When we think of you…
October 31, 2008
“When we think of you O Lord, may you speedily come in your chariot as if, drawn by long maned and sleek-coated steads, and be seated on the comfortable cushions of our heart.”
-Rig Veda
Our praises caress…
October 30, 2008
“Our praises caress the mighty lord, the cherisher of the devotional love, as cows lick their calves.”
-Rig Veda
Navaratri Durga Mantras - Oct 08
October 24, 2008
We always sponsor a large scale yagya in Kanchipuram for the nine day festival called Navaratri. This video presents the 2008 yagya along with selections of the yagya mantras from each of the nine days.
Yagya results - what to expect.
October 21, 2008
The reasons that people do yagyas and the benefits that they experience are widely varied. Some people have very specific experiences during the day, during meditation, etc. Others feel a general sense of support and protection. Some people find that they notice nothing much, although over time it seems that nothing goes wrong! Or things don’t go as wrong as they are used to. It is really all over the map.
In some ways I think it is also like my own practice of meditation. I have been doing my practice for so long that if you asked me what the benefits were I would be stuck because, for me, it is all about moving towards enlightenment (the big picture). As you well know, people can start a spiritual practice for such minor reasons as to sleep better or just relax, but then over time the experience and emphasis changes. It is like that with yagyas as well.
In the simplest terms, the yagyas are an upwelling of sattwa, and the more “pure” our awareness the fewer the problems, and when the problems arise they are easier to solve or are less overshadowing. My experience is that during a yagya “papas” the Sanskrit word for seeds of bad karma, are being roasted….so they can’t sprout into misfortune. The thing is that we can’t really know how much bad karma there is waiting for us. So, it seems to me that the “results” from a yagya show up when we have made a dent in the karmas that we have.
That is why I see the yagyas as a part of a “process” very much like the old analogy of watering the root so that the entire tree is nourished; roots, trunk, leaves, etc. All in proper proportion.
I frequently joke that my children seem to be the primary beneficiary of the yagyas. Even in spite of my fatherly blindness that makes them close to perfect, I realize that they have been spared so many of the troubles that their peers are going through. Certainly something is there that is beyond my “skill” as a parent. I see huge benefits from the yagyas, but that doesn’t mean that my son won’t suffer when his girlfriend breaks up with him, or that my younger son won’t be stuck in the “World of Warcraft” game for days on end. They have a life to live and some things we can change and some we can’t.
The questions that most people have about yagyas and results are very understandable. Everyone wants to “feel something”, to have some feedback or a sign that the yagyas are doing something. Some people…or I would say that most people do have experiences that encourage them to continue. Sometime the experiences are very dramatic and sometimes it is sense of support or protection. Given time, it seems to be rather consistent.
Of course, all that we can do is to make certain that the yagyas are performed in the most proper traditional manner possible. The results, as the priests say, are up to the Divine.
Ganesha Puja
October 21, 2008
A simple and traditional Ganesha Puja is performed by Seetharama Shastry. As he performs the puja, the Sanskrit text is displayed and a closeup of the hand movements are shown in a video inset. If you’s like to view a copy of the text in pdf format, please click here.
#11 Karma, Part 2
October 15, 2008
Penny Farrow continues her examination of the concept of karma and explains how the concept of karma is beautifully integrated with the various limbs of Jyotisha. She continues to show how Jyotisha maps karma and shows us our karmic patterns.
Penny practices and teaches Jyotisha full-time having been trained primarily under the expert tutelage of Hart deFouw. She is also a teacher and tutor for the American College of Vedic Astrology. Her website is www.vedicchart.com and she can be reached via email at info@vedicchart.com or pennyaf@comcast.net.
Navaratri - Final Day
October 14, 2008
At the same time as the Navaratri celebrations are taking place, there is also a concurrent celebration for Vedanta Desika, a famous Vaishnava saint and philosopher who was born and who grew up in Kanchipuram. He has a temple in the big Vishnu temple across the street and each day the small murti is taken out around the temple, being carried by 32 men on the palanquin. The announce the time they are leaving the temple with a big cannon blast…people all up and down the street throw water in the road to cool the feet of the carriers, and the procession stops at each house who wants a quick puja and blessing.
Our pujas start early and everything is so nicely decorated with new fresh malas and flowers. As the daily yagya is performed, the work continues on the assembly of all the ingredients for the final Chandi Havan. There are 108 ingredients for the second part of the yagya, plus offerings that are made at the end of each chapter of the Chandi Path text, plus special offerings that are made for each section within the text where a different individual speaks. Chandi Path is essentially a conversation between Markendeya rishi, the goddess, a King and a merchant. So each time the word “Uvacha” appears in the text, it means that a different speaker is speaking and an offering of cloth, sandal, a comb, kumkum, etc is placed in the fire.
After the Rudra Abishekam, the pundits embarked on a very extensive invocation (called avahanam) for each of the Nava Durga (9 forms of Durga). A sweet lime was offered as part of each puja.
And as usual, while they are chanting, the pundits are creating some really nice flower arrangements, that last for just a few minutes before the flowers are used in the puja.
After a break, it is time to begin the Chandi havan. All is ready on the roof…
And as a measure of how hot is was, the way they melt ghee is simply to leave it in the sun and it melts in just a few minutes.
Ready to begin….
I noticed that while everyone had the text of Chandi Path with them, it was hardly necessary. They recited the text without hesitation and it seemed like it was only there for the occasional reminder of where they were after they took a break, or had to pause for some reason.
As the event progressed, the number of offerings in the fire started to mount and so did the smoke!
The entire yagya took several hours to complete, but the sense of energy and light was unmistakable. It was all too soon that the final offering (poornadhuti) was ready to be made. It was all wrapped up in a pure silk cloth with all sorts of fruits, spices, sandalwood, and wood.
The final offering….first of ghee and then the silk wrapped offerings.
Me and Seetharam after the final puja. Done! It was a phenomenal event and all 9 days were a genuine pleasure to attend.
Navaratri - Day 8 - Evening
October 14, 2008
One of the advantages of going back to a place like Kanchipuram over and over is that you get to know the place and develop some real attachments to some of the various temples. This last evening we visited one of my favorites; a Shiva temple where, as the story goes, Vishnu came after the episode of the churning of the ocean of milk. In that story, the gods wanted to become immortal so they had to churn the ocean of milk with the help of the demons. They used Mount Mandara as the churn, and Vasuki, a divine snake, as the rope. But they needed something to rest the mountain on so that it would turn. Vishnu assumed the form of a giant turtle (Kurma Avatara).
But afterwards he needed Shiva’s help to remove that form and return to his normal form. So he came to this spot and make a simple sand lingam to which he performed puja and Shiva came to help him out. The sand lingam is preserved in the main sanctum. In the image above you can seen a representation of the story.
At this same temple there are a number of shiva lingams sitting outside in their own areas.
And this is also the temple that has the beautiful pipal tree under which there are hundreds of Rahu/Ketu vigrahas. It was interesting to note that since we did a big yagya here some months back and completely cleaned the area, it seems to be much better maintained and more frequently visited. I like to think that we have had a positive influence in the temple!
Finally, before returning for Lalitha Sahasranam, we visited the main Subramanyam temple that sits between the Kamakshi goddess temple and the Ekambeshwara Shiva temple. The funny story behind this temple is that there was a time when Brahma was asked by Shiva what the meaning of OM was, and he didn’t know, or forgot. So Brahma was put into jail. While he was in jail, Shiva’s son Subramanyam took over as Creator and in this temple he is shown holding a mala, which is a characteristic more usually associated with Brahma.
There is also a story about shiva appearing as a column of light and Vishnu and Brahma competing to see who could find the end of it first. Brahma lied and said he had found it, but Shiva caught him in the lie and he was cursed not to be worshipped. You can see Brahma falling downward in the carving below.
Navaratri - Day 8 - Saraswati
October 7, 2008
Tomorrow, day 9 is the big day for Navaratri and already preparations are being made. There are 108 traditional ingredients for the final fire yagya, and they have to be acquired, sorted, and made ready to offer into the yagya fire while Chandi Path is recited for the final time.
Interestingly most of the items are seeds, roots, bark, all of which have applications in ayurveda. As we were unwrappign them, the priest was identifying them and talking about some of their uses. It is easy to see why historically, India was the legendary spice source for the world.
The pujas were great as usual but there is a combination of looking forward to the final day which is much mroe elaborate and takes all day….but then again there is the pang of sadness that this yagya series will be over soon. Even though for the past 8 days it has been nothing but pujas for 8-10 hours every day, I wish it could continue. There is a subtle but unmistakable connection with the divine here, both in this place (Kanchipuram) and in this Navaratri ritual. It doesn’t really manifest in an emotional way, but rather as an undeniable sense of connectedness with something culturally and spiritually significant.
Our young girls for today were very cute, as usual, and were excited to be dressed up for this special occasion.
There is something wonderfully organic about the “tools” used in the yagyas, a brass pot for water, stalks of darba grass, some sticks of wood, and ghee.
Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge and would therefore be associated with the lotus as being symbolic of the unfoldment of knowledge, so the special offering into the yagya fire today were lotus seeds.
Navaratri - Day 7 - Durga/Lakshmi
October 6, 2008
I am not sure that I have ever seen roses in abundance in India before, but there are vendors selling them in pots to be planted, and the flower vendor brought them today because the lotuses we wanted were unavailable. So we have very pretty small white and red roses along with some large jasmine.
At the same time navaratri is being celebrated, it is also a celebration for a Vaishnava saint by the name of Vedanta Desika. Every day there is a procession around the big Vishnu temple and today the murti was pulled on a chariot, rather than being carried. The approach is announced by a cannon…a genuine, so loud it scares you cannon. He is proceeded by drums and groups of Brahmins who stop at the homes along the way to offer blessings, all while the traffic slows slightly and zooms around them.
Today’s young guest is Sampath’s daughter who sat and listened to quite a lot of her father chanting Chandi Paath. She seemed to know and enjoy all the various parts of the puja…she’s had some practice!
Throughout the vedic tradition the goddesses are all considered to be different aspects of one singular entity, so it is consistent that today’s mantra would be for Lakshmi, even in the midst of the Navaratri Durga yagya. And for Lakshmi we have roses.
Even with the flowers, which are dipped in honey before being offered, there wasn’t too much smoke and the 1008 repetitions were over too soon!
One more day for which the focus is Saraswati, and then the final big day in which we start early and end late….