Subramanyam #2 - June 2006

After the day of abishekam as seen in the previous post, the priests performed the fire ceremony (homam) for Subramanyam.



In the Vedic tradition, a homam consists of mantra repetition while offerings of grain, ghee, dried herbs, and other items are made into the sacred fire, so that Agni, the vedic god of fire, can consume them and convey them to intended deity, in this case Subramanyam and Angaraka (Mars).



The Rig Veda begins with the words "agnim elai purohitam" which expresses appreciation for the role that both the fire (agni) and the priest (purohitam) play in linking us with the divine. That is of course, a reference to the fire yagya and the priest's skill with the various mantras.



This yagya was performed at a time when Saturn and Mars combined along with Rahu/Ketu. The priests made a beautiful image of a snake out of colored rice flour. This is so that Rahu/Ketu, which are two parts of a mythological snake will be honored and will spare us the negative side of their influence.

Here is the diagram on one day...



And the next...



Of course, as is true of all yagyas and pujas, the kalasha pots are decorated with beautiful fresh flowers for the pujas and mantra japa.



It was a very good four days of yagyas that combined both the abishekam and homam temple functions with our own private yagyas.



These yagyas are very protective and calming at a time when two very powerful planets are together. Already we have seen a couple of sizable earthquakes, a pretty good sized volcano, and widely reported increased violence and unrest both domestic and international. But in the personal lives of the participants there have also been many reports of peacefulness, smooth transitions, protection, and a more optimistic outlook on life.

The intention of a yagya is to link the divine with the material. By tradition, the yagya honor and "feed" the divine and they return the favor by removing obstacles to our material and spiritual success. It has been a good month!

Subramanyam - June 2006

In the Vedic tradition Subramanyam and the planet Mars are considered to be different forms of the same energy. Because Saturn and Mars meet in the sign of Cancer this month, we arranged for a 4 day yagya series to soften the manifestation of this energy in our lives.

The events took place at a very beautiful temple in Bangalore, India. As you can see from the following photgraph, the temple combines Subramanyam with Ganesha and Shiva, as is typical.



Here on the left, is the Ganesha temple, where our priests performed a full abishekam yagya where cooling and cleansing liquid offerings such as water, milk, yogurt, etc are poured over the deity. Afterwards the deity is is dressed in a new dhoti, decorated with fresh flower malas, and a complete vedic puja is performed.



The Shiva temple contains a very nice dark Shiva lingam. In the following photo you can see a copper pot hanging above the lingam which slowly drips a continuous stream of water on the lingam. After our abishekam, the lingam was decorated with beautiful malas.



The Subramanyam temple is always located on the left as viewed from the Shiva lingam. So it would be on the far right in the following photo. On the roof you see Shiva and Parvati on the left and Subramanyam on the right.



Subramanyam is shown here with his 2 wives; Valli and Devayani. Subramanyam rides a peacock, seen in the foreground in light colored granite, and in the background behind Subramanyam.



In South India, the deities often wear different kinds of silver items. Here they are seen over the eyes. The explanation is usually that the power of the deity's sight is so strong that it needs to be reduced through the use of these "divine sunglasses".



Subramanyam always has a "vel" (spear) that was given to him by his mother Parvati, seen here along with beautiful flower malas.

At the conclusion of the abishekam and pujas, Subramanyam, Valli and Devayani look very nice indeed.