Ingredients
December 23, 2006
Here in the US a typical yagya event will use fruit, flowers, coconuts, ghee, almonds, and maybe some havan samagri, an herbal mixture that makes the yagya smoke smell really nice. But in India, you have access to all the traditional ingredients and for a major yagya like we performed for Navaratri, there can be well over one hundred different items; wood, seeds, spices, bark, grass, etc.
Here you see the ingredients for the last day of the Chandi homam. Each item was added to the homam fire while a specific mantra was being chanted. I suppose in our modern world it is difficult to comprehend how burning specific items might have any effect on anything, but perhaps that is the greatness of the ancient rishis. They understood life from both its scientific and humanistic sides and perceived what to do to improve the spiritual experience of life.