Peace on Christmas Day….
December 26, 2006
It was warm and sunny and peaceful on Christmas so I went for a walk on the beach in Malibu.
On Christmas Eve
December 24, 2006
Rumi
December 23, 2006
Although not Vedic or even Hindu for that matter, Rumi remains a favorite for me. There is a way that he manages to capture the essence of spirituality.
Varadaraja Temple in the rain
December 23, 2006
After being in the smoke filled Navaratri Yagya room for 10 days, it was great to get out and do a little temple visiting. This is the Varadaraja temple which is directly across the street from our yagya stala (house). Right out the front door you can see the huge thick stone walls that surround the ancient temple.
As we walked the two blocks to the entrance, it became clear that the days of hot weather were going to end with a cooling rain. So we walked quickly to get into the temple before it started. Once inside we stood under the stone roof and enjoyed the rain. Being from California, I don’t get to enjoy rain all that often and as odd as it may seem, it was a real treat. There was something nice about walking in the rain on the large blocks of stone that pave the corridor, knowing that countless individuals have done the same thing for well over a thousand years here.
After walking around the back there is a stairway that leads up to the Vishnu temple. The Vishnu here is very large and the temple has a wonderful friendly feel.
I particularly like the rough hewn columns that support the stone roof. Back in its day, they must have been an impressive feat of engineering.
Ingredients
December 23, 2006
Here in the US a typical yagya event will use fruit, flowers, coconuts, ghee, almonds, and maybe some havan samagri, an herbal mixture that makes the yagya smoke smell really nice. But in India, you have access to all the traditional ingredients and for a major yagya like we performed for Navaratri, there can be well over one hundred different items; wood, seeds, spices, bark, grass, etc.
Here you see the ingredients for the last day of the Chandi homam. Each item was added to the homam fire while a specific mantra was being chanted. I suppose in our modern world it is difficult to comprehend how burning specific items might have any effect on anything, but perhaps that is the greatness of the ancient rishis. They understood life from both its scientific and humanistic sides and perceived what to do to improve the spiritual experience of life.
A vedic flower
December 17, 2006
One of the nicest features of the vedic tradition is the presence of flowers in every important ritual.
The lentil factory
December 15, 2006
During Navaratri, I spent a lot of time in a room that was comparatively smoke-free because I just couldn’t breathe in the yagya hall (see image below). Sitting in the open window, I could see the huge Varadaraja Temple across the street, the 2nd largest Vishnu temple in India, as well as the usual sights of traffic, palm trees and people going about their business. India is a great place to just sit and watch the world go by.
Behind the yagya stala (house) was a lentil processing plant and it never ceased to amaze me how many different ways farmers brought their lentils in for processing. It ranged from a small (roughly 25 lb) sack on a bicycle or motor bike, a 3 wheeler truck-ette, the trunk of a car, or for the really big loads a bullock cart as you see above.
I’d guess those sacks are 200 lbs at least…and the bullock may be slow, but it costs a lot less than gas.
For the most part, they all seem to be pretty well treated, especially with their brightly painted horns, in the national colors no less!
And the smoke in the yagya room….I really don’t see how the priests could breathe much less chant! I could never take it for more than a few minutes at a time.
The mysterious kitchens of India.
December 14, 2006
This is a snap of the kitchen in our Kanchipuram yagya facility. In all my trips to India I have always traveled and stayed with priests, so I know this is typcial of a Brahmin priest’s home; a couple countertops, some shelving, and a two burner gas stove. No sink in the kitchen, no fridge, no oven, although there is electricity. So, at least by American standards it is rather more simple that what we are used to.
But…and here’s the mystery. Out of these simple kitchens comes the most amazing food you’ve ever eaten; fresh, flavorful, delicious. But how? Only two burners. No food processor. No microwave. And in India a typical noon meal consists of a sweet (desert frequently comes first), rice with dal, papad or puri, two vegtable dishes, a couple freshly made chutnies, plus potato, yogurt or buttermilk rice, pickle, and a peppery soup called rasam (yum).
There is serious conjuring going on…some vedic magic passed from generation to generation is being used to create these amazing meals. There must be a special mantra that is passed from grandmother to mother to daughter after some secret ritual performed on the new moon…and only then can they truly be known as a “cook”.
And we western visitors are certainly and appreciative…but mystified.
Be careful who you give flowers to…
December 13, 2006
This is a photo of one of the great temples in south India (note the elephant). It is called Tiruchendur and is located almost all the way down the east coast of Tamil Nadu just north of Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India. It is a temple primarily for Subramanyam (also known as Murugan), the son of Shiva and brother to Ganesha.
It was also the site of several amusing events…
On one of my earlier trips to India, Narasimha and I had hired a car and driver to take us to a series of temples where we were going to enjoy various pujas and yagyas. Unfortunately during this trip, we had a horrible driver. He’d bump me out of the way inside the temples, take the garlands and put them on the hood of his car, and was generally a disagreeable fellow.
So, when we were at this temple, we were treated to a special puja where we were standing right up front, as close to the deity as people were allowed to stand. And afterwards, the priests took a garland right off the deity and placed it around my neck. It was a very nice honor.
As we were walking out of the temple, I was determined not to let the driver take this one. So as we were walking out, I took the garland off and had it in my hand ready to give it to the first person I saw before the driver could ask for it.
As fate would have it, there were two police standing there, one an man in his mid-30’s and one a young woman. Well, I wasn’t going to offer a garland to the policeman…so I held it out to the police woman. Innocently enough. But the look on her face was one of sudden shyness and and the look of amusement on the face of the policeman told me that I had crossed some cultural boundary…unbeknownst to me!
So I dropped the garland into her hands, and ran off after Narasimha. When I explained what happened, he and everyone with him burst out laughing! As it turns out a marriage proposal is accompanied by the placing of a garland around the neck of your intended. So, through his laugher, Narasimha’s sage advice was “be careful who you give flowers to…unless you have an extra ticket home.”
Elephants
December 12, 2006
Most of the larger temples have their own elephant. In this case the elephant is quite young and works at the Saturn Temple at Tirunallar in south Tamil Nadu. The tradition is that you buy some food for the elephant (a special variety of grass) and offer it to him. He takes it very delicately with his trunk and then he blesses you by touching the top of your head. Then you hand him a 20 rupee note which he passes to his trainer. It is a really nice tradition.
I visited Srirangam, further south in Tamil Nadu, a number of times with my friend Narasimha. His father was chief priest at the large Ranganatha temple there and the family lived very close to the temple. The temple elephant is now, what I suppose is middle age for an elephant. When he was young, they would take him through the streets for various festivals with the deity on his back. As the procession made its way through the streets, they’d stop at Narasimha’s house where his mother would feed warm milk and coffee to the priests and to the elephant as well.
Apparently the elephant got used to this and as he grew older, whenever he went by the house, he’d stop and not go any further until he had his coffee. And being bigger than anyone else, when he wanted coffee, there was no budging him!
It was interesting to visit the elephant’s house in Srirangam. There is a really big door for the elephant opening into a very large room. Off to the side is the trainer’s desk and a few chairs. It was quite unusual to sit having some tea with an elephant right there in the living room! Put an elephant in a house and you quickly realize how large they are.