Dr Venganoor Balakrishnan

India has been a land of temples for millennia. And most people regularly visit temples even in the modern age. But they rarely spare a thought as to what a temple actually means and how one should pray.
Our texts prescribe several rules and restrictions while visiting temples. Since a temple is considered the body of the deity, the practices dictated are to be observed strictly.
Purity of the body is a must when one visits a temple. The devotee should wear clean clothes and should have high devotion for the deity as s/he enters the temple. Women devotees should keep their hair tied.
Smoking, betel chewing and use of liquor within the premises are to be avoided. Within the temples, don’t use obscene words. Never get angry with anybody. Your voice should be used exclusively for chanting hymns or mantras. Even that chanting should be audible only to the devotee.
Women devotees are not supposed to enter temples during their menstrual periods and for seven days after that.
According to old texts, death of a close relation, the birth of a child in the family, all cause impurity. The number of days the impurity stays and is observed varies for communities. But one should not enter temples during those days.
Devotees have to perform a circumambulation of the temple before entering it. This gives him/her immense grace.
“Padaal Padanugam Gachchet Karouchala Vivarjithou
Sthuthirvachi Hrididhyanam Chathurangam Pradakshinam”
This shloka insists that while circumambulating, one should walk step by step, keeping the hands still and chanting mantras.
After completing the circumambulation, the devotee should face the idol with folded hands chanting the prayer.
Saluting the deity with a single hand will deprive you of all the glory you have attained since birth. The mantras should be chanted with the legs placed close together, arms cupped like a lotus bud and eyes closed. It is believed that cosmic energy will enter the body of a devotee through the finger tips if s/he prays properly.
“Janmaprabhrithi yat kinchit Chethasa Dharmamacharat
Tatsarvam Vibhalam Njeyamekahasthabhivadanat”
While prostrating, a male devotee has to lie on the floor with legs, knees, chest and forehead touching it and hands folded above the head. Women devotees need not prostrate before the deity.
A devotee can receive prasad (the remnants of the offerings to God) from the temple. The theertha (holy water), deepam (lighted camphor with which the deity is worshipped), dhoopam (fragrant smoke), flower and sandal wood paste are the prasad.
Theertham should be received into a cupped palm and consumed. The remaining theertham can be sprinkled on the head and body. The camphor fire can be saluted in reverence — palms should be pressed to the eyes to get its divine warmth.
The dhoopam (smoke from incense sticks) should be saluted and its effect left on the face with a gentle caress. Sandal paste, however, should be worn on the forehead only after having left the temple’s sanctum sanctoram.
Again, the texts insist that the holy ash, sandal paste or the saffron powder should be worn on the forehead using the ring finger and not with the index finger as many of us often do.
As many ardent devotees will tell you, strict observance of the dictates for visiting temples will yield miraculous results in the long run.

— Dr Venganoor Balakrishnan is the author of Thaliyola, a book on Hindu beliefs and rituals.
He has also written books on the Vedas and Upanishads. The author can be reached at drvenganoor@yahoo.co.in