Usually, home temples and shrines are passed down from ancestral lines. We will either inherit something from our parents or in-laws. Now, however, with nuclear families and because we are not staying in our ancestral family homes – we are often in a situation where we need to create a home shrine from scratch. And we may want it to be minimalist because….
Minimalist – because space is a constraint.
Minimalist – because we are not into elaborate rituals or temple activities. We need something small, functional and aesthetic to create a certain ambiance in the house
Minimalist maybe also because we have that preference now – for less clutter, cleaner aesthetics and meaningful things.
Setting Up a Home Shrine
My longer ‘Setting up a home shrine’ guide is coming up. Please subscribe to my blog to be notified when it releases. Here are the salient points which you can refer to right now…
- Identify the central pillars of your family’s spirituality – whether these are deities or ideas or practices or Gurus… off these whom you want represented in this shrine?
- What are the devotional elements you want to add to the shrine as per your preferences & practices – dhoop, diyas, pooja items etc…
- LIVE element: this is something that works in a little more subtler way. Whether it is a consecrated yantra, an akhand diya, some plants… I call this ‘Live’ element because it has its own action happening beyond whatever you will be doing. A deity idol which you are tending to with daily poojas and such also becomes a live entity (often people clearly feel that it is working beyond them).
Psst: I have a guide on how to setup a simple akhand diya for your home. It doesn’t take much… just a little bit of committed tending too.
- Create systems to clean and maintain the shrine. If you want flowers to adorn it regularly then set a system in place for that.
- Create a space for your spiritual purchases – books, vibhuti packets etc... so they don’t sit in some random nook of the house. They can be part of the live environment – adding to it, and also remaining charged up.
- Create your sitting space around this shrine for your practices, meditation, quiet…
For minimalist’s I would suggest,
Go through each and every element of the shrine and see if there is a specific purpose for it. Is each addition actively used, referred to and related to by you or anyone in the family. (kind of similar to how we do de-cluttering exercises in our house, but in this case be more thoughtful towards the emotional/inner bond towards the item)
Often we keep getting memorabilia, idols, and other religious/spiritual items – these tend to collect in the shrine. Over time, especially if we have a minimalist preference – we can consider good ways to hand over these sacred objects to friends, family, neighbours or others who might value it more. For example, I picked up a few memorabilia when I visited McLeodganj many years back. These have stayed in my shrine for many years… but I don’t actively relate spiritually with any of them. So, I might gift these to neighbours who may care more about them.
Whenever dealing with spiritual items – we should consider well-being of the item plus our own well-being. Actually, this feeling of care and gentleness can be extended to all things… as all items of whatever kind have come into existence with some purpose. So we may consider the well-being of that item… and see how best to put it to use (or even disuse) and consider our own well-being as well. I think this is a large topic, and I should write/put a video on it at some later point. If you find it interesting, please research Japanese concept of Mottainai 🙂
Specifically, in India, we tend to collect deities – pics/idols. & this brings up another topic – how are deity photographs and connected items to be kept in the house? Certain houses keep deities as show pieces… is this fine? Will share more thoughts on this also later.
Lots to look forward to. Do connect with my blog / youtube channel to get more such content!
