Monkeys!
August 31, 2009
When I was staying in the hotel in Kanchipuram, in the afternoons when the heat of the day has passed the monkeys come out and play around. It is endlessly entertaining because they act, well, like monkeys. Pulling tails, fighting, making a lot of noise, etc. I saved fruit for them and then tossed it down onto the roof. They’d scramble and fight over it, but I figure a monkey is always hungry. In a way they are like tree-dogs, although you never go near monkeys.
Brahmanaspati Suktam
August 31, 2009
The Brahmanaspati Suktam is a collection of 62 hymns from the Rig Veda that are associated with Ganesha and speak about the nature of Brahman. This was recorded in the Kanchipuram yagya house with two of our Rig Veda pundits.
The Sacrifice of Daksha – Podcast #87
August 30, 2009
Daksha was a highly knowledgeable King and a son of Brahma the Creator. As the story goes, he decided to have a big yagya and invited all the gods and goddesses with the notable exception of Shiva, because Daksha considered him to be wild and unpresentable. But of course Shiva was married to Daksha’s daughter Sati.
That sets the stage for one of the vedic tradition’s most widely known stories. There are a number of different versions, but essentially, when Sati heard about the yagya she wanted to go so she could see her mother and father and enjoy the festivities. Shiva discouraged her from attending, although she went anyway and what happens next is the subject of this podcast. Shiva gets angry and creates Virabhadra to destroy Daksha’s festivities.
A dramatic experience…
August 20, 2009
All yagyas dissolve karma and move us steadily towards enlightenment. We don’t even have to know (or agree on) what enlightenment is. Yagyas bring progress in a natural and fundamental way. Participants frequently experience a sense of movement, forward progress based on replacing impurities with purity, darkness with light, the restrictiveness of stress and “ignorance” with freedom and knowledge. While participating in yagyas is a very simple process, over time it is also very profound and the depth of the effects are not to be underestimated.
So what follows is one participant’s experience. It is not what usually happens. It is in fact, very unusual because most of the time the experience of yagyas is subtle, quiet, pleasant, but not earth shaking. I am posting this experience because it hints at what may be taking place beneath the surface of our awareness. There is no way of knowing for certain if these experiences are “real” or a dream. But they are consistent with what happens as a result of yagyas. The text has been slightly edited for length.
“”It seems for me that things started coming up right from the beginning when the yagya starts. I have been having Throat Chakra issues for a while but not sure what the root cause is. The first day of this yagya as I was going to bed – I drifted into the state between waking and dreaming. Or maybe I was in a state of witnessing – I was a conscious observer separate from what was happening even though I could
feel things.
I was given a vision of what appeared to be different layers of my personality or maybe even past lives – not quite certain.
The first vision was a man standing beside me wearing a white shirt and white hat. It affected my Throat Chakra as well as I felt a huge block there and I kept trying to express myself and could not get a word out. I was frozen. I remember struggling with all my will to get the words out, I wanted to say God is Love but could not utter a sound.
Then I was dropped down to a new person which felt like it could have been part of me in some way. The rest of the levels going in a downward direction were all women and after about six women figures down there was a very unpleasant personality showing herself to me. I remember thinking how mean she was and I did not want her to be a part of me.
I kept wanting to speak God is Love but could not utter a sound. Then I came into a full state of awareness and felt an overwhelming feeling and a gasp for air. I still have an energetic band around the top of my neck and trying to figure out how to get it to release. I feel like the vision is telling me something about why it is there.
Whew! “”
#20 – Graha Strength and Weakness, Part 2
August 16, 2009
Central to the analysis of a chart is the determination of the relative strength or weakness of a particular planet. A weak planet will not be able to protect his significations and will therefore become a source of difficulties. Penny Farrow presents the different types of planetary weakness and shows how this affects the nature of the chart and in turn, the life experience.
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.
#19 – Graha Strength and Weakness, Part 1
August 7, 2009
In this podcast we look at the role that strong planets play in bringing good results and success. Penny Farrow presents the concept of planetary strength and the different forms that it takes. She relates the concept of strength to specific astronomical events such as retrograde motion and the brightness of a planet in the sky.
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.
Ganesha Sloka Collection
August 5, 2009
The focus of the August yagya series is Ganesha. The following file contains almost 2 hours of mantras and slokas for Ganesha. To download just click “download” to the right of the media player.
The file contains:
- Ganapati Suprabhatam
- Ganapati Gayatri
- Ganesha Dhyanam
- Ganapati Kavacham
- Ganesha Upanishad
- Ganapati Pratasmaranam
- Ganapati Sthavaha
- Ganesha Aarti
- Ganesha Pancharatnam
- Ganesha Sharanam
- Ganapathi Sthavam
- Ganesha Sloka
- Ganesha Ashtakam
- Ganesha Bhujangam
- Ganesha Sthuthi
- Maha Ganapathi Pancharatnam
- Sankashtanasana Ganesha Stotram
- Shodasaganapathi Dhynam
- Visgneshwara Ashtotram
- Ganesha Sahasranam (1008 names)
- Vigneshwara Lagu Puja
- Ganesha Puja
Family yagya
August 4, 2009
“More feedback for you…out of the blue last week my sister, who has not spoken to me for 5 yrs, invited me to her daughter’s Nov. wedding…I accepted and asked her to meet with me as I’l be in B. week. She agreed…there are many ‘currents’ permeating Life permanently…the yagya service which I requested for improving family relations has to be one of those ‘currents’.
Thank you.”
Ganapati Upanishad
August 3, 2009
Ganapati Upanishad
Om ! O Devas, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious;
May we see with our eyes what is auspicious, O ye worthy of worship !
May we enjoy the term of life allotted by the Devas,
Praising them with our body and limbs steady !
May the glorious Indra bless us !
May the all-knowing Sun bless us !
May Garuda, the thunderbolt for evil, bless us !
May Brihaspati grant us well-being !
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Auspiciousness to those who hear.
1. Om Gam. I bow to Ganapati.
2. You clearly are the tattva. You alone are the creator. You alone are the maintainer. You alone are the destroyer. Of all this you certainly are Brahman. You plainly are the essence.
3. Always I speak amrta. The truth I speak.
4. Protect me. Protect the speakers. Protect the hearers. Protect the givers. Protect the holders. Protect the disciple that repeats. Protect that in the east. Protect that in the south. Protect that in the west. Protect that in the north. Protect that above. Protect that below. Everywhere protect! Protect me everywhere!
5. You are speech. You are consciousness. You are bliss. You are Brahman. You are being-consciousness-bliss. You are the non-dual. You are plainly Brahman. You are knowledge. You are intelligence.
6. You create all this world. You maintain all this world. All this world is seen in you. You are earth, water, air, fire, ether. You are beyond the four measures of speech. You are beyond the three gunas. You are beyond the three bodies. You are beyond the three times. You are always situated in the muladhara. You are the being of the three Saktis. You are always meditated on by yogins. You are Brahma, you are Visnu, you are Rudra, you are Agni, you are Vayu, you are the sun, you are the moon, you are Brahma, bhur-bhuvah-svar.
7 Ga is the first syllable, after that the first letter, beyond that m, then the half-moon all together. Joined with m, this is the mantra form.
8 The letter ga is the first form, letter a the middle form, m the last form. Bindu the higher form, nada the joining together, samhita the junction. This is the vidya of Lord Ganesa.
9 Ganaka is the seer, nricad-gayatri the metre, Sri Mahaganapati the devata. Om ganapataye namah.
10 Let us think of the one-toothed, let us meditate on the crooked trunk, may that tusk direct us.
11. One tusk, four arms, carrying noose and goad, with his hands dispelling fear and granting boons, with a mouse as his banner.
12. Red, with a big belly, with ears like winnowing baskets, wearing red, with limbs smeared with red scent, truly worshipped with red flowers.
13. To the devoted a merciful deva, the maker of the world, the prime cause, who at the beginning of creation was greater than nature and man.
14. He who always meditates thus is a yogin above yogins.
15. Hail to the lord of vows, hail to Ganapati, hail to the first lord, hail unto you, to the big-bellied, one-tusked, obstacle-destroyer, the son of Siva, to the boon-giver, hail, hail!
16. He who studies this atharva text moves towards Brahma. He is always blissful. He is not bound by any obstacles. He is liberated from the five greater and the five lesser sins. Evening meditation destroys the unmeritorious actions of the night. At both evening and morning he is liberated from the bad and he attains dharma, artha, kama and moksa.
17. This atharva text should not be given to those not pupils. If from delusion a person so gives, he is a bad person.
18. He who wants something may accomplish it by 1,000 recitations of this. He who sprinkles Ganapati with this becomes eloquent. He who recites this on a fourth day becomes a knower of vidya. This is an artharva saying: ‘‘He who moves towards Brahmavidya is never afraid.’’ He who worships with fried grains becomes famous and becomes intelligent. He who worships with sweet-meat (modaka) gains the desired fruit. He who worships with samit and ghee by him all is attained, all is gained by him. He who makes eight brahmËnas understand this becomes like the sun’s rays. In a solar eclipse, in a great river, or in front of an image having recited (this) he gets accomplished in the mantra. He becomes liberated from great obstacles. He is freed from great misfortunes.
Om ! O Devas, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious;
May we see with our eyes what is auspicious, O ye worthy of worship !
May we enjoy the term of life allotted by the Devas,
Praising them with our body and limbs steady !
May the glorious Indra bless us !
May the all-knowing Sun bless us !
May Garuda, the thunderbolt for evil, bless us !
May Brihaspati grant us well-being !
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Kanchipuram Temples
August 3, 2009
There was one night when we were driving around going to temples and we stopped at this Vishnu temple that I had never seen before. Because it was dusk, the lights looked warm and inviting. It is amazing how many temples like this there are in Kanchipuram. Not major attractions, more like a neighborhood temple, but beautiful examples of glorious days long past, yet still in use and as popular as ever. The upkeep may not be what it is in the major temples, but they radiate a gentle and sincere spirituality so you want to linger and watch the Sun go down.
