Every Hin­du who vis­its a tem­ple is well ac­quaint­ed with the conch shell and its us­es. It is part of every tem­ple de­vo­tion­al item. Many homes like to use one dur­ing their own wor­ship; it is kept in a place of wor­ship, for it is very aus­pi­cious.

The ma­jor­i­ty of conch shells open on the left-hand side, that is, they are formed an­ti-clock­wise. In con­trast, those that are open on the right-hand side, that is clock­wise, are rare and very aus­pi­cious, when kept at home. They are ex­treme­ly ex­pen­sive.

It is be­lieved that God­dess Lak­sh­mi re­sides per­ma­nent­ly in white conch shells that open on the right side. Hin­dus be­lieve that as both God­dess Lak­sh­mi and the right-sided conch orig­i­nate from the same area of the sea, they have a very close re­la­tion­ship.

In what­ev­er home you find a right-sided conch shell, hap­pi­ness, joy, good health and well-be­ing will al­ways be there. It is be­lieved that who­ev­er owns a pair of right-sided conch shells shall al­ways hold ex­act­ed po­si­tions and be suc­cess­ful in what un­der­tak­ing they pur­sue, mis­ery and fail­ure are nev­er en­coun­tered. Dai­ly rev­er­ence and sys­tem­at­ic of­fer­ings of prayers, chant­i­ng of Mantras will bring suc­cess in their en­deav­ours.

When the conch shell is placed in a shop it pro­motes busi­ness. At home, it at­tracts wealth and hap­pi­ness. The right-sided conch shell is a sym­bol of glo­ry and pros­per­i­ty.

When wa­ter is filled in the right-sided conch shell and sprin­kled in the home on pos­ses­sions and fam­i­ly mem­bers, it is be­lieved the ef­fect of curs­es, mis­for­tune, evil thoughts and bad plan­e­tary [as­tro­log­i­cal] in­flu­ences are neu­tralised.

When milk is filled in the right-sided conch shell and of­fered to God­dess Lak­sh­mi, one re­ceives great wealth.

Of­fer­ing con­tin­u­ous­ly, 108 times, prayers to the conch shell al­so brings ho­n­our and fame to a per­son. It is al­so be­lieved this helps child­less cou­ples be­come par­ents. The conch shell has its ori­gin in the sea and is blessed by the moon, the air, the uni­verse, over­comes one’s en­e­mies, dis­pels dis­eases, pover­ty and im­parts wis­dom and knowl­edge.

It is par­tic­u­lar­ly rec­om­mend­ed for wor­ship, when placed near the ear, one hears melo­di­ous ce­les­tial sounds.

A conch shell is an im­por­tant part of re­li­gious cer­e­monies. Blow­ing the conch shell dur­ing a re­li­gious cer­e­mo­ny, wed­ding or im­por­tant func­tion is both im­por­tant and aus­pi­cious. In tem­ples, it is cus­tom­ary to blow conch shells in the morn­ing and evening prayers. With­out the sound of the conch shell, the prayer cer­e­mo­ny is con­sid­ered in­com­plete. The sound of the conch shell is con­sid­ered aus­pi­cious in oth­er re­li­gions al­so.

The conch shell is blown be­fore sun­rise and af­ter sun­set, since the rays of the sun are be­lieved to in­ter­fere with waves from the conch shell. The sound of the conch shell ef­fec­tive­ly clears pol­lu­tion. In­di­an sci­en­tist Ja­gadish Chan­dra Bose con­duct­ed an ex­per­i­ment show­ing that as far as the sound of the conch shell pen­e­trat­ed, dis­ease-caus­ing bac­te­ria be­came in­ef­fec­tive or died.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions at Berlin Uni­ver­si­ty con­firmed that the sound of the conch shell was an ef­fec­tive and cheap way of de­stroy­ing bac­te­ria in the at­mos­phere. It is said that it al­so helps con­trol cholera and malar­ia and is use­ful amongst pa­tients of hys­te­ria, epilep­sy and lep­rosy.

Amongst Hin­dus, there is a say­ing ‘Shankh ba­je, bhoot bhage’, mean­ing, ‘when the conch is blown, ghosts flee.’ Its con­tin­u­ous sound is said to ward off heart at­tack and it is al­so good for peo­ple who stam­mer.

It is cus­tom­ary to make small chil­dren wear lit­tle shells stringed to­geth­er around their neck, as it helps them speak soon­er and clear­ly. Blow­ing of the conch shell en­hances lung ca­pac­i­ty and pro­tects one from lung ail­ments. It al­so helps in get­ting rid of men­tal ten­sion, reg­u­lat­ing blood pres­sure, con­trol­ling di­a­betes and pre­vent­ing dis­eases af­fect­ing breath­ing and di­ges­tion.

It is cus­tom­ary to fill a conch shell with wa­ter and leave it at the place of prayer. This wa­ter is lat­er sprin­kled on devo­tees, since it is be­lieved to have cu­ra­tive qual­i­ties and im­proves health. In some ar­eas, ladies wear ban­gles made of conch shell.

Tem­ples where bells keep ring­ing are ones where the deities are awak­ened to the call of the devo­tees. Bells are usu­al­ly hung at the en­trance of the tem­ple and are rung [tintinnab­u­la­tion], this tells the de­ity/deities of the devo­tee’s pres­ence.

The use of bells dur­ing ar­ti in­di­cates that prayers are on­go­ing. Dur­ing prayers, a va­ri­ety of bells are of­ten used, they cre­ate dif­fer­ent beats and rhythms. It is be­lieved that the ring­ing of bells arous­es the di­vin­i­ty with­in the deities; the ring­ing bells are be­lieved to help pro­tect one from prob­lems and sin.

The bell al­so sym­bol­is­es death. When the body is about to be cre­mat­ed, one rings a bell.