27 January 2014 - QA 7

Gurudev, could you please talk about the way prana prathistha is done? I have heard they put the idol into grains and water? Could you talk about the significance?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, the aagama literature has a lot of knowledge about it, how the prana (energy) is induced into a statue or an idol.
In a temple, there are statues all over, everywhere, but they are not really worshipped. The one which is worshiped is in the center chamber, and they do a lot of ceremonies. First they chant mantras, keep the idol in the water for x number of days, then the grains. And the place where they build the temple, first they will cultivate something on the land. It should sprout with some seeds. So there are a number of steps to do this.
It's a whole ritual, and then from air, ether, fire, water, and sound the energy is instilled in a statue. That's how it is done.

The statue is not important. Underneath it is a diagram on a copper plate called mandalas or yantra. That is the most important thing. It is like the circuit diagram. If you open any transistor or TV, there's a circuit diagram. It doesn't mean anything to you, the lines on copper or aluminum, are going this way and that way in some diagrammatic manner.
What do you find inside a radio? The same thing, they put diagrams. These diagrams are the most important thing, and not the shape of whichever idol there is. The diagram is kept underneath that so that it retains the positive energy. Whatever the energy, it is retained there. And so the people go and pray that they get those vibrations.
It's an ancient system, but unfortunately a lot of it is lost. Only very few people here and there have this knowledge.