Ayodhya Ram Temple: Who will be inside the ‘Garbh Griha’ on January 22? See the step-by-step process of ‘Pran Pratishtha’

As the country gears up to welcome Lord Ram to the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22, the rituals of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony began on Tuesday with ‘Prayashchit’ and ‘Karmakuti Pujan’.

Prakash Gupta, office in-charge of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, said that the consecration of Lord Ram is going to happen on January 22 between 12:15 pm to 12:45 pm.

The ceremony will be held in the sanctum sanctorum (sanctum) of the temple, where an idol depicting the 5-year-old child form of Lord Ram will be placed.

Who will be present inside the sanctum sanctorum during ‘Pran Pratishtha’?

During the consecration ceremony of Lord Rama, only five people will be present inside the sanctum sanctorum (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple. These five people are:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief host of this program
• Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat
• Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel
• Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
• Acharya Satyendra Das, chief priest of Ram temple

What is ‘Pran Pratishtha’?

‘Pran Pratistha’ is a popular ritual in Jainism and Hinduism, where the idol of a deity is consecrated and installed in a holy place such as a temple. At the time of installation of the idols, the priests perform several rituals amid the chanting of Vedic mantras.

The word Prana means life force and Pratishtha means establishment. Prana Pratishtha or Abhishekam ceremony means invoking the life force in the idol.

Step-by-step process of ‘Pran Pratishtha’

• During Pran Pratishtha the door of the temple will remain closed, the Lord will be blindfolded and shown a mirror after which the ceremony will be completed.
• This will be followed by aarti, followed by puja which will be concluded with three teams of acharyas.
• The first team will be led by Swami Govind Devgiri Maharaj, the second team will be led by Shankaracharya Vijendra Saraswati and the third team will be led by scholars from Kashi.
• Lord Ram’s eyes will remain blindfolded until he sits on the throne and the blindfold will be removed when the entire process of Pran Pratistha is completed.
• Chief host Prime Minister Modi will open the blindfold of seated Ram Lalla and after that Ram Lalla will be shown a mirror and kajal will be applied.
• Chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das told that PM Modi will apply kajal in the eyes of Ram Lalla with a gold coin, after which Aarti will be performed.
• After the Aarti, Bhog will be offered and Prasad will be distributed among the devotees.

As per the list of rituals before the consecration ceremony, the premises entry of the idol was held on Wednesday. After this, there will be Tirtha Puja, Jal Yatra and many other rituals till Gandhadhivas and ‘Pran Pratishtha’ day on 18th January.

Watch Ram Temple live updates: Modi to reach Ayodhya on January 21, TV’s ‘OG’ Ram, Sita, Laxman in holy city before ‘Pran Pratistha’

Details of protocols to be followed in the rituals

The ‘Pran Pratistha’ ceremony usually consists of seven adhivas, and a minimum of three adhivas is in practice. Around 121 Acharyas will conduct the rituals and Shri Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid Ji will supervise, coordinate, conduct and direct all the proceedings of the rituals. The head Acharya will be Shri Laxmikant Dixit of Kashi.