Then we followed with a day-long Ganesha Yagya on the 14th, that removes any obstacles to the successful completion of the yagya series. This yagya includes the offering of a wide selection of special ingredients as seen in the following photo. There are bits of different kinds of wood, grass, and basil leaves. In the second photo you see various seeds and spices plus bags containing 1008 modaka balls, a favorite of Ganesha.
While this was taking place, the huge Varadaraja Vishnu Temple that is across the street had a festival in which the temple deity is out of the temple for a ride through the streets in the lavishly decorated cart seen here.
On the 14th, the priests performed full Navagraha (9 planet) and Lakshmi yagyas to obtain their blessings before the big yagyas begin.
On the 15th the Maha Rudra Yagya began. We are fortunate to have such qualified and dedicated priests because they began at 6 AM and continued until 1:30 PM. The first part of the yagya is called Nyasam, in which the priests invoke Shiva and perform all sorts of preliminary pujas to assure his presence, and to purify the yagya area.
The Shivalingam shown here belongs to Seetharam and is a very large topaz gemstone in a solid granite base.
Eavery day through next Friday the priests will perform Rudaraabishekam 11 times each day, each time featuring a different traditional ingredient.
Following the abishekam, the priests will perform a full Rudram Homam.
In this photo if you look towards the back, you can see Seetharam's mother who is a very stern taskmaster indeed! She is watching over everything to make sure it is performed exactly as it should be. Last year, she was annoyed when the priest's cell phones kept ringing, so she confiscated them! This year, I'll bet they don't bring them at all...
