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

[Aupmanyav]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps some of the images with us are very - rustic. But that does not stop us from revering them.

 

[Jainarayan]

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!

If you have a color printer, you can make your own images. Find pictures you like on the 'net and save them. If you use Windows it has a picture print function. You can get inexpensive photo paper at an office supply store, print the pictures and frame them.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

Just wanted to share a quick tip since I've recently re-organized my shrine a bit and cleaned it thoroughly. I decided to give my MahaLakshmi murti new clothes for the new year. Trouble was, she's carved in such a way that it makes ready made alankaram clothes impossible to put on her correctly (She's also only about 7 inches tall). However I dug through my supply of fabric and ribbon and came up with a solution.

All you need to do is find a strip of ribbon or cloth a few inches wide and you can tie it around a murti in such a way that it looks like they are wearing a real outfit.

I included a photo of my murti .Obviously the crown is ready made (bought it in India) but her outfit is a strip of cloth and a piece of lace ribbon. Her gold belt is another piece of trim. All these either run through gaps in the carving or wrap around the back so the knots are not visible. This is also good if you aren't sure what size clothes your murtis wear. You can adjust the length easily.

Also, for those who want to tweak their home temples but don't have a lot of money, here's a great link to some DIY options.

DIY Home Puja Mandir - The White Hindu

 

[Aupmanyav]

Absolutely beautiful, FireSide_Hindu.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

Absolutely beautiful, FireSide_Hindu.

Thank you Aup ji

 

[ratikala]

Namaskaram Jainarayan ji
It allways seems to happen that if you desire to give a home to the Deity (which ever Deity you choose) a space will make it self available and the Deity will appear, ....

@Jainarayan ji , not that I want to be mean to your niece but I hope you get your free room I understand how you feel about visitors to the house as outside of the Indan comunity people do not allways understand , but the one positive is that everyone seeing your Shrine and your display of Murtis will receive many blessings whether they realise it or not , ...

This conversation very much reminds me of one sweet couple who came to stay in London when I was there , who of course could not afford such a big flat or lots of fancy furniture so for privacy they made a small shrine in a wardrobe , ...it was very nice everything was there and you could just open the doors and sit infront of it for jappa and give puja kneeling , ...it realy makes us aware that for home worship it is the thought that counts , it does not have to be large Deities or fancy shrine we just do our loving best , ...

if Puja is difficult especialy if you are working and life is allways a rush of comittments then even small fruit or sweets offering every day at the same time is benificial this will help anyone to increase their worship naturaly , the Deities will enjoy your offering and you can take these to work and share the prasad with your freinds this is a good way to make worship stable , as you will not be able to leave the house without giving your Ganapati sweets he will be calling you to get up and bring him something nice , this way you will form realy strong relationship with your Deities and they will shower you with blessings , then everything will run smoothly , ...they will even make more time in your day , do not be affraid to ask for blessings in devotional life Deities will allways be happy to grant these wishes .


Here is a Picture of our little Lala , ....Bal Gopal , ...he is allways crying for more food particularly sweets and nice fruits , he is not in our shrine room but he sits in his own little shrine beside me where I work , ...even just offering a flower every day at the Deities feet is a very good habit to get in to , ....we are just waiting now for the hyacinths to flower as

they are the first flowers of the year and smell so sweet the Deities love them , ....you can see Lala is very small so I had to make him a little dress from ribbons and braid , he is too small even to have a proper stole so he just has ribbon , ..but when i was not looking he stole one crown from the other Deities he says it is al little big but he will grow into it if I give him more sweets , .....

 

[Terese]

Namaskaram Jainarayan ji
It allways seems to happen that if you desire to give a home to the Deity (which ever Deity you choose) a space will make it self available and the Deity will appear, ....

@Jainarayan ji , not that I want to be mean to your niece but I hope you get your free room I understand how you feel about visitors to the house as outside of the Indan comunity people do not allways understand , but the one positive is that everyone seeing your Shrine and your display of Murtis will receive many blessings whether they realise it or not , ...

This conversation very much reminds me of one sweet couple who came to stay in London when I was there , who of course could not afford such a big flat or lots of fancy furniture so for privacy they made a small shrine in a wardrobe , ...it was very nice everything was there and you could just open the doors and sit infront of it for jappa and give puja kneeling , ...it realy makes us aware that for home worship it is the thought that counts , it does not have to be large Deities or fancy shrine we just do our loving best , ...

if Puja is difficult especialy if you are working and life is allways a rush of comittments then even small fruit or sweets offering every day at the same time is benificial this will help anyone to increase their worship naturaly , the Deities will enjoy your offering and you can take these to work and share the prasad with your freinds this is a good way to make worship stable , as you will not be able to leave the house without giving your Ganapati sweets he will be calling you to get up and bring him something nice , this way you will form realy strong relationship with your Deities and they will shower you with blessings , then everything will run smoothly , ...they will even make more time in your day , do not be affraid to ask for blessings in devotional life Deities will allways be happy to grant these wishes .


Here is a Picture of our little Lala , ....Bal Gopal , ...he is allways crying for more food particularly sweets and nice fruits , he is not in our shrine room but he sits in his own little shrine beside me where I work , ...even just offering a flower every day at the Deities feet is a very good habit to get in to , ....we are just waiting now for the hyacinths to flower as View attachment 15728 they are the first flowers of the year and smell so sweet the Deities love them , ....you can see Lala is very small so I had to make him a little dress from ribbons and braid , he is too small even to have a proper stole so he just has ribbon , ..but when i was not looking he stole one crown from the other Deities he says it is al little big but he will grow into it if I give him more sweets , .....View attachment 15729

How wonderful Ratikala ji! You made Gopinatha so beautiful! Such a lovely smile! And his crown accentuates all his features Jai Shyam

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram Fireside ji

All you need to do is find a strip of ribbon or cloth a few inches wide and you can tie it around a murti in such a way that it looks like they are wearing a real outfit.

Jai Jai , ...sari borders are realy nice for this , you can just choose the most suitable peice and often are so pretty and you can find nice details in the borders even for the smallest Deities and the rest of the sari can be used to dress the shrine , ....

small note to any one wanting to do this , it should be a new sari not one that has been used before , ...but if anyone has little money at present , I have in the past found some very nice indian scarves which were very very cheap they also made good outfits as they had nice printed borders , .....I allways think it is nice to buy hand made Indian cloth then I think that the weaver or printer will get some especialy nice blessings as the deity will be happy to receive such a nice hand made gift , ....Lala in the picture above is sitting in a little shrine dressed with cloth from a dupatta which I cut the gold trim border off to make his skirt and just added woven ribbon and trim , ....

 

[ratikala]

Namaskaram Terese ji

How wonderful Ratikala ji! You made Gopinatha so beautiful! Such a lovely smile! And his crown accentuates all his features Jai Shyam

He is very happy that you like him and he sends love and blessings to you ,... I have just given him a little pink flower now he is waiting for his breakfast which my husband is making , ....when I found him he was very dirty and unloved he is quite old so had gone very dark with age so he is definatly Shyam , ...when I was cleaning him he told me that he wanted to have very nice face paint like Radha Govind Devji Deity

I am just worried now if he sees this picture he will want the Earings like this and I will not know what to do , ....
I have just bought some tiny garnet beads to make them neclaces but these earings are so nice , ....I hope you can click and get full size darshan , ......

Here is Radha too , .....so beautifull , ....

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram Ji

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 )

what will you like to add to your shrine ?

and please may I ask which is the seated Deity to the right the picture is very dark on my screen and I canot see it well , ...is it Uma she is shown like this in Nepal , ...?

 

[Terese]

Namaskaram Terese ji



He is very happy that you like him and he sends love and blessings to you ,... I have just given him a little pink flower now he is waiting for his breakfast which my husband is making , ....when I found him he was very dirty and unloved he is quite old so had gone very dark with age so he is definatly Shyam , ...when I was cleaning him he told me that he wanted to have very nice face paint like Radha Govind Devji Deity

I am just worried now if he sees this picture he will want the Earings like this and I will not know what to do , ....
I have just bought some tiny garnet beads to make them neclaces but these earings are so nice , ....I hope you can click and get full size darshan , ......

Here is Radha too , .....so beautifull , ....

These are pictures of Lord Krishna and Radha ji i found on the internet. They don't reside in my shrine, but i do wish they did

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram terese ji

These are pictures of Lord Krishna and Radha ji i found on the internet. They don't reside in my shrine, but i do wish they did

they reside in your heart , that is the best place

but if you wish to serve them , they will hear your prayes and they will come to you , ...

 

[User14]

and please may I ask which is the seated Deity to the right the picture is very dark on my screen and I canot see it well , ...is it Uma she is shown like this in Nepal , ...?

Yes it is Uma/Parvati. Both deities in the picture are Parvatis, in different positions.

The Uma you've posted here is excellent- is it yours?

what will you like to add to your shrine ?

Many things. More candles, framed images of the Holy Family, an image or figure of Ardhanarishvara, and a larger and more colorful Parvati murti like this one:

Oh and something similar to this image of Abhirami coming to the rescue of Her devotee Abhirami Pattar. I love that story.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Here is a Picture of our little Lala, .. Bal Gopal, .. he is allways crying for more food particularly sweets and nice fruits, ..

Ah, Ratiben, do not believe in him. He is a compulsive deceiver. See, what happened to Gopis! He did not even look back. Such a heart-breaker.

However, our Puja sat in a cupboard for 20 years before we got this new place.

Ratiben*, the golden Radha-Krishna are beautiful and so is User 14's sitting 'Pabati ma' (as my younger grandson called her when he was some 2 year old). Now he recites mantras.

* for User14, Ratiben - Gujarati way of saying Sister Ratikala. Ratikala is a popular name, especially in Gujarat. All women in Gujarat except one's wife are termed as 'ben' (Sister), attached to any woman's name. For example Prime Minister Modi's wife is Jasodaben (Yashoda). Yashoda - giver of fame. Surely, Prime Minister Modi has earned a lot of fame because of it.

 

[ratikala]

Namaskarm Amarbai ji

Ah, Ratiben, do not believe in him. He is a compulsive deceiver. See, what happened to Gopis! He did not even look back. Such a heart-breaker.

Ah but do not forget he is also bound by a mothers love , ....

but yes agreed he can be very naughty , ..but intruth he can never be seperated from his devotee we just have momentary seperation in this lifetime , ....

However, our Puja sat in a cupboard for 20 years before we got this new place.

Your shrine looks very nice though I canot see clearly which Deties you have ?

* for User14, Ratiben - Gujarati way of saying Sister Ratikala. Ratikala is a popular name, especially in Gujarat. All women in Gujarat except one's wife are termed as 'ben' (Sister), attached to any woman's name. For example Prime Minister Modi's wife is Jasodaben (Yashoda). Yashoda - giver of fame. Surely, Prime Minister Modi has earned a lot of fame because of it.

So in english how will I spell bai ? ..is this correct ??

 

[ratikala]

Namaskaram ji

Yes it is Uma/Parvati. Both deities in the picture are Parvatis, in different positions.

The Uma you've posted here is excellent- is it yours?

Sadly no she is not mine , ..this one is in a museum some where in america , ...? ..she should be in a temple , ....If I was priminister or governor of any country or state I would pass a law to say all museum Deities must be displayed in a temple like setting so that they could be worshiped as they should be by any one who wants to visit them , .....this way people will learn more about the Deities true function rather than to look at them as art , ..buautifull as they are they are more than this , ...

this Uma is probably from Nepal yours looks very similar , ..where did you find her ?

 

[Aupmanyav]

Namaskarm Amarbai ji. So in english how will I spell bai ? ..is this correct ??

Why should I correct your spelling? Wrong spelling is your style.
Just a little offside - Amarbhai. Actually many people in our relations call me that.
Bai denotes a woman in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana - Laxmi Bai; as also a mother.

Your shrine looks very nice though I canot see clearly which Deities you have ?

We have idols and images for all Hindu Gods and Goddesses, most in multiple, collected over our life-time, as well as those given to my wife by my maternal grandmother. Perhaps ten of Ganapati. Nothing very spectacular accept for the large Laddoo Gopal. Our shrine does not have idols or images of any saint, though nothing against them. We rever all of them.

 

[Shantanu]

I worship Sri Krishna as Supreme God, but do not do any externally visible puja to Him. Because He resides in our minds, there is no need for He knows everyone's thoughts. On the other hand I do wear a necklace with a Ganesh murti in it and always carry my keyring around with a murti of Shiva. This is despite the fact that Shiva is a tamasic God. I carry these idols with me to remind me of my mother and my father who for their own reasons were instrumental in bringing these murtis into my possession. I consider Ganesh as a divine god of the guna consciousness, that is sattvic.

 

[Aupmanyav]

In that case, happy birthday, Shantanu. May you live in happiness in life.

 

[Shantanu]

In that case, happy birthday, Shantanu. May you live in happiness in life.

Thank you. Life begins at 60, right?