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KC 101 Lifestyles Lesson 5. Setting up a Home Altar. Authorized Worship. You will find that your japa and kirtana are especially effective when done before an altar. Can worship Lord even thru a picture.
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KC 101 LifestylesLesson 5 Setting up a Home Altar
You will find that your japa and kirtana are especially effective when done before an altar. Can worship Lord even thru a picture.
If the altar is in a public space in the house, you can open the altar for your morning program, leaving it open throughout the morning. It is best to close the altar when you're not present, leaving it open only while devotional activities are going on. The altar shouldn't be left open if there are non-devotional practices taking place within the purview of the entities on the altar.
Brand New Items While it is often tempting to use well-loved pieces of fabric or other paraphernalia on an altar, it is recommended that only new, unused items be placed on the altar. For example, fabrics should be clean; offering plates or cups should be new and unused; and items that have been used to worship in other traditions or practices are best avoided.
As you increase this level of worship, keep in mind that your offerings should be regular, punctual, and done with a sense of duty and continuity. Once begun, there should be very few circumstances in life that would cause you to stop offering a particular level of worship.
Once you have established worship of Srila Prabhupada, you should include pictures of the other recent Sampradaya Acaryas, including Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, Gaura Kisora das Babaji, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. As a general rule of thumb, the disciple is always situated at the right hand of the spiritual master.
The Pancha Tattva The Pancha Tattva should always be placed higher on the altar than the disciplic succession. As with the Spiritual Master's picture, you may make all offerings to the picture form of Pancha Tattva, offering garlands, bhoga, and performing arati and kirtana. Beyond that, you may mentally perform a more elaborate puja.
Protector of the Devotees Narasingha Story
There should also be a shelf, or some extra space on the altar so that bhoga can be offered. It should be placed in front of the Deities, so they can see the offering dishes. Bhoga should be offered using serving dishes, cups, etc., that are only used for offerings.
Offering Bhoga Arrange for the Lord to eat in private, behind a curtain or altar door. With your right hand, purify the bhoga by sprinkling it lightly with water from a pancha-patra while chanting the maha-mantra. Sitting on an asana before the altar and ringing a bell, recite three times the pranama prayer to the Spiritual Master, begging permission to assist him in his service to the Lord:
Leave the room for ten minutes, allowing the Lord and his associates (including the Spiritual Master and the previous Acaryas) to eat. During this time, if initiated, chant the Gayatri mantras for the Spiritual Master and for Lord Caitanya (the third and fifth guru-given mantras); then chant the Hare Krsna mantra and other Vaisnava songs. Re-enter the room, clapping your hands three times. Remove the plate, praying that you have served the Lord and His associates to Their full satisfaction.
Simplest Home Worship Carefully clean the altar each morning. Cleanliness is essential in Deity worship. If you have water cups, rinse them out and fill them with fresh water daily. Then place them conveniently close to the pictures. You should remove flowers in vases as soon as they're slightly wilted, or daily if you've offered them at the base of the pictures. You should offer fresh incense at least once a day, and, if possible, light candles and place them near the pictures when you're chanting before the altar.
Arati Paraphernalia Whenever possible, arati paraphernalia is kept on a separate table near the altar, but not right on the altar. One should keep the paraphernalia clean and organized at all times, and be sure that everything is available before beginning arati.
Begin arati with the pancha-patra, taking three spoons of water from the pot and pouring them first into one hand, then the other, to purify the hands. • Throw three spoons of water on the conch. Standing at the side of the altar (pointing away from altar), or standing just outside the temple room, blow loudly on the shankh three times. • Before picking up and offering each item, first purify your right hand and then the item by sprinkling them with water from the pancha-patra. Purify the item by taking the spoon in your right hand and sprinkle water on the item directly from the spoon.
Rotations In a mood of humility, mentally asking that each item be accepted, wave the offered items (except chamar and fan) with a graceful circular motion, with three rotations at the lotus feet, then three to the naval, the heart, and the head. After the item has been offered to all the worshippable personalities, face out from the altar and offer the item, with just three rotations, in the general direction of the devotees.
Offered & Unoffered Items Offered items should not be mixed with unoffered items. Offered items may be placed back on the plate that was used to bring in the paraphernalia, provided no unoffered paraphernalia remains on that.
Order of Offering *Light three sticks of incense in the candle flame. Put the incense out by waving it hard (but don't blow on it to extinguish the flame). After offering the incense, put the sticks in the incense holder. •Light the single-wick camphor lamp. Offer the lamp, then pass it off to one of the devotees, who will offer it to each devotee in the room. When the lamp is offered to them, devotees pass their hand through the flame and touch it to their head.
* Fill the small conch with water by pouring water into it from the water pot. Once full, offer the conch. Afterwards, pour the water from the conch into your right hand, then turn and sprinkle it onto the devotees. * Offer the flower, then pass it to a devotee, who will offer it to each of the devotees to smell. * Offer the handkerchief. * Offer the chamara with a gentle sweeping motion, making long vertical strokes.
* In warm weather, offer the peacock fan with gentle back-and-forth motions. * Just as you began arati, again blow loudly on the shankh three times to signal the end of the offering.
Panchajanya, Krishna’s Conch Panchajanya, Krishna’s Conch
Out of the nine processes of devotional service, kirtana is very important. Srila Jiva Gosvami therefore instructs that the other processes, such as arcana, vandana, dasya and sakhya, should be executed, but they must be preceded and followed by kirtana, the chanting of the holy name. Arcana, arati, bhoga offering, Deity dressing and decoration are all preceded and followed by the chanting of the holy name of the Lord-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
The process of meditation should begin from the lotus feet of the Lord and progress to His smiling face.
“Householders can have small altars, and Guru-Gauranga and Radha Krishna may be worshipped, but you should not spend a lot of time in this way to try to make the worship "first-class" as you say. That requires much time and money and men, so better to leave the worshipping of deities very nicely to the temples, and you may go there and worship. A small Guru-Gauranga altar, offer incense and flowers in morning, offer all home-prepared foodstuffs there--that's enough for the time being. Better to spend time chanting and following the other regulative principles and preaching and selling books.” Srila Prabhupada Letter, 02-20-72
