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Archive for November, 2007
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Paintings
On the final day, a number of art students from Benares Hindu University came and made beautiful watercolor paintings of the yagya stala and pundits. Their talent was unmistakable and the style was surprisingly modern. They created some beautiful works of art. This artis made a painting of the four guests during Rudra abishekam. It [...] -
Rice flour decorations
For the final day, a couple people used brightly colored rice flour to decorate all the walkways. Another charming bit of attention to detail that made the entire yagya stala look festive. -
Chanting Pundits
I really like this photo of the priests chanting with the puja table in the foreground. You can also see the brick paving that was put in place because of all the mud which was starting to get deep! -
108 Pundits
On the final day we had a total of 108 pundits to chant Rudram 11 times for the morning’s Rudra Abishekam. It was quite impressive to hear that many voices sing the powerful Shiva mantras for several hours and at the end they sang as loudly as they could and in perfect synchronization. It was [...] -
A welcoming banner
On the final day they had made a wonderful banner with hundreds of flowers and green leaves to hang over the entrance to the yagya stala. This was very typical of the great effort that was invested in the facility and which would have been impossible in the US because of the cost of flower [...] -
Final Rudra Abishekam
On the last day the Rudra Abishekam ended with beautiful flower decorations topped with a great lotus blossom. -
Growing wheat!
By tradition the sand that supports these pots contains grains of wheat, although I am not sure why. There was so much rain that after just 4 days the wheat had sprouted and was growing rapidly! The green wheat, the gold marigolds, and the red pots are all a great example of the richness and [...] -
Durga on the final day
I posted a photo of the 1 inch tall solid gold Durga aout a week ago and on the final day these were the elaborate malas that decorated her. The white flowers are fragrant jasmine and the blue are beautiful small iris flowers. I had never seen an iris so small or that intensely purple. -
The perfect lotus
On the side of the stala grounds there was a lotus pond and the first thing I noticed on the final day of yagyas was this perfect flower. It is so easy to see why the lotus is such a revered flower. The dramatic color, the shape; everything in perfect contrast to the dark green [...] -
Sunset
Not much to say other than this was another beautiful end to another beautiful day. We were 30 km from the city, by the Ganges, in the middle of the rice fields and at the end of the day it always seemed to be the perfect environment. It always amazed me how little of western [...]