“Murti Prana Pratishta” at Hindu Temple and Cultural Center in Fort McMurray

Sanatan Mandir Cultural Society (SMCS) invites residents of Fort McMurray to be part of “Murti Prana Pratishta” event in their new Temple located at 108 Abrahm Gate.

Prāṇa pratiṣṭhā refers to the rite or ceremony by which a Murti/Idol (vessel for the spirit of god) is consecrated in a Hindu Temple wherein hymns and mantra are recited to invite the deity to be resident guest, and the murti’s eye is opened for the first time. Practiced in the temples of Hinduism, the ritual is considered to infuse life into the Hindu temple, and bring to it the numinous presence of divinity and spirituality.

The ceremony marks the recognition of the image of god to represent “a particle of the divine whole, the divine perceived not in man’s image as a separate entity but as a formless, indescribable omnipresent whole”, with the divine presence a reminder of its transcendence and to be beheld in one’s inner thoughts during darsana in the temple