Pranpratistha in idols.

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Some more queries came up while thinking about the idol worship etc.

 

 

Suppose a foolish person thought while praying to an idol everyday of a fierce goddess who kills all of one's enemies, brings people under one's control and makes one successful. Suppose you focus on that idol.

 

1) My question is, so eventually some thoughts/emotions of the worshipper gets lodged in the idol, both positive and negative. What is the relevance of doing a pranpratistha in an idol? Will not the ritual of pranpratistha bring the energy of the deity into the idol? If it does, then how can the emotions/thoughts of the worshipper get lodged in the idol since it already contains the energy of the deity?

 

Or does it mean that the energy/emotions of the worshipper get lodged in an idol where the pranpratistha ritual has been incorrectly/incompletely done, which happens so often in the case of idols at home.

 

2) What is the relevance of the Sanskrit language in pranpratistha ritual. Or rather, the significance of Sanskrit when it comes to spirituality in general. If the pranpratistha mantras/slokas are translated into some other language and used, will it be equally potent, assuming that spiritual power of the person doing the prasnpratistha to be a constant?

 

I mean, let us leave aside the case of a Ramakrishna doing a pranpratistha of an idol because someone like Him does not need language to call the deity into an idol. But for others, how important is Sanskrit?

 

 

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On a different issue about judging so called holy men from history - a deviation - I would like to make one point.

 

 

Let us not be harsh in judging people we have not met physically or otherwise

 

 

 

While what you say is correct, there can always be some rational judgement passed on figures from history based on incontrovertible evidence. And I don't mean the actions of their followers but the very own lives of these people as recorded by their contemporaries.

 

Thakur Sri Ramakrishna had once told one of his disciples that always judge a holy man not just by his words but by his conduct as well. That is really the BEST way to form some opinion about people who claim to be spiritual.

 

Therefore, if a historically authentic biography of a spiritual person is read and compared with standard models of spirtuality/spiritual life along with the words/saying of the person, one can make a fair judgement. It is using these tools that one can very easily question the spiritual realizations of some so called prophets in history.

 

If the seed is questionable, the fruits are bound to be rotten.

 

-Regards

Rajarshi

 

 

 

 

The upsurge (of consciousness) is Bhairava - Shiva Sutra--- On Sat, 10/10/09, Narasimha P.V.R. Rao <pvr wrote:

Narasimha P.V.R. Rao <pvr Re: Holy Places Date: Saturday, 10 October, 2009, 9:22 PM

 Dear Rajarshi,

 

Before I answer your main question, I want to address the following:

 

> Interestingly, even that spiritual person told him that there is probably

> no divine presence inside the idol at Kaalighat temple.

>

> Now my question is, if the idol at the Kaalighat temple did not have a divine

> presence why did this person suddenly have such a nice meditation there?

 

Two points:

 

(1) One can have a nice meditation session anywhere. While different places and times have some difference in the nature and degree of spiritual energy, one can experience anything anywhere anytime, if the internal factors are conducive.

 

(2) What I said about Dakshineshwar vs Kalighat is purely my observation. Please bear in mind that any observation is fallible! It is possible that Kalighat has similar or higher spiritual energy compared to Dakshineshwar and I simply failed to perceive it. What we are able to perceive and observe is also based on our own mental conditioning and our own karmik debts. The Mother is capable of deluding *anyone*.

 

> But then, what ever the idol may contain, postive/negative/ creative/

> destruction, if someone prays to it with devotion, assuming that it is

> reaching God, is it not enough?

 

The purpose of an idol is to evoke certain imagery or thought in you. If a spiritual person imagines a particular energy or form of god in a particular object on a continuous basis, slowly that form gets "established" in that idol. As time goes on, his mind can be focused on that specific form faster and easier by simply looking at the idol. Though we think that our minds are separate entities, they are all connected feebly and all of us are able to perceive in some vague form other people's strong thoughts that are present in the ether. Thus, if an idol is working as a repository of several spiritual thoughts of a person trying to focus on a form of god, seeing that idol can evoke some similar thoughts in another person too.

 

However, there is some translation involved when thoughts of one mind are vaguely perceived and interpreted by another mind. This translation is dependent on one's mental conditioning. Thus, what we perceive at the end is conformant to our own mental conditioning!

 

Suppose a foolish person thought while praying to an idol everyday of a fierce goddess who kills all of one's enemies, brings people under one's control and makes one successful. Suppose you focus on that idol. Then you are susceptible to that kind of thoughts. However, if you see her as someone who helps you overcome your weaknesses and become dispassionate, nothing bad is going to happen to you. But the fact that someone used that idol as a repository of negative thoughts becomes a minor obstruction