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Archive for May, 2007
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Food is spiritual
From the Maitri Upanishad: “By the power of ascetic fervor Brahman expands and thence is food produced. From food comes life, from life mond, thence truth. the worlds and the immortality of works.” The above photo was taken during one of our public food offerings on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. -
Ganga Puja
Every evening in Varanasi they perform an elaborate puja to the river itself. In vedic mythology, there is a story about how a rishi convinced Ganga to come to earth from heaven, but she was worried that she would be too powerful and would wash away the earth. So Shiva said that she could first [...] -
Ganesha in butter
On special occasions, in this case New Year’s Eve when temples will coat the murti with butter and then decorate it with, as you see above, fruit and flowers which are embedded into the butter coating. I love the way it looks, almost playful. But it takes hours to create and even more time to [...] -
The yagya fire
The vedic tradition says that divinity can be invoked in the yagya fire. This means that, at least from the perspective of the vedas, the god or goddess for whom the yagya is being performed is literally there, in the fire, fully present in order to receive the offerings. So the priests treat the fire [...] -
The Importance of Family
In Jyotish the different houses represent various areas of life. We in the west are familiar with the vedic tradition’s emphasis on the ultimate goal of life being liberation. I found it fascinating that the houses which represent liberation (moksha) are the 4th, the 8th, and the 12th. The 8th is meditation, the 12th is [...] -
Shiva Yagya
This is a photo from a Shiva yagya that is being performed under a 500 year old Peepul tree. In the distance you can see the Ganges. Also of interest is the trisul, Shiva’s trident which is seen here covered with the golden yellow marigold flowers. The offerings are typically grain and ghee. After the [...] -
The timelessness of yagyas
On the banks of the Ganges, and I doubt that 500 or even 1,000 years ago it would have looked any different. -
Ganga Saptami
At dawn on the 7th day after the full moon in April, we performed a special yagya for Ganga. The priests went to the river side at dawn and prepared the kalasha pots; full of water and a coconut on top. Of course this is in the midst of everyone else who was there for [...] -
Lingam on the Ganga
Varanasi is the city of Shiva and many lingams are on the banks of the Ganges so that people can easily perform the Shiva Abishekam with Ganga water. -
Rain
“May the waters purify earth, may this earth so purified, purify me! May the Lord of the sacred word purify me, may earth, purified by Brahman, purify me!” -Mahanarayana Upanishad