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)
~~~~~
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)