Parikrama

In a famous story Lord Ganesha performed Parikrama around his parents which was considered equivalent to the journey around the universe. Parikrama means circumambulation or moving around in a circle. It is also known as Pradaskshina.The word “Pradakshina” means “towards right”. In religious context this journey is performed around temple,holy tree,holy hill and river. This is done in a clockwise direction. Only during inauspicious occasion like death ceremony,parikrama is performed anticlockwise .The circular journey around the deity can be understood with an example that in geometry we need a center to draw a circle and from the centre all the points on the circle are equidistant. It indicates we are equally close to God. Symbolically this ritual indicate touching the feet of deity. In another variation, at the end of the puja , it is a custom to do parikrama around ourselves three times. This is called “ Atma Pradakshinam”. This is to invoke the god in itself and to express the gratitude to HIM. We all are the part(ansh) of supreme soul. Generally odd number of parikrama is considerd auspicious. For Example , 1 parikrama around Lord Ganesha, Half parikrama around Shivlingam,3 parikrama around Lord Vishnu, 5 parikrama around Lord Kaartikay and 7 parikrama around peepal tree is considered auspicious. Many classics considered 21,27 or 108 numbers as auspicious to perform parkirama. While performing parikrama, an invisible link is established between a person and deity. The mantras pronounced during the circumambulation holds the key of transferring the energies from the god to a person. Always make sure that parikrama should be performed slowly while chanting mantras.