Friday, August 21, 2009

Vinayaka chaturthi

While Siva was away destroying TripuraParvati spent time in fear inside a cave. Devi was apprehensive about the outcome of the fight. Finally, she came out and started roaming through the dense jungle calling out for her husband and father. She cried out to Siva "Why don't you understand my state ? I can't live without you." A fisherman who saw this went and reported the matter to HimavanParvati's father. Himavan set out to find his daughter.

Himavan found Parvati and tried to console her. " Devi, you are omnipotent and omnipresent. The fact is that you have not been separated from Siva. Still, I will reunite you with him. " Parvati accompanied Himavan home. She was still worried about not finding Siva. Himavan instructed Parvati to worship Ganesa to get back her consort. "Devas like Indra, Rishis like Narada and the Trimurtis became competent to achieve their tasks after worshiping Vighneswara. Brahma obtained his power to create, Vishnu obtained his power to sustain and Siva obtained his power to dissolve as a result of the worship of Ganesa. It is only with the blessing of Ganesa that Sesha is able to bear the load of earth.The lord who is beyond the grasp of the mind and beyond words should be worshiped as gajamukha. Follow the upasanakrama of Ganesa as I am about to tell you and you will achieve your desire." said Himavan.

Parvati expressed her gratitude to her father and learned from him the method of worshipping Ganesa in the form of a parthiva (made of clay) murthi.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Veda on verbal abuse

Atharva vedakanda 7, suktam 43

Shivasta eka .......
The meaning of the suktam is - Some are praises and some abuses, the wise one does not discriminate and accepts both equally. Only one quarter of the speech is passed on and three quarters remain with the speaker.

Speech has four components - para, pashyantimadhyama and vaikhari. Para originates from muladhara and develops through pashyanti and madhyama stages into vaikahari, the spoken and heard speech. When a person abuses, only one quarter that is the vaikhari is passed on to the victim. Three quarters remain within the abuser himself. The abuser is harmed three times more than the victim. Feel sorry for the abuser.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Naming the newborn

There are two systems of naming the newborn as per Indian tradition. One is based on the charanakshar where choice is limited to a single syllable. In the other system, all alphabets favorable to the Janmarasi have been identified as given below. The name can start with any of the following alphabets. First, ascertain the janmarasi ( rasi in which moon is posited at the time of birth ) from the horoscope. Then based on the janmarasi, identify the first alphabet of the names from the information below.

Mesha , MithunaSimhaTulaDhanusKumbha rasis - अ , आ, इ, ई, श, ॠ, स, ओ, औ, ळ, क, ख, ग, घ, ङ,ट, ठ, ड, ढ, ण, प, फ, ब, भ, म
RishabhaKataka, Kanya, VrischikaMakaraMeena rasis - उ, ऊ, ऋ, ष, ए, ऐ, ह, अं, अः, क्ष, च, छ, ज, झ, ञ, त, थ, द, ध, न, य, र, ल, व

Monday, August 3, 2009

Significance of Upakarma

Upakarma is performed every year by brahmins. Similar to the summer vacation in mainstream studies, a Vedic student is also entitled to his share of holidays and vacations. The students are supposed to stop learning new mantras on the purnima of the month of pousha (falling mostly in the middle of January ) and restart on the purnima in the month of sravana. In between they can revise the earlier lessons of Vedas and sastras.

The recommencement of new lessons is marked by upakarma on sravanapurnima. Nowadays, this practice of taking a break has been discontinued even in Vedic schools. Any new lesson learned during the off period is likely to generate desire and anger in the student. Hence kamokarsheet japa is performed as a penance.

The performer performs all his nityakarmas like sandhyavandanam, Samidhadhanam/ oupasanam upto brahmayajnam. Then he performs the upakarma maha sankalpa to assert that he is restarting the studies.

At the end of the sanklapa he takes bath and changes the holy thread. The holy thread is normally changed at the commencement of any auspicious occasion or at the end of inauspicious periods or as and and when it is found broken or dirty.

Then the chief rishis of Yajurveda called kandarshis (kanda means chapter) are propitiated by offering them tarpana and a homa is performed to offer them ahutis of ghee.

Then the student sits in front of his guru and restarts learning of the Veda by chanting the initial portions of the four Vedas, sastras, sutras etc.

Then the homa is completed.

On the next day Gayatri mantra is chanted 1008 times to compensate for any inadvertent omission of Gayatri japa during the past one year.