An elaborate ritual is required of Vaisnavas in order to do justice to God's
condescension in making himself available in the form of an image. The murti is treated like an
honoured royal guest. Early in the morning it is awakened through clapping of hands and playing of soft
music; it is washed, dressed, garlanded. Incense is burned before it and it is offered a breakfast. Hymns
are recited for it, usually with the accompaniment of cymbals. In homes these rituals are usually performed
on a smaller scale; in temples there may be loud shouting of the god's names, singing and dancing before
the image, and a solemn distribution of prasida, the leftovers of the food offered to the deity,
which is consumed by the worshippers like a sacrament, or taken home to be shared with those who did not
attend temple-service. There is usually an offering at noon and in the evening, when the image is laid to
rest. The most conspicuous ceremony at night is arati, the waving of lights before the image. After
the flame has been brought back to the worshippers, they each touch it and bring their hands up to their
foreheads to share the blessing. At particular times during the year elaborate festivals are celebrated,
each revolving around the image. Since the murti is legally the owner of the temple and all that
belongs to it, be it buildings or tracts of land, it is at certain occasions taken out and shown its
possessions. At the beginning of the hot season in many places the image is taken in procession on a
sometimes many-storied chariot to a cooler location, and conducted back to the main temple at the beginning
of the rains.
Klaus Klostermaier, A Short Introduction to Hinduism (Oneworld, 1998).
