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….