Easy Archana to Lord Ganesha

[c.smith]

Hari Om!

I subscribe to About.com's Hinduism emails and one of the topics this week was the Ganesha Archana. Here's the link to the video that was included. Beautiful to say the least. Also great for those new to Hinduism.

http://video.about.com/hinduism/How-to-Pay-Tribute-to-Ganesha--Shhodashopachara-.htm?nl=1

[Friend from the West]

Hari OM

Namaste C. Smith,

Thank you for nice video. Signed up for newsletter. Had not heard of this before, so thank you.

Om Shanti

FFTW

[Eastern Mind]

Hari OM

Namaste C. Smith,

Thank you for nice video. Signed up for newsletter. Had not heard of this before, so thank you.

Om Shanti

FFTW

Vannakkam: The process of archana, or a personal prayer/puja is more common in south Indian temples. In the North Indian style temples I've been to, it is done, but not as commonly, whereas its very common in the South style. I'm glad this video was posted because it does a good job of explaining. On busy days, there can be a queue for them. Temples vary on how they're managed. At some temples you need to first go to the manager's office and buy an archana ticket ... usually a relatively small amount (5 to 11 dollars) . Other temples you can pay the priest directly. Still others will have a ticket booklet at a stall, and they use the honor system.

People buy then for special occasions like birthdays, New Year's, starting school, and the like. At our temple here I've seen as many as 100 done on a single day, so it can keep the priests pretty busy. Usually they're performed after the main temple puja.

Other temples do free aarti for anyone who happens to come by. Sometimes this can get confusing for people unfamiliar with archana, because they see the priest doing aarti for the archana, but then don't get to take the aarti as they don't understand it wasn't really for them. Some preists will understand this and offer the flame to anyone present. Same thing with any pujas like homas or abhishekhams that are purchased or sponsored. The sponsor gets special attention.

This beautiful temple http://www.hindutemplestlouis.org/Temple/Poojas/PrivatePoojas.aspx is an example of a website where all the various pujas and prices are listed. Archana is the simplest, at most places.

I had a deal with my wife on my first trip to India ... "You can go just so long as you buy me an archana at every single temple you enter." Now that was great fun. (a challenge indeed) :) ... figuring out how to do it at each temple. I had a friend write out in Tamil our entire families names, nakshatras, and the gotra was easy. Then I just had to find the temple office, and a priest, follow him through a bunch of stone corridors to the sanctum (sometimes) and give him the two slips of paper.

It is also customary to give the priest a small dakshina. (tip ... usually in a similar amount to the archana fee itself)

Aum Namasivaya

[Mana]

Namaste c.smith,

Thank you for posting, it is both fascinating and beautiful moving to see more aspects of the culture with which I am so enamoured.

praNAma

mana