Here are all the important considerations to keep in mind before you set up a pooja mandir for home

A pooja room is one space that most homeowners think about from the day they plan a move. Yet, burdened by the minutiae of putting together a functioning house, it often gets relegated to a space that is left neglected while everything else gets taken care of. This is the story of how you can bring your wish for the perfect prayer space to fruition. Here is a sequence of decisions you will need to make, to narrow down to what will finally be the dream space for your prayers.

Orientation

The first thing to keep in mind is the orientation for your pooja mandir. According to pooja room Vastu, the deity should ideally be placed anywhere between the north and the east side of the house and face the south or east, so that you face the rising sun as you pray in the morning. This gives you enough flexibility for placement if there are few options in terms of location – you need just make sure you face the right direction. This is the first and most important parameter, and once this is done, you are well on your way to the perfect prayer space.

Carry a simple printout that guides you, according to Vastu, on the orientation and placement of various functions in your house. Align it with the north, using your smartphone, and you get a good idea of the ideal locations for the many functions within your home.

Location

There are a few don’ts. First and most important is that the pooja room location should not share a wall with a toilet or duct pipes as it puts your place of worship close to unclean elements. The second priority is to avoid placing the pooja ghar right in front of the main door or within a bedroom as the energies are said to cause unrest. Lastly, the do-nots would be incomplete without mentioning that the location of the pooja room should be out of the way of a busy passage, though that is sometimes unavoidable. This is to allow a peaceful prayer without others in the house getting in the way or being obstructed from their daily chores while you pray.

Praying habits

Another important factor that will define your experience with this space is your level of interaction with the deity. Do you pray every day for a specific amount of time with your family in attendance, or is it a small obeisance every morning and the family truly gets together to pray only on specific festivals? The answer to this will allow you to decide how much space you need, and how often, and where you will be comfortable standing or sitting during prayer. The height at which you install the deity depends on your most preferred method of praying.

The simplest way is to have the base of the deity at 1 foot 6 inches from the ground. This ensures a height that is conducive to praying either sitting down or standing.

Size

Prayer spaces can be as large as a complete room or a comfortable niche that can be decorated suitably. Here we see an innovative approach where a prayer enclosure has been created within the room, with a shell that expresses its identity.

Even if you have the space, it is not ideal for the prayer area to be visible from most of the living area. An overly open prayer space imposes its presence and piety over the room, making the latter, by extension, a part of itself. This can at times prevent the living space from being used freely for entertaining, and needlessly projects the rules of a temple into the actions of inhabitants, whether knowingly or subconsciously.

If space is a constraint, and you have a wall surface but not the depth, a suitable and tasteful albeit scaled-down prayer space can be created, complete with shutters that can close it when not in use.

Lighting

Lighting your prayer space needs to not only give it the wow factor, but at the same time create a soothing ambience that allows you to focus your energies into communing with God. Lighting should be warm and layered, with one level providing ambient light to the surroundings where you and your family will stand, while focused lighting illuminates the deity and enhances the depth and overall effect of the experience.

An out-of-the-box idea for lighting this space could be to have an unlit idol with a soft, backlit background, perhaps with a stone like onyx for a backdrop. The effect we are looking for is the silhouette of the deity enhanced by the rear lighting, and the front lit by a lamp, an electric one or the more usual diya, the traditional oil lamp with floating wick. The effect is surreal, in a good way.

Storage

The amount of storage you require depends on how elaborate your prayer routines will be. Storage will be required to address:

• Mats or cushions for seating
• Texts and prayer books, which should ideally be stored at a safe distance from the lamps to avoid a fire hazard. Below the pooja counter is a good area.
• The everyday, important items like incense, cotton, water, lamps, small boxes for kumkum powder and camphor, and various brass and silver utensils.

The simple thumb rule to follow is to make sure that the height given to your storage is not more than one-third of the height of the mandir.

The look

The mandir design for home has to project gravitas without being gloomy, be positive without being flippant, and yes, it can be classic without being classical. The most common inspiration for such spaces is the design vocabulary derived from temple architecture, and is either in marble or wood.

An exciting departure from the norm is to use a combination of rough and smooth stone on the vertical surfaces around the deity, that themes it in a manner that it projects a rustic ambience while being contemporary by its daring ensemble. Do remember to use stone that does not stain too readily with oil, as chemical coats can only go so far towards protecting your marble from an overflowing diya. The best rough stones for the purpose are slate, granite, Shahbad and kadappah.

The use of narrow colonnades with a faux roof and a shallow base, preferably with storage, provide the deity with a cover and accentuate the garbha graha (innermost sanctum). This provides a darker and sombre space for the idol. A stunning array of readymade temples are available, both in wood and stone.

Before buying a readymade temple, measure the space available and check if electrical connections are available to power the lights in your temple.