Ritual Significance

If it is your once a year customary visit to native village temple and also the past 26 outings were really exercises in boredom, while trying to digest the incomprehensible chattering of the mantras and the inscrutable customs associated with the pooja and offerings to the god. All that changed on the 27th visit. As I spent time, thinking about the possible origins of temple rituals. For once, I also paid due attention to the entire pooja procedure, trying to relate mantras to all the Sanskrit, I had mugged up until class XII in the quest of getting a good board rank. It also lead to some very enlightening conversations with elders including my grandmom as well as the purohit. So much so, that I thought it merited a blogpost in itself.

Now, I am completely agnostic to religion & rituals. So I might sound trivial to the high priests of the blogging community. But to the others like me, I hope it would be interesting to read.

Why does every temple in a village has a huge bell just at the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum ?
Ans: Traditionally, the bell rung was to inform the villagers that a pooja is happening, so they may assemble. It was also a message from a visitor to the purohit of the temple, who typically lived in a house nearby, that a visitor has arrived

What are the major steps in a standard pooja procedure ?
The objective of a pooja is to invoke the god to provide darshan and bless the devotees. Three major parts are
1) Invocation
2) Arathi (Darshan)
3) Blessings (Prasad)

Invocation
A major part of the pooja is the invocation. Invocation needs to be accompanied by the wish list, that the devotee wants god to fulfill.

Invocation by cleansing involves abhishek of the idol with water, tender coconut, sandal milk, milk among others, so that god feels fresh enough to make the entry.

Invocation by offering involves offering fruits and flowers to attract the dear lord with the fragrance or the taste of the ripe fruit.

Invocation by singing, this involves the many mantras(Archane), bhajans in praise of the dear lord. Brilliant!.

Invocation by decoration is the best of them all, when the idol is decked in the most beautiful of attire and jewellery (Remember the lord of Tirupathi) to make it absolutely irresistible for his highness.

A few communities have unique as well as sometimes bizzare invocation rituals. These includes the ritual fasting of the jain community to appease the lord through their sacrifice of basic needs and desires to the extreme ones like Thaipusam in some tamil communities which includes body piercing of various forms. Sabarimalai Ayyapa temple rituals are also based on the sacrifice of basic needs concept.

Arathi (Darshan)

A temple was essentially ports of call for gods, when they visit earth. The figurines for gods were housed in a inner smaller room (sanctum sanctorum), which is reached through passage through several larger rooms. Typically this inner room, was meant to be a dark place. In those days before electricity was invented, When the Arathi was performed, the light from the lamps ensured, its the only time the devotees got to see idol of the god. This was symbolic of the god giving darshan to his devotees.

Women in India, typically light a lamp in the evening in front of the idol/ photo of the god. This is meant to signify that god appears and resides in the persons house every evening. In the older days, when nights were meant to be dangerous, the presence of god was meant to be a reassurance. Indian women, especially married ones, even to date follow this practice as part of their daily ritual.

Blessing (Prasad)
Blessing typically comes in the form of various things used in invocation. The water/tender coconut used in Abhishek is offered as teerth to devotees, after Darshan. Devotees typically take teerth in two ways - a few drink it and assimilate the blessings in the body. A few others put it on their top of their head, as it expected to seep in through from there into the entire body.

Blessing is also provided in the form of fruits and flowers offered to the god earlier. In South India, if during an Arathi, if the flower on the lord falls off, it is considered to be mighty auspicious. The devotees cause for invocation was definitely bound to come true.

Blessing in the form of Arathi flame is the most interesting. Now the Arathi flame, when performed is supposed to have caught the sight of the lord. So when this is passed around, each devotee passes his hands around the flame of the the Arathi and touches both his eyes. This is meant to permanently capture divine image in the eyes of the devotee.

What is the significance of Turmeric and Kumkum in traditional rituals ?
Kumkum is meant to be applied on the forehead (Sindoor in north india) as it is supposed to ward of the evil eye. So the red coloured kumkum is supposed to have a protective significance. The yellow coloured turmeric is meant signify health and prosperity. In South India, it is customary to offer both colours to women when they visit your home. South Indian women have a practice of first applying the kumkum on the host's fore head, then her own forehead and then to her mangalsutra. Her husband gets the additional insurance cover for free.

Is Vastu shastra based on some rituals?
Now there are so many temples where poojas keep going on and god has limited time. So he has to make a choice. Now this competing scenario lead to differentiation. It is believed that some god come from particular direction(preferably east and north) and prefer to reside in a area of particular size along with convenient entry route. Now this premise lead to an architectural planning principle called vastu shastra. It will tell you which direction to place your entrance door, how big to plan different rooms, where to locate the pooja room, which colours appease the gods better. Vaastu shastra also clearly indicates a modular/simplistic planning without too much creativity. In essence, non angular/circular walls to ensure god doesn't lose his way, while trying to reach the pooja room.

One Ritual, I still havent understood is the concept of Kalash. The steel pot shaped structure, with betel leaves and a coconut in the mouth. Would be glad if somebody could enlighten me on that.