Shiva temple installation and Pran Pratistha Festival held with grandeur in Colorado
By Nati Babu Bhatta, COLORADO:- The consecration ceremony for the divine idols of Lord Shiva and the Shiva family—installed at ‘Nepali Ghar,’ Nepali cultural center in Colorado—has been successfully concluded in accordance with ritual protocols.
The consecration program, which began on Saturday with preliminary rites, concluded on Monday following the Rudrabhishek, Havan, and Aarti rituals.
The Pran Pratishtha (consecration) ceremony was conducted according to ritual protocols by Guru Jivan Baral, Acharya Pandit Gopikrishna, and Pandit Govinda Kattel, with Krishna Kafle serving as the principal sponsor. Following the consecration, the Shiva family deity group was formally named; it was announced that, henceforth, it will be known as the “Chidananda Shiva Pariwar Shivalaya.”
Ganga Chaulagai, President of Nepali Ghar, stated that the Pran Pratishtha (consecration) ceremony for the idols was successfully conducted in a spiritually charged atmosphere—featuring *bhajan-kirtan* (devotional songs) alongside rituals such as *puja*, *japa-tapa* (chanting and penance), and Havan—performed by gurus and priests in accordance with scriptural and Vedic traditions. Notably, the performances by child artists from the Colorado Bal Bhajan Mandali—representing the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community—won everyone’s hearts.
The Shivalaya houses a magnificent statue of the Shiva family—weighing over 300 kilograms—which was hand-carved over a period of three months by two artisans from a massive stone (approximately 10 feet high and 8 feet wide) sourced from Nepal’s sacred Kaligandaki River. These statues of the Shiva family, Shivling, and Basaha (Nandi the bull) were provided as a donation to the Nepali Cultural Center by Krishna Kafle, the proprietor of Laxmi Food.
Kafle noted that Laxmi Food had provided, free of charge, all the necessary ingredients to prepare Prasad for devotees attending the consecration ceremony. He described the establishment of a Shivalaya (Shiva temple) at the Nepali Cultural Center—which serves as a hub for the religious and cultural unity of the Nepali-speaking community abroad—as a significant religious achievement for the community.
Emphasizing that Pran-Pratishtha—within our Sanatan Hindu tradition—is not merely a ritual of infusing life into an idol but a sacred religious ceremony that fosters a deeper connection with the Divine through reverence, resolve, and devotion, Nepali Ghar has appealed for everyone’s support and cooperation in conducting the daily worship of the Chidananda Shiva family. The Pran-Pratishtha ceremony, held on Sunday, saw a large turnout from the Nepali-speaking community in Colorado.
