Vasadohara
December 11, 2006
In the photo above you see a priest holding a long wooden stick over the homa fire. Here’s how it was explained to me:
This is part of the ritual that takes place at the very end of the yagya. Not all yagyas. Mostly for special yagyas like Navaratri and Shivaratri. The idea is that during the ritual all the mantras are chanted and all the offerings are made and now it is time to ask for what one wants. But, the rules are that your request accompanys only one offering. Thus if the offering were just a spoonful of ghee, it would hardly leave enough time to ask for everything.
So this piece of wood was carved with a small bowl like area at the top and a long thin channel is carved down the center leading to an opening at the end. Ghee is poured (as you see in the photo above) into the bowl and it streams down the vasodhara to drip into the fire in an unbroken, continuous stream. Thus the offerings can take a very long time indeed!
There is a section of the Yajur Veda called Chamakam which is essentially a long list of everything material and spiritual that an individual could possibly want. So that is typically chanted when a vasodhara is used.
Little lights
December 11, 2006
Towards the end of the yagya each day, the priests would prepare a series of small lamps made out of dough with a wick and a little bit of ghee. They would be arranged in specific places around the homa kund (yagya fire pit), resting on a banana leaf with a mixture of cooked lentils mixed with yogurt and a small piece of fruit mixture (called pancha amritam).
I asked what was going on and they told me that these were offerings for minor gods who didn’t qualify for the “big fire”. They went to each one, recited some mantras, offered some water and moved to the next one. Unfortunately I don’t recall exactly which deities, although I recognized a few. I think Kubera was one
Smoke
December 11, 2006
There is a saying that there is no yagya without a few tears from the smoke and Navaratri was no exception. The tradition is to offer chakara pongal (rice and lentils mixed with jaggery and ghee). The mantra for the yagya was the entire Chandi Path of 700 verses and after each verse some pongal was offered. That meant that rather than burning with a nice flame the yagya fire was often smoldering and generating vast quantities of smoke. Believe it or not, the above photo was taken when the smoke was rather moderate!
I could only last 10-15 minutes at a time, partly from the smoke and partly from the heat near the fire. I can not imagine how the priests managed to recite Chandi Path for 3 hours, breathing the smoke only a couple feet from the hot fire pit. Me…I retreated to the next room where I could hear the mantras and still breathe.
Scam Artists
December 10, 2006
Well, not these specific guys. They are drivers of an auto taxi, a 3 wheeled motorcycle that seats two in back..although I’ve seen as many as 5 or 6 crammed in. I’d walk out of the hotel, flag one down and then show him the address of the yagya house written in Tamli and off we’d go.
On Vijaya Dashami in the evening, there was a 3 block detour because the police had closed a street near a temple for the festivities. When I got to the hotel, instead of the usual 50 rupees (about $1) he wanted an extra 10 rupees. The conversation went something like this:
Driver - “Ten rupees more.”
Me - “No. It is always 50 rupees.”
Driver = “Not today. There is a security fee.”
Me - “Security fee??!! What on earth for? What security?”
Driver = “There was a police detour. That is 10 rupees.”
Me - “You want 10 rupees to go 3 blocks?!! You are a crook!”
Driver - “No Sir, not a crook. I am a businessman.”
Must be a subtle difference.
Actually I enjoyed interacting with the different drivers. They were always in good humor and had a million different scams, always executed with a smile, just to get a little more money from you. It could be anoying, but I decided I might as well laugh and see how much of a hard time I could give them before they gave up. Playing the dumb tourist was a pretty good defense. And besides all they wanted was 10 rupees and that’s only 25 cents, so what the heck. A small price to pay for the entertainment.
The Doctor’s Office
December 10, 2006
When I had little trouble with “apple juice” (see earlier post) I initially went to a doctor near the hotel. But after a couple of days I still wasn’t feeling 100% so I mentioned to the priests that I wanted to go to the doctor’s office again.
One of the priests showed up at the hotel and took me in a taxi to the place seen in the photo above. Since this was different from the doctor’s office I had been to before, I asked where we were. “Oh,” he said, “This is a very good doctor’s office. See, it has a Ganesha temple out front. I did the kumbha abishekam (deity installation) here. A most excellent doctor’s office.”
Well, I did feel much better the next day, so maybe all hospitals need a good Ganesha temple out front.
Photo
December 10, 2006
I need to test an easier way to upload photos for this blog. So I thought I’d use one of me and Seetharam that was taken at the conclusion of the Navaratri Yagya series.
Ice Cream Swaaha
December 8, 2006
Who says you can’t have a good laugh at a yagya?
During the navaratri yagya series in India the outdoor temp. each day was in the mid 90’s with 60-70% humidity. Add to that a pretty good sized yagya fire, some poor ventilation and you have some serious heat.
One day, after the end of the yagya we were all standing in the smoke, sweating, hot and tired and wanting lunch. One of the priests said, “OM shreem hreem kleem ice cream swahaa”! Typical format of a vedic mantra…with a modern ending. I offer ice cream. Pretty funny.
Now, a little background info. The form of gayatri in the Rig Veda always starts with “Tat Purushaya Vidmahe”. Purusha is essentially a divine individual. The second line is usually some characteristic of the deity…so for ganesha it would be “Vakratundaya Deemahi”. The last line is the name of the deity; “Thanno Dandi prachodayat.”
So every one goes downstair to eat lunch. As they are standing around I tell them I have a new Gayatri:
Hot Purushaya Vidmahe
Hungry stomach deemahi
Thanno lunch prachodayat
Much laughter ensues. Clever American.
Apple Juice
December 8, 2006
During the Navaratri trip to India the day’s events would begin at 8 AM and they’d do pujas until 10:30 at which point all the priests would take a break. Typically they would gather in the kitchen and make different things to drink. Some would have coffee, some tea, and some would make fresh fruit juice.
One day, one of them made apple juice. It was absolutely delicious. I had two glasses. Big mistake.
Later that night I got a fever, then stomach sick. Then it got worse. In spite of all my precautions, I had apple juice made with local water and paid the price. I have never been so sick in all my trips to India. But after a couple trips to the doctor, I was much better.
When I returned to the yagyas, the priest who had made the apple juice was a little shy and obviously embarrased that he had made the apple juice that made me sick. In spite of his lack of English, I managed to convey that at least in my opinion, getting sick at least once is just a part of visiting India, so it was no big deal.
Then it turned into a big joke. The next time the priests took a break and asked me what I wanted to drink….I said “Apple juice!”. Much laughter. Then everything became “apple juice”. It was the running joke.
Last night (thursday) when I called India to listen to the chanting, Seetharam told me that the priests all wanted to wish me a Happy New Year, so he held up the phone and all the priests yelled, “Apple Juice!”
Patteswaram Temple
December 7, 2006
This temple has been a real favorite of mine going back to my first visit there almost 10 years ago. It is a Shiva/Durga temple that is very old, and yet well maintained compared to most. The Shiva temple is modest in size and has an amazing feel of antiquity. The lingam is not all that large but there is an unmistakably spiritual feel that comes from so many hundreds (or thousands) of years of daily pujas.
During my last visit to India for Navaratri I visited again with Seetharam and the temple had changed a lot. The renovations that were just beginning during my first visit had been completed and featured a new enclosed area around the Durga temple.
When we visited the temple, Seetharam told a funny story about a saint who visited the temple many hundreds of years ago. His name was Sambandar and although he was a great devotee of Shiva, he was denied denied entry to the temple by the priests. So he said okay, and stood behind the Nandi (Shiva’s Bull). But Shiva wanted to see his devotee clearly and asked Nandi to move aside a bit. And indeed, at the temple the Nandi is off-center (which is pretty good for a stone statue, but sorts of things are fairly common with Nandi).
Additionally, it is said that Rama came here to do penance and ask Shiva for fogiveness after killing Valli in the Ramayana. Also it is said that the calf of Kamadhenu came here to worship Shiva. Kamadhenu is the “wish fulfilling cow” from vedic mythology. Obvoiusly the cow is very central to vedic culture and of course the cow is revered even today. In fact it is said that all the gods live on Kamadhenu!
And the story of how the calf of Vasistha was almost stolen by Vishwamitra plays an important (if somewhat convoluted) role in the the development of Vishwamitra to the status of Brahmarishi and how he became the seer of the Gayatri mantra and one of the books of the Rig Veda.
Mostly as you stand in the courtyard of this temple you sense the spiritual history and there is some feeling that at least at some time in the past, this was a place of genuine spirituality and enlightenment.
In the beginning (agnim elai purohitam)…
December 7, 2006
Well, this is the beginning. I spent a geeky hour tweaking the CSS layouts in order to get my logo on the top of the page the way I want it. The actual install and configuration of the Word Press Software was surprisingly easy and now all I need is content.
Actually I have lots of content to put here, but I wanted to have an opportunity to use an old writer’s phrase that I love but rarely have the chance to use. “A blank sheet of paper is God’s way of showing you it isn’t so easy being God!” To create something of value from scratch is sort of the ultimate challenge.