MOORTI POOJA

That is only a mark of His condescension to satisfy the needs of those who wish to worship Him according to the prompting of their heart. Water has no color or any particular shape. But it assumes the color and the shape of the vessel, which contains it. Even so, God by Himself may have no form; but the mind which thinks of Him is a conditioning medium. It seizes hold of Him in its folds and would like to visualize Him after its manner.

Thus a rapport is established between the devotee and the Deity and an atmosphere of devotion is engendered.  

Before an idol or image is worshipped, a process of diminishing it is gone through. The image is made instinct with God. This is known as the process of praana pratishta. Every human being is a compendious expression of the cosmos. Man is a microcosm of the universe. He made of the five physical elements, the pancha bhootas, which are crystallised in the human body and expressed as the five sense organs, each functioning in terms of those elements. 

Before an idol or image is worshipped, it has to be consecarted. The process of consecration is called as stated earlier praana pratisha. The devotee first performs aatma pooja; that is, he medidates on his inner aatman encased in his body. By appropriate mantras he first purifies his body including his praana and his sense organs.

[ Back ] [ Aspects Of Our Religion ] [ Up ] [ Next ]