The day of the idol's pran pratishtha at the Ram temple in Ayodhya is drawing near. A number of ceremonies will start on January 16 and the pran pratishtha ceremony will take place on January 22. Giving life to the idol is the core meaning of pran pratishtha, which is a very straightforward ceremony that comprises a number of customs drawn from the Vedas and Puras, each having a special significance. Thus, what is pran pratishtha exactly, and how is it performed? How is prana, or life, given to the worshipped by the worshipper? The interconnectedness of the divine and the devotee in the Hindu worldview, as well as the significant role that nature plays in many Hindu ceremonies, hold the answers.
The process known as pran prathistha is what makes an idol become a deity and endows it with the ability to hear pleas and bestow blessings. The statue must pass through several phases in order to do this. Here, we go over a few of the key actions. The size of the ceremony will determine how many steps are required.
The idol is paraded about the temple premises as part of the initial phase, known as the shobha yatra. The Shobha Yatra for the Ram deity in Ayodhya falls on January 17. As the idol is greeted and applauded by spectators during this yatra, a portion of their devotion is infused into it, giving it devotion and heavenly strength. So, the devotee is the one who starts the alchemical process of transforming a statue into God.
The prayer for pran pratishtha, according to Dr. Sunder Narayan Jha, a professor in the Department of Veda at the Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University in New Delhi, is for the idol to come to life as well as for the ability to give up that life. "This is because life should flow from the damaged idol to the new one, and in the event that that specific statue is damaged, another will have to be installed in its place," he said.
