Smoke
December 11, 2006
There is a saying that there is no yagya without a few tears from the smoke and Navaratri was no exception. The tradition is to offer chakara pongal (rice and lentils mixed with jaggery and ghee). The mantra for the yagya was the entire Chandi Path of 700 verses and after each verse some pongal was offered. That meant that rather than burning with a nice flame the yagya fire was often smoldering and generating vast quantities of smoke. Believe it or not, the above photo was taken when the smoke was rather moderate!
I could only last 10-15 minutes at a time, partly from the smoke and partly from the heat near the fire. I can not imagine how the priests managed to recite Chandi Path for 3 hours, breathing the smoke only a couple feet from the hot fire pit. Me…I retreated to the next room where I could hear the mantras and still breathe.