Today I had a chat with my mom about our altar and how generally the practice is not to co-mingle pictures of God with pictures of our ancestors. My grandparents are all dead. Their photos sit in a separate area outside but next to the main family altar. My cousin Bala whose shop I just visited yesterday also said the same thing and offered me a possible explanation. He said that since the souls of our departed ancestors may return via rebirth one cannot assume that they have reunited with the divine. Hence, it is inappropriate for them to be sharing the same altar with the Gods. He also said that in his shop altar he had placed his deceased father's photo alongside Ganesha but was advised to separate them. In fact he was told that the God statutes should be at the highest point and then the pictures of departed elders should cascade below them. So there is also a height dimension to the display of photos.
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