who will advise you accordingly.

[ScottMalaysia]

As far as I know, there hasn't been any meat or alcohol in our prayer room. However, my girlfriend has entered it when she has had her period, by accident. A non-Hindu workman went in there to put up a picture, and he didn't bathe before going in.

What are other tamasic substances? Are menstrual blood or urine tamasic?

Two of the pictures (Durga and Radha-Krishna) weren't there when the prayer room was first blessed, but they have been blessed by a priest. Would the Deities leave if the prayer room was only accidentally defiled? And would any pujas performed in it be invald or not as effacacious?

I could ask a pundit, but I don't know of any around here who speak English. My Tamil is not that good, so I don't think that I could ask a priest in Tamil about it.

[devisarada]

Namaskar,

There is a thread in the forum "I am a Hindu" which is called "Home Altars" which may be helpful.

I myself have a liberal point of view which others might disagree with. When my husband and I do our puja in our puja room, our dog is right there with us, and after the final arati, we arati him as well as our two birds. We believe that every living thing is a jivatma and ultimately part of the Paramatma.

As to the menstrual blood, this is not a topic that I am comfortable discussing, but I wll say this. IMHO this taboo seems to be an ancient one which made sense when there were no feminine hygene products such as we have today. A woman might (this is a personal thing) at times feel uncomfortable in a public mandir. However, I believe that there is NO TIME when a woman should be disallowed from worshipping in her own family puja room.

There is, I believe, also a taboo against visiting a mandir if you have an open cut or wound which suggests to me that there was a concern about infecting others. Again, we would not, with our modern medical advances prevent such a person from entering a mandir. We have an elderly family member who has an incurable, open foot ulcer, which is bandaged up. We do not prevent him from entering our puja room or attending family pujas.

For me, something that defiles a puja room to the extent that it needs to be re-consecrated by a purohit, has to be something very drastic. God is everywhere, there is NO place where he/she is not.



















-










-




-

[yajvan]

Hari Om
~~~~~

Namaste,

IMHO our prayer room is something we carry with us... purusha (puruSa or पुरुष). Then home is everywhere we go.

So what to do to maintain this puruSa?

Within and without us, prana is our support, another view of Brahman or in this case viewed as Vaisvanara ( vaiSvAnara). This prana is the force of life, more then just breath. The breath is the carrier of this life-force.

Prana - is connected with the eyes. The eyes are connected / influenced by the sun for light to see. When there is contentment of the eyes, the sun too is content by what is 'eaten'. The whole atmosphere is satisfied, the individual and the atmosphere, as sun rules here.

Apana - is connected to speech. It is said vac ( speech) is ruled by agni. Agni is the ruler over earth. Mar's plays a key role with agni. When this speech and agni are satisfied, this earth is then satisfied. We as inhabitants are then too satisfied.

Samana - is connected to the mind. The divine mind is Indra. He is owner of lightening and rain. The moon is the graha connected with the mind. When the mind is satisfied, it brings sama, balance. The ultimate balance is yoga.

Vyana - is connected with the ears. Vayu allows sound to be carried and from all directions ( the 4 cardinal directions) that resides in space ( akaska) - as does all things. When this vyana is satisfied the moon (Chandra) is satisfied and the directions of the compass too become satisfied; Thus when the ears are satisfied, all good comes from all directions and there is 'plenty' for the native.

Udana - is connected to air and touch. This air (Vayu's) abode is that of akasha where all things reside. This akasha is connected to Guru, or Jupiter who brings blessings and expansion. When satisfaction arrives here, then all things are satisfied as all things reside in akasha.

The above wisdom is from the ChAndogya Upanishad, Chapt 5.19.1 to 5.23.2

prana-m