Hi Chitvish Mam (open to others for views also)! I am holding many large and medium sized photos of various deities used by MIL since (or even may be earlier) her marriage time. With elders, some sentiments are often attached to these and hence I have also been using the same. Very rarely anything gets out of frame or damaged when I keep them in some small temple. Certain others which carry Ravi Varma's old drawings like the very old and famous photos of Lakshmi, Saraswathy etc. I still have. Now my DD keeps telling me amma why should all these photos be cramped in two shelves? We don't have enough space too. Nor are we able to use the pictures newly purchased all of uniform size. Why don't you discard these? So I just came here to get your views. Hope nothing is wrong in discarding old photos.
yesterday i was watching a tv show where swamigal answered to this question he said any gods photos which are old,torn,damaged,broken should be put into rivers (rivers which flow all the year like krishna,godavari,ganges etc) he said some people are leaving these photos in temples under trees but as these are gods photos which have been worshipped sometime ago its not fair for us to leave these photos in the sun,rain and damage it further ..so he said with due respect its better to do nimmajanam to them
Dear Soldier, Glad you raised this query and thanks lavii for being so prompt with the answer. This same doubt has been nagging me for a long time. Love, Usha
Thanks Mallu......this time my brother came back from vacation and told me the same thing that we should stop collecting all these old photos and calendars which we dont have the heart to throw for sentimental values and I did not know what to answer him....... Thanks to Lavii for her timely help........thank you dear........
Thank you lavi for the first fb. Noted the point. But then should I have to wait for an opportunity to go to the holy rivers?:biglaugh
Thank you Sudha. Probably we all could have a pilgrimage trip for dip in the Holy Rivers plus silently bid farewell to our dear deities!!!
M, My POV. i remove the ones that cannot be kept in the pooja mandap..cover it in paper and keep it in the loft..and discard it when i can. but since we live in chennai and cannot go in search of rivers, i leave it in the temple tanks..
Thank you Shanthi. Like you, I already have a bundle of collection for discarding kept safely on the loft. Probably they are waiting for their nivruthi!!
you may first arrange all the phtoes on the shelf or floor.just offer some flowers and do "nivedanam" with some milk or fruits.then tell the following: "aavahidaabya sarvaabyo devadaabyo namaha, yadaasthanam pradistaabayaami" and put some flowers on them.move them to the northern side.then you can dispose them off at your convenience in any river or lake or sea.