The sprawling Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Ram was inaugurated on January 24 in Ayodhya. The ceremonial and sacred word “Prana-pratishtha” emerged in the extensive coverage of the event.

According to its dictionary meaning, the English equivalent is consecration, “to make or declare sacred.” Prana-pratishtha carries the same sense, plus elaborate rituals involved to ‘declare sacred,’ in this case, the idol or murti of Lord Ram.

Prana in Sanskrit means breath, and Pratishtha means establishment.

Before the Prana-pratishtha, the fifty-one-inch-tall Ram murti, as carved by a sculpture, was just a material. It is carved with ‘best quality’ black granite from Karnataka state.

As the 48-minute prana-pratishtha ceremony began, the sculpture was bathed with water from the holy Ganga River mixed with grains, fragrances, herbs, and fresh flowers.

Until now, the eyes of the Ram murti were closed with a scarf so the deity’s power or Shakti did not blaze out. Once the bathing rituals, with the recitation of mantras, were over, the chief priest gently removed the scarf from the eyes.

With the recitation of mantras dedicated to the occasion, the chief priest prayed and invoked the Lord with breath and sight, and the material object carved from a rock granite was transformed into an incarnation of the Lord Ram.

(Info gathered from an article in The Conversation by Vasudha Narayanan, Professor of Religion at the University of Florida.)

The picture on the right shows the idol Ram’s eyes covered with a scarf before the ‘prana Pratishtha.’

-Promod Puri