Ahead of the January 22 “pran pratishtha” ceremony for the Ram Lalla idol at the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, the Indian diaspora in Mexico, Central America, celebrated with pran pratishtha (infusing of life) at a new Ram Temple in Querétaro. Santiago de Querétaro, commonly known as Querétaro, is the capital and largest city of the state of Querétaro, located in central Mexico.
One of the significant features of the Querétaro ceremony was that the pran pratishtha rituals were performed by an American priest.
The priest, of Caucasian appearance but dressed in the traditional clothes of an Indian purohit (priest), garlanded three small statues of Ram, Sita, and Lakshman, and carried out all the other rites necessary for pran pratishtha.
Pran pratishtha is a ceremony that symbolically infuses life force into the idols of Hindu deities; after this ceremony, devotees can offer puja to the deities.
At the ceremony in Mexico, the temple space was filled with people of Indian origin, who sang bhajans in praise of Ram and clapped during the ceremony.