Yesterday’s Ganesha yagya left a delightful and calm feeling in the air. It was as if he was reassuring us that he’s gotten the outside world taken care of, and we can concentrate on the Devi pujas. The hall this morning is decidedly more serious and focused.
We begin with the daily yagya consisting of Rudra Abishekam (seen below), and Navagraha, Nakshatra and Mrytunjaya pujas, as well as Vishnu (Purusha Suktam) and Lakshmi (Sri Suktam). These are pujas that take about 1 1/2 hours to complete, but the priests all do them so frequently that we comfortably breeze through them including a lengthy Sankalpam during which all the sponsor’s names are recited.
Our small murtis are carefully dried and decorated with dots of freshly ground sandalwood and a deep red dot of kumkum. Fresh flower garlands are arranged around them and the effect is quite stunning and fragrant.
Then Navaratri really begins and the atmosphere is suddenly very serious as the pundits being to recite the mantras to purify the surroundings and then to invoke all the “minor” deities who rule the directions, the earth, the air and water. Then the goddess is invoked in the bodies of the pundits through a series of mantras called Nyasam.
The invocation process continues with another hour of mantras in which the various deities are invited to reside in the kalasha pot (seen above) for the duration of the 9 day yagya. The central kalash you see above is for Chandi (Durga). Behind to the right is for Sawaswati and behind to the left is for Lakshmi. In front on the right is for Rudra/Parvati and in the front on the left is for “Sarva Devata” meaning all the gods….they have to share!
Then the entire 700 verse Chandi Path is recited, which takes about an hour non-stop. The room is left with a great sense of power and presence. It is then time for a break!