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yajvan
21 March 2008, 10:51 AM
Hari Om
~~~~~

Saidevo writes

Why don't you give us a write-up of your Bharat pilgrimage? For all the tapa and tApa generated in the intense spiritual discussions here, that could be a cool breeze of inviograting personal experiences!


Namaste ,
I was going to be comprehensive on this post, but thought the value of my trip is so intrinsic to me, trying to communicate that without having the ego gallop all over the place - well I thought it best to avoid the impression of boasting ( I am sure you understand).

My intent was simple - to visit India this year for maha-sivaratri… this would be for participation of puja and yagya. I thought it best to get to India early to settle in.

I went with a friend that has visited both the North and the South several times. My traveling companion was also great friend with a Brahmin pundit, who was with us for the time we were there.

We chose to spend the time in Kanchipuram. Since our friend was a pujari, we arranged puja/yagyas every day and was the focus of the day. We also arranged to do Sri Rudram-(Sri Rudraprasna) and Chamakam 11 days before maha-sivaratri. So our sankalpham ( intent) was 11 days X 11 pundits X 11 repetitions of Rudram-Chamakam, ending on maha-sivaratri which we accomplished with the appropriate abhishekim ( sprinkling of water, ablution) offerings for Rudra ( Mahadeva) and the 11 rudrA.

Additional homan and pujas were done as you would expect e.g. Navagraha, Viniyanka or course, Lakshmi, repetition of purusa suktam, sri suktam, chants of parts of the Rig and Soma Veda, etc etc. It was my delight to spent around 6 hours per day doing/observing/participating in the yagyas and pujas.

As mentioned in a prior post, http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=21541&postcount=7 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=21541&postcount=7) the punditji we were with also served the Shankarachara, and he did introduction - we were blessed to visit with Swamiji for a while. Swamiji suggested we visit the Shankarachara history museum to look at the lineage of the tradition, so we ventured one evening to go and do that also. Along with walking though the school for training future pundits. We listened to their evening chants of the visnu sahasranAm ( some write shastranAm) or thousand names of visnu.

We also visited the temple under construction outside of Kanchipurum , dedicated to the Shankaracharayas. the last post had a few pictures of the construction.

In the evenings we visited the Siva and Visnu temples of Kanchipuram. As I am told there are ~ 160 or so in the area. We visited as many as possible. There is a tradition of those that seek moksha to visit 108 mandirs on maha-sivaratri. We viewed several groups with this intent as we went from one devamandira to another.
We also were blessed to be offered the lineage of each mandir and why it was built in the location, the stories of the devata , etc.

I am a better person pursuing this yatra …perhaps my next venture will be to Varanisi and to Hrishikesh.

pranams and All Glory To Him Who Breathes Out The Ved.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PSrSpGNlI/AAAAAAAAA9s/NfLEKupmKuE/s320/img_2755.jpg (http://bp0.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PSrSpGNlI/AAAAAAAAA9s/NfLEKupmKuE/s1600-h/img_2755.jpg)

http://bp1.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PVeipGNnI/AAAAAAAAA98/lcQH3dnqTSE/s320/visnu+pundits.jpg (http://bp1.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PVeipGNnI/AAAAAAAAA98/lcQH3dnqTSE/s1600-h/visnu+pundits.jpg)

http://bp3.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PS1CpGNmI/AAAAAAAAA90/U3EnPeZuSDo/s320/elephant-5.jpg

http://bp3.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PWLCpGNpI/AAAAAAAAA-M/xGVEQR4qYWw/s320/img_3212.jpg (http://bp3.blogger.com/_poozp2TeXhg/R-PWLCpGNpI/AAAAAAAAA-M/xGVEQR4qYWw/s1600-h/img_3212.jpg)

sarabhanga
22 March 2008, 09:30 PM
Namaste Yajvan,

kAńcI is the pITham of the kaŃkAlam (“skeleton”) of satI.

And the attached image of shiva in the following post is also from kAńcI.
See: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=2649&postcount=12

saidevo
22 March 2008, 09:31 PM
Namaste Yajvan.

Thank you for the malaya mArutam (the fragrant breeze from the western hills, also the name of a Raga in Karnatic music) that gives hRudaya kShema (comfort of heart) and steeps the heart in bhakti bhAva (mood of devotion), which is the undercurrent of all the yogas.

I recently had the fortune of buying two DVDs by Visakha Hari, the famous HariKatha exponent and the daughter-in-law of Sri KrishnaPremi (popularly known as Sri aNNA): Sita Kalyanam and Sundara Kandam from the Ramayana. These DVDs have been published by the Moser Baer and are likely to be available with all leading stores in the US and Canada. Rendered in Tamil, Smt.Visakha discourses Ramayana from Valmiki, Tulasi Das, Kamban and Thyagaraja, combining it with the devotional songs on Sri Rama, Sita and Hanuman and gives a soul-scanning performance that gives Ananda bhAShpam (tears of bliss).

Smt.Visakha, quoting Sri aNNA, states thus: "Sage Viswamitra has at last prevailed upon King Dasaratha to send his beloved teenage son Rama along with Lakshmana to the forest to help the sage vanquish the demons who disturb the sage's yajnas. Viswamitra had earlier declared in Dasaratha's court that Rama was none other than the Paramatma and that Dasaratha knew him only as his child, but when he leads Rama into the forest, he turns his head every and now and then with utmost love to have a glance at the divine features of that manifestation and even starts feeling concerned that Rama had to undergo the trouble of walking on the rough terrain of bushes and thorns.

Viswamitra was a jnAni, who knows the supremacy of the Absolute, yet when God himself was walking with him in human form, the concerns of love and the adoration of devotion were the uppermost in his heart, just as in the case of the Gopikas (as Sri aNNA would explain) who resolved among themselves (when child Krishna was not near them) that the child Sri Krishna was God and so they should not touch or cajole or kiss him but then when Sri Krisha came by they could do nothing else than to hug and kiss the boy. Such is the power of love and devotion.

Sri Rama may be the very Agni--that as the Shakti-substratum of all creation, drives the universe--to the Advaitic yogi who goes to the root of everything, yet the knowledge is complete only when Sri Rama is also known and expressed as the Kalpa Vriksha that is rooted in Vishnu and Shiva and Shakti.



I was going to be comprehensive on this post, but thought the value of my trip is so intrinisic to me, trying to communicate that without having the ego gallop all over the place - well I thought it best to avoid the impression of boasting ( I am sure you understand).


You have succeeded in erasing ego in your narration (it is too brief, however), but I think altruistic ego is admissible in dispensing knowledge. If the inner light is covered up in the name of ego because it also makes the jaDa mUlam (gross foundation) of the body shine, it would then amount to only svArtha (for personal advantage only)!