30 IMPORTANT RULES TO FOLLOW DEITY WORSHIP AT HOME!
A DEVOTEE ASKED LIKE THIS:
“Hare Krsna. What is the basic qualifications to install and perform deity worship at home? Instead of worshiping, can we purchase and keep the deities in a glass display box? Please hide my name and location. Thank you.”
REPLY:
First, I like to give gentle warnings to motivate you to be very pure, not to demotivate you in deity worship at home. Read these Points with the Eligibility & rules to follow deity worship at home! As usual, I have avoided scholarly words and alternatively use simple language for easy understanding of all levels of devotees!
(Why Deity Worship is not recommended at Home For all? READ HERE!)
30 IMPORTANT RULES TO FOLLOW DEITY WORSHIP AT HOME!
(1) DEITY WORSHIP means worshiping metal deities. If you have the dolls of Krishna made up of Plastic, clay, cloth, etc, they need not be considered as deities. They are just “Show Case” dolls, not deities. You can keep them in “Show cases”. Need not worship them.
(2) In case you like to follow the Metal Deity Worship, when you install them in your Puja Room or altar, arrange a senior devotee/ manager of your ISKCON temple to observe the installation procedures.
(3) Post installation, you have to take care of the deities like taking care of your family member every day, but, with utmost respects.
(4) You should wake up in Brahma Muhurtha Time (ie, one and a half hours before sunrise – roughly 4.15 – 5.45) and offer Mangal Arati to the deities.
(5) Before offering arati, brush your teeth well and take a full bath. Dedities should not be touched without bathing after waking up from bed. In the evening, you can touch them after washing the hands, legs and face if your feel physically pure.
(6) Brahmacharis should bath once a day and grahasthas should bath twice a day. Sanyasis should bath thrice a day.
(Deity worship of Baby Krishna and Radha Krishna – Which is recommended for home and what is the procedure? READ HERE!)
(7) The deities should be bathed every day with pure water. Clean and washed clothes should be worn to the deities. Sufficient flowers with the pleasant aroma should be offered.
(8) Tasty food should be offered to the deities every day. As said by Srila Prabhupada, Only the best ingredients should be used to cook the food for Krishna, after verifying that those ingredients do not contain any prohibited things. Instant masala (Mix) powders should be avoided. Each ingredient should be separately arranged and used for cooking.
(9) Whatever you prepare at your home, you should prepare for Krishna and offer to Him before using them. You should use separate vessels to cook for the Lord.
(10) You should follow the Vaishnava appearance and dressings. While offering worship and offerings to Lord, you should wear Vaishnava dress and wear tilak on the recommended parts of our body.
(PERFORMING ARATI TO KRISHNA AT HOME – COMPLETE STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE! READ HERE!)
(11) The worshiper of deities should chant Hare Krishna 16 rounds daily and Gayathri Manthra thrice daily – morning, afternoon and evening.
(12) Strict discipline should be followed: Four regulative principles (No meat, No intoxication, No gambling and No illicit sex) should be strictly followed.
(13) His activities should be decent. He should never bath naked. He should bath wearing Kaubin or innerwear. He should dry his body using a clean cloth and then, he should wear a clean, washed cloth without much attractive colours. Use simple dress only.
(14) Using oil for body or hairs after bathing is not advised since it is considered as unclean. Use oil before bathing and wash the hairs.
(15) The deities should be polished using fresh lemon juice (not ready made juice) or lime water atleast once in a fortnight.
(16) You can use synthetic or artificial jewellery to the deities because original gold may invite thieves. Srila Prabhupada allowed using artificial jewellery. But, he prohibited artificial or paper flowers.
(PERFORMING ARATI TO KRISHNA AT HOME – COMPLETE STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE! READ HERE!)
(17) Use good quality Dhupa or incense sticks purchasing the best brand from the market. Try your best. ISKCON temples too sell the incense sticks manufactured by the devotee run manufacturers.
(18) You can offer fruits, drinks, sweets made as per rules that have delicious taste. You can offer Juices also to Krishna like sugarcane juice, lemon juice, orange juice, grape juice, etc.
(19) Double boiled rice is prohibited. Single boiled or raw rice is good. Unpolished reddish rice is very good.
(20) Pungent preparations (rich in pepper), bitter preparations and salty preparations should be avoided. Sweets and milk products are preferable to offer to Krishna.
(21) Canned or frozen foods , the foods with yeast and white sugar must be avoided.
(22) Sour curd is not good. Offer fresh and new curd only.
(Who will take care of my Krishna deities after my death? (3 Questions) READ HERE!)
(23) If you use ghee or butter instead of oil in your every preparation, Krishna will like it. Because it is his favourite.
(24) If you follow the deity worship at home, you should not miss to offer food even a single day unless the situation seriously warrants.
(25) During night time, remove all the flowers and allow the deities to rest by closing the doors of puja room or the screen of altar.
REMEMBER:
(26) Performing deity worship is not a casual matter. It is like taking care of ACTUAL KRISHNA HIMSELF at home.
(27) Unless you are serious in following devotional practices throughout your life as per the rules, you should not start deity worship.
(28) Both inner and outer purity is COMPULSORY if you follow deity worship at home.
(15 RULES FOR OFFERING OBEISANCES INSIDE THE TEMPLES! READ HERE!)
(29) As an indication of your seriousness, it is advisable to get both the Harinam initiation and Manthra initiation (Brahmana) before starting deity worship at home. Because, deity worship needs chanting Gayathri Manthra three times daily. This requires Brahmana initiation.
(30) Will you allow any of your family member starving or uncared? No. Similarly, you should offer care and food to the deities every day.
Thus, there are many rules and procedures to be strictly followed if you follow the deity worship at home!
In case, you feel that you can follow these rules, start deity worship. Otherwise, it is sufficient to follow Picture worship that is also good. Krishna is everywhere including Pictures.
If you still like to have a metal deity, you can have one that is of the height of less than 3 inches. You can treat them as you treat the pictures. No strict rules for such small deities.
Hope this helps to know about the Eligibility & rules to follow deity worship at home!
(Complete Procedure of Offering Food To Krishna! READ HERE!)