Live it at home
Make your home a temple
You do not need to move into a temple to live the scriptures. A small altar, a few minutes of worship morning and evening, and food offered to Kṛṣṇa turn an ordinary home into His home. Here is how to set it up and what to do each day.
The temple center is started just to present example to the neighboring residents how they can make a small temple in each and every home.
Why at home
Anyone can do this at home
Reading gives the knowledge. Worship at home makes it practical, every day, for the whole family.
One who feels that he is not yet ready to live in a temple or undergo strict regulative principles in the temple — especially householders who live with a wife and children — can start a center at home by installing the Deity, worshiping the Lord morning and evening, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and discussing the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Anyone can do this at home without difficulty.
Set up the altar
Begin with pictures
Start with pictures of the Lord and the spiritual master. Installing Deities is a bigger step, taken later under the guidance of a spiritual master or your local temple.
1Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa
The Lord and His eternal consort, at the top and centre.
2Śrī Pañca-tattva
Lord Caitanya with His four associates, who gave us the holy name.
3Śrīla Prabhupāda
The spiritual master, through whom we offer everything. If you are initiated, your own spiritual master sits here too.
What you need
- A clean shelf or tableHigher than the floor, covered with a clean cloth, used for nothing else.
- A cup of waterFresh each morning for the Lord.
- FlowersFresh ones, never smelled first — they are for Him.
- IncenseOffered at the morning and evening ārati.
- A ghee lampA small lamp with a cotton wick.
- A small bellRung while you offer.
- The Lord's plate and cupKept only for offering; no one else eats from them.
These are the simple home standards followed in ISKCON. Keep the altar clean, and keep it where you will see it every day.
Whoever cares for the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can install Deities at home and, under superior guidance, worship the Deity regularly, chanting the mahā-mantra and discussing the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Daily worship
A day in a home temple
Śrīla Prabhupāda asks for worship morning and evening, chanting and reading together. Start with what you can keep up, and add to it slowly.
Morning
Wake the Lord and chant
- Wash, put on clean clothes, then bow down before the altar.
- Change the water, offer fresh flowers and a little incense and lamp while singing Hare Kṛṣṇa.
- Chant your rounds, if you can, before the day's business begins.
Meals
Cook for Kṛṣṇa, then eat
- Cook with Him in mind, then offer the food before you eat (see below).
- Whatever is left after the offering is prasādam — the Lord's mercy — for the whole family and guests.
Evening
Gather the family
- Offer incense and the lamp again and sing Hare Kṛṣṇa together.
- Read a verse together from the Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and talk about it.
Night
Close the day with Him
- Offer a little milk or fruit, then bow down and thank Him for the day.
For your rounds, see How to chant.
Offering food
How to offer your food
Kṛṣṇa asks for very little — a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water — but He asks for it with love.
patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ
If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.
1Cook clean, vegetarian food
Vegetables, grains, fruit, milk and water — no meat, fish or eggs. ISKCON temples also leave out onion, garlic and mushrooms.
2Do not taste while cooking
The Lord tastes it first. Keep the kitchen and your hands clean.
3Serve His plate
Put a little of each dish and a cup of water on the Lord's plate, and set it before the altar.
4Ring the bell and pray
Chant each of the three prayers below three times, or simply ask Him with love to accept it and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
5Wait a few minutes
Let Him enjoy it, then bow down, thank Him and take the plate back.
6Honour the prasādam
Return His plate's food to the pots, wash His plate, and serve everyone the Lord's mercy.
But preparing nice, simple vegetable dishes, offering them before the picture or Deity of Lord Kṛṣṇa and bowing down and praying for Him to accept such a humble offering enable one to advance steadily in life, to purify the body, and to create fine brain tissues which will lead to clear thinking. Above all, the offering should be made with an attitude of love.
The three offering prayers
Ring the bell and chant each prayer three times, in this order.
1To Śrīla Prabhupāda
We offer through the spiritual master, so we begin with him.
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who is very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
The translation sung in ISKCON temples.
2To Lord Caitanya
Then to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is most merciful.
namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ
“O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṇa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṇa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.”
3To Lord Kṛṣṇa
Then to Kṛṣṇa Himself, who accepts the offering.
namo brahmaṇya-devāya
go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya
govindāya namo namaḥ
My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the brāhmaṇas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world. I offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Kṛṣṇa and Govinda.
The whole day
Everything becomes an offering
The altar is where it starts. In time, work, meals and giving all become service to Kṛṣṇa.
Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to Me.