What makes *your* shrine or puja area special? What sets it apart?

[Jainarayan]

Especially if it's in a common area of the house. For example, I have no choice but to have mine in a corner of the dining room. The house is pitifully small with two bedrooms. The living room and dining room are what's called a "great room", with a cathedral ceiling (goes from 8' at one end to almost 16' at the other). Total waste of space. It was a popular architectural design several decades ago. Personally I think it sucks.

Given this abomination of architecture, there's no privacy for the deities or privacy to do puja undistracted. We don't very often have company, nor do we eat in the dining room, but given that the house is non-veg, on the odd times we do use the dining room, I feel creepy about the shrine being in a room with non-veg. food. Oriental screens don't work... trust me, I have them. Moreover, when someone does come to the house, they usually comment on how pretty the shrine is. I say thank you, but it makes me somewhat uncomfortable. I don't think it's supposed to be viewed as a display. The table top is a reasonable 21" deep x 24" wide, 30" height. I have scaled down considerably (it makes me feel creepy to have packed away some statues.. sort of like uninviting wedding guests).

Anyway...

I have another small table that displays some of the colorful resin statues I've collected over the years. But I don't consider it a shrine. I consider it display of objets d'art. Now here's the part that blurs the lines for me, and prompts the thread question. Given that the shrine table/altar has statues in the same style as the display table, as well as my brass ones, what makes the two any different? What makes the table I call the altar, and the corner it's in a shrine, compared to the other small display table? What makes a shrine a shrine and a display of objets d'art a display of objets d'art? It's further blurred by the fact that if and when I can ever have a proper shrine room, what are now the objets d'art will be added to the kolu I'd like to make as the shrine. I know a kolu is a Navaratri display, but I like the concept of it as a shrine. Like this (see how pretty the colors are? ):

If and when my niece moves out, and I get the 2nd bedroom back in my possession (I'm not hanging by the neck waiting, though) that room will be a den, computer room, book room, and puja room where I can use the folding screens to further remove the shrine from the house. I've seriously considered dismantling it until such time as I can set it up properly.

Apart from those lucky-duckies who have a separate room for shrine and puja, how do you differentiate between the sacred and mundane if your shrine has to be in a common or public area of the house or apartment?

 

[Vinayaka]

I've seen some really cool dividers, and made some once upon a time.

 

[Jainarayan]

I have a nice set I ordered a while ago... plain white fabric with blond wood frames. The problem is that the size of the corner makes them stick out and prone to being crashed into. Currently they're folded and stored.

 

[Vinayaka]

I've also seen curtains on bars from above. For traveling, I built a custom box that holds the basics ... the books, the beads, 3 smaller murthies. The box itself doubles as a temporary stand. So when we arrive at a hotel room, it goes up, and then just when we leave, it gets dismantled. A small rectangular suitcase might work like that too.

 

[Terese]

My shrine is in my mind

 

[Aupmanyav]

The shrine is where you sit and do your regular puja and get into the spiritual frame of mind. The vibrations change as soon as you take the seat. The display table is not that.

 

[Jainarayan]

The shrine is where you sit and do your regular puja and get into the spiritual frame of mind. The vibrations change as soon as you take the seat. The display table is not that.

That very thought hit me last night when I did puja. It also occurred to me that a big part of the issue is that I don't do puja regularly. The energies are just not building. It was particularly obvious as I stumbled over the mantras and prayers. I even forgot to offer a tulsi leaf until I was done.

 

[Vinayaka]

That very thought hit me last night when I did puja. It also occurred to me that a big part of the issue is that I don't do puja regularly. The energies are just not building. It was particularly obvious as I stumbled over the mantras and prayers. I even forgot to offer a tulsi leaf until I was done.

The opposite has happened to me. It gets too strong for a house, affects everything more like in temple ways. So I take a day off ... which begs the question, about variance in the definition of consistency. I'm upwards of 98% I guess. A reasonable goal I got from deep reflection was 6 days out of 7. So its much harder for me not to do it than to do it. Habits are hard to break.

 

[Jainarayan]

I keep saying that I'm going to do even a little something in the morning, even just ringing the bell, lighting and waving the lamp, incense, achamaniya, akshata and a prayer or three. I must get into a routine.

 

[Vinayaka]

I keep saying that I'm going to do even a little something in the morning, even just ringing the bell, lighting and waving the lamp, incense, achamaniya, akshata and a prayer or three. I must get into a routine.

It's all part of the habit mind, or the subconscious mind. Consider a smoker and a non-smoker. The non-smoker NEVER thinks about smoking. That's been his lifetime habit, his way of life. The smoker is just the opposite, he rarely thinks about non-smoking. Smoking is just right there, all the time, and he uses his will and intelligence to figure out when to smoke, etc.

The amazing thing, to me, is that once you've done it a few times, you discover how easy it actually is. That's because will, if thought of as a resource, is not at all like other resources. With other resources, the more you use, the less you have. But will works in the opposite way ... the more you use the more you get. So someone with an indomitable will just looks out and says, 'I will do that,' as a matter of fact, about the very same thing that another person stews and worries about, 'Oh, no, I'll never get that done.'

I went to the temple every day for a year, and people said, 'What? You did what?" and I'm just 'meh', so what?'

 

[Aupmanyav]

'Meh', 'So what?', 'tatah kim?', 'te, pher ki hoya?' (punjabi)
Beautiful mantra. Can blow away all your confusion and troubles.

 

[Vinayaka]

Still, will is a quiet force. I loved Swami Bhashyananda's story I once heard. He and the other young monk, coming upon a old lady devotee at the foot of a hill temple, looking up some 300 steps, decide they'll be the heroes of bhakti and give her a ride by forming a hand cradle. She admonishes them, "Go away! I do this every day!"

With will, it feels like an action is already done when you say you'll do it. People with less will, it seems, fall to the 'all talk and no action' syndrome, and become promise breakers, unreliable sorts.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

When I first started setting up my first shrine and trying to do puja I didn't have enough money for a lot of frills, inluding a good murti, but I did have some puppet and doll making skills so I made my own Lakshmi Murti. She is wonderful but she does not sit up on her own and and her shape made her hard to dress. Eventually, on a trip to India I bought a small wooden Lakshmi and she replaced the first one as my main shrine murti. But my hand made Lakshmi had all the love I poured into her, so here's what I do now.

In my studio room where I do my work is where my shrine is. This is where I do puja, meditate, and keep my texts and references. It's not in it's own space but it's away from the rest of the house. So it's away from guests.

In my kitchen, perched in a small shadow box above the microwave is my first Lakshmi, a small jade Ganesha my MIL bought for me and a small silver bell. I do puja in the late morning, but when I get up first thing I go to the kitchen and wake up Lakshmi and Ganesha, tell them a simple good morning. Guests can see them easily, but it doesn't bother me, because they are their to bless the household and the guests, but they are not the epicenter of my devotions, if that makes sense.

So I guess one way to think of it is, my shrine is network router and the Lakshmi and Ganesh in the Kitchen are a satellite bluetooth device. They communicate with each other, but the signal is stronger the closer to get to the shrine.

 

[User14]

I'm still waiting for the last piece of my first bare-bones shrine to arrive; I don't want to put it together until I have everything I need.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Insert a photograph of your shrine, whenever you are through for us to enjoy (Did I forget that I am an atheist?).

 

[User14]

Insert a photograph of your shrine, whenever you are through for us to enjoy (Did I forget that I am an atheist?).

When I said it was bare bones, I really meant it! Just two small statues and an electric candle (because my girlfriend doesn't like smoke )

 

[Aupmanyav]

Beautiful bronze. The Mother will bring in other deities in time.

 

[User14]

Beautiful bronze. The Mother will bring in other deities in time.

Thank you. I saw some beautiful images of the Mother and Lord Shiva that I wanted to buy but I can't afford them right now

 

[Aupmanyav]

Perhaps you can get framed images of your chosen deities. That works just as well. We do not insist on statues of deities in India. I have a large collection of them adorning every wall of our shrine closet.

 

[User14]

Perhaps you can get framed images of your chosen deities. That works just as well. We do not insist on statues of deities in India. I have a large collection of them adorning every wall of our shrine closet.

That's what I meant- framed images. They're pretty expensive but I have my eye on a few of them.

Your images are beautiful by the way!