Q & A - His Holiness Bhakti Vinoda Swami Maharaj

why do we offer our Ashtang Pranam to the Lord across by keeping our left side towards the deities

why do we offer our Ashtang Pranam to the Lord across by keeping our left side towards the deities

by Bvacademy bhaktiyoga -
Number of replies: 1

why do we (ISKCON devotees) offer our Ashtang Pranam to the Lord across (I.e. by keeping our left side towards the deities) in stead of putting our head in front?

I have not yet been able to get a proper answer to this question, either from fellow devotees or from Internet.

I was told that in some temples, Prabhupada Ji’s moorti is in front of the deities so we don’t want to show our feet to him. However that holds true only in the case of certain temples like Juhu, Chowpatty, Kolkata etc. This is not the case when we talk about Vrindavan temple.

Could you please help me with an answer to this?

In reply to Bvacademy bhaktiyoga

Re: why do we offer our Ashtang Pranam to the Lord across by keeping our left side towards the deities

by Bvacademy bhaktiyoga -

The technical way of offerring obeisances observed by Krishna devotees , that I have heard and practised is as follows :
1. When offerring obeisances to The Supreme Lord Krishna or his avatars , vishnu or Narayana etc. , keep Him on your left.
2. when offerring obeisances to Guru or Srila Prabhupada do it straight with your head on their lotus feet in meditation or physically .
3. When offerring obeisances to Demigods , do so with them on your right.