PrāṇA PratiṣṭHā

Breathing Life into Matter As mentioned earlier, the renowned Vedic text, the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, symbolically describes the descent of the Divine into the world of form. The concept of 'many gods' unique to the Vedic tradition stems from this view that everything in the world, including oneself, can be a worthy vessel for the Divine energy. To commune directly with this energy is not easy for the average human mind, but to connect with it through a beloved form is a joy for the devotee. When the Hindu worships his ishtadevata (chosen deity), he is hardly worshipping the idol itself. Instead, he is in direct communion with the Divine energy expressing through that idol - a subtle truth that many miss who condemn the worship of idols in the Vedic tradition. The 330 million deities that make up the Hindu pantheon of gods symbolize this very idea: that the Divine lies hidden in everything, everywhere - awaiting only the touch of awakening. This process of awakening is known in Sanskrit as 'prāṇa pratiṣṭhā', literally meaning, the establishing of life-breath. A qualified Hindu priest may perform 'āgama pratiṣṭhā' or 'mantra pratiṣṭhā', invoking the deity's energy through sacred chants and proper ceremonies, and inviting it to enter into the idol. But significantly, only an Avatar or an enlightened being is authorized to perform prāṇa pratiṣṭhā, which is the direct infusion and permanent establishing of life-force in matter. When an Avatar performs prāṇa pratiṣṭhā on an idol, He not only brings it to life, but transmits to it His own enlightened state of being. Such an idol, now rightly called an archavatar or living deity, becomes an independent intelligence, a direct vehicle of the Cosmic energy, capable of answering prayers, healing ailments and granting boons. Every day, thousands around the world are witnessing the powers of prāṇa pratiṣṭhā in the living idols energized by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. With a word of blessing or a wave of his hand, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM empowers these deities from thousands of miles away to heal and bless devotees, and even to materialize sacred items like rudraksha beads and holy ash.

Modern science and astrophysics have already established that the entire universe is made up of only 4% quantifiable matter. The remaining 96%, as yet only mathematically postulated, is called dark matter and dark energy.

But in reality, dark matter is neither dark, nor is it matter as we understand. It is actually a form of as yet unmanifested energy. And even the 4% matter is nothing but energy which has been perceived or scientifically labeled as matter!

At the very gross level, matter can be considered either insentient (non-living) or sentient (living). For example, a piece of rock is considered non-living, whereas plants, animals and humans are considered as living.

But at an atomic level or even sub-atomic level, all that exists in matter are subatomic particles, which look and behave exactly the same in non-living and living matter. In fact, they are indistinguishable from each other. It is only the level of life-energy that is different in a rock and plants and humans.

Amongst all living beings, only humans carry the possibility of accessing the Cosmic energy and storing it in their bodies as Kuṇḍalinī energy.

An Avatar, as a storehouse and channel of this universal energy, can transfer it to another being (through initiation), or into a socalled insentient structure, such as a deity made of stone, metal or other materials.

The suffusion of Cosmic energy into the deity excites the atomic structure and moves the electrons into higher orbitals. This is nothing but the spanda or subtle vibration of Cosmic energy which is now on the verge of manifestation (Śakti).

A devotee who enters this space is instantly able to connect to this energy of the deity, and is thus able to realign his bio-memory with this infusion of Cosmic energy.

Each deity which goes through the prāṇa pratiṣṭhā process is in entanglement with the higher Truth. Just as somebody whose kuṇḍalinī is awakened is in entanglement with me, in the same way, the deity is also in entanglement with me. It is in entanglement with that aspect of the Cosmic energy that it represents.

Installation of the Cosmic energy or prāṇa pratiṣṭhā is done by bringing this energy down through the five elementary energies of Nature or Pañca Mahābhūta.

The energy is first brought into the Space element (ākāśa) through meditation (visualization), into the Air element (vāyu) through mantras (chanting), down to the Fire element (agni) through homas (fire offerings), down to the Water element (apas) in the kalaśa (water pot), and finally to the Murti, the Earth element (pṛthivī).

The Avatar can choose the manifestation of the energy that He wishes to install in a particular deity. He can choose to empower the deity with wealth energy, health energy, completion energy, karma-exhausting energy, or any other type of energy. Since time immemorial, Avatars and enlightened masters have installed various aspects of the divine energy in various deities to fulfil the needs and desires of humanity.

There are various reasons for choosing the material of the deity as well. Materials like granite can hold and radiate the energy for thousands of years. On the other hand, deities made of a combination of five sacred metals or pañcaloha can hold and radiate much more energy than granite, but they can hold the energy only for a few hundred years.

The precise structure of the temple and the geometrically harmonious form of the deity also help in the process of entanglement, along with the subsequent pujas (offering of gratitude) and the kriya pada, sacred rituals, which are techniques given by Avatars as per the agamas to tune our internal energies to those of Existence.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM performs the sacred ritual of prāṇa pratiṣṭhā to the larger-than-life granite deity of Sri Nithyananda Venkateshwara at Sri Nithyanandeshwara Devasthanam, Bengaluru Aadheenam, Bharat

The energies of an ordinary human being get exhausted whenever they are repeatedly expressed. For example, grief or joy exhausts when expressed through tears; the pitta (fire element) of the body exhausts itself through anger; the lust energy exhausts itself through sexual act, the power of speech exhausts itself in his very saliva the moment words are uttered. All these energies of expression become exhausted as soon as one uses them.

An Avatar's energy of expression cannot be exhausted through any of these means (or any means), because He is the inexhaustible Source of energy in human form. That is why He is the ultimate human form fit to perform prāṇa pratiṣṭhā.

Once a deity has been 'awakened' through the process of prāṇa pratiṣṭhā, it becomes a concentrated energy. Whatever action we perform in this space is very intense, due to the presence of this

Whenever a person creates a thought or sankalpa (conscious resolution) in the presence of a concentrated energy, that thought is projected onto the world as Reality. This process can be compared placing a film strip in front of a projector light. When projected onto the screen, it appears as reality before our eyes. This is why we say that whatever we wish for in front of a deity comes true.

Only a being who can function without the help of His body is capable of creating a true sanctum, one that will bless, heal and manifest miracles in exactly the way He does. Because Avatars do not need a body to execute their work, they can continue to do the things they do, even after they leave their physical body. The sanctum and deities created and energized by them radiate inexhaustible energy, and nurture everybody who seeks it.

In a world diseased with doubt and challenged by the epidemic of spiritual impoverishment, in a world struggling to escape the confines of ordinary human existence through addiction, illusion and death, mystic phenomena like these serve to remind us that whether we accept it or not, believe it or not, know it or not, we inhabit a planet showered with Grace, where humanity can aspire to touch divinity ,and where everything that exists - as the Isha Vasya Upanishad tells us - are indeed the thousand forms of the one all-embracing Consciousness.