Navaratri Celebrations
September 12, 2009
Navaratri in India was really great and there are many stories to tell. 10 days of being surrounded with goddess mantras is certainly an interesting experience and one which has profound spiritual meaning. It is one of the great things about being in India, in person, for these yagyas. Just the sound of the mantras is enough, but to have that supplemented by all the pujas and homams, not to mention being able to visit the temples on a daily basis, is really fantastic.
A nice observation about Saturn
September 8, 2009
From an astrological standpoint, Saturn is the planet that people tend to have the most difficult time with. I like to joke that of all the planets, Saturn certainly does play for keeps. That aspect of life will take us right to the edge of what we think we can endure.
But it is useful to know that one of the names of Saturn is “Vishnu Bhakta” which means that he is a devotee of Vishnu. In a way, the ultimate goal of Saturn is to have you lying flat on the floor completely surrendered to the divine because you have no where else to turn. Only then is Saturn fully happy. And, buy the way, this need not be taken literally, it can be any form of the divine. The important part is the state of surrender as you will see in this excerpt from one puja.net yagya participant.
<<I have not been involved with these yagyas for long, but I think I have learned the lessons of Saturn over the recent year of so…loss of our home’s property value, loss of income, loss of outward progress…back to being more spiritual. Without all of these losses, I probably would not be here involved with these wonderful yagyas…thank you Saturn!>
Typical home
September 8, 2009
In the area surrounding the temple construction site you find homes for the temple workers and for the farmers in the region. This is very typical. Note the thatched roof, a couple of black cows in the yard and the bullock drawn cart.
New Temple
September 7, 2009
This is just one of the drains that take water away from the inner sanctum where abishekam will be performed. The old man is the official caretaker and delights in giving tours. We always go see him, have a tour, and give him a few hundred rupees. A delightful guy.
These rings were carved by hand, from a single piece of stone!
Saturn Mantras
September 6, 2009
By tradition, the day that a planet is changing signs is ideal to perform pujas for that planet and to listen to mantras and slokas. This file contains recordings of:
-Vedic slokas for Sani, the Sani Gayati mantra, the Sani Vyasa mantra, and a few of the names of Sani.
-A complete Saturn puja
-Sani Stotram (about Sani)
-Sani Kavacham (armor)
-Sani Preethi (to make Sani happy)
Saturn – a quick overview – Podcast #88
September 6, 2009
This podscast presents a few quick insights into the nature of Saturn from an astrological perspective. This is particularly relevant because Saturn is moving from Leo into Virgo on September 10th.
A series of stories about Saturn are presented, followed by a collection of slokas and mantras for Saturn. A file containing only the Saturn mantras can be downloaded from the Sloka Library by clicking here.
A new temple
September 6, 2009
This is the temple that is being built to honor the memory of Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, the 68th Shankaracharya in Kanchipuram from 1907 to 1994. He was much revered. This temple is being build entirely by hand in the old traditional way. A wonderful place to walk around and marvel at the preservation of the old traditions and skill of the shilpis building it.
Shankara’s influence
September 5, 2009
At the time of Adi Shankara apparently people were worshiping all sort of gods and goddesses. Once of the changes that he made was to simplify things and members of that tradition worship only five forms of the divine on a daily basis. This is not to say that they ignore all the others, but these five are central to their tradition. Strictly speaking they would use 5 stones from various parts of india. The lack of form is a reminder that the divine is beyond form, but most people have some small murtis mixed with the stones.
In the center is the Shiva lingam. On the right is a small statue of Annapurni, the goddess who feeds everyone. This is the family deity of Seetharam and is used instead of another form of the goddess. The dark stone at the bottom is a shaligram, a rock containing a fossil which is used to represent Vishnu. On the left is a stone that represents the Sun. On top, the red corral represents Ganesha.
Durga Temple
September 4, 2009
There are tons of temples in the Kanchipuram area and once is reminded that in India, everything is local. In LA there are relatively few temples but only attend once a week and it is no big deal to drive an hour or so to get there. But the tendency is India is to go once or twice a day so many smaller temples are neighborhood temples like this one. They will usually have a part time priest so you go, see the deity and leave. This temple is for Durga.
Hay!
September 3, 2009
Kanchipuram, aside from its rich history as center for temples and commerce center, is primarily an agricultural area. There are lots of wagons like this with modern wheels and rubber tires, but pulled by bullocks who seem to be tremendously strong. That’s a lot of hay. Although the bullocks frequently seem rather scrawny, they are well treated and don’t appear to be miserable at all.