Lakshmi Yagyas - August 2006

This month's yagyas series is focused on Lakshmi, the goddess of Abundance in all its forms. We begin with a four day intensive focus on the eight different forms of Lakshmi (Ashtalakshmi). Each day, our priests perform a full series of yagyas with unique ingredients.

Here we see fresh lotus flowers and bilva leaves, both traditionally associated with Lakshmi.



By the end of the puja the pile of flowers and bilva leaves gets quite high....and is topped with a fresh jasmine flower mala.



In the evening the priests recite the 1008 mantras (namas) of Lakshmi, called Lakshmi Sahasranam enough times so that the total nama recitations will exceed 100,000 times by the end of the yagya series.



The puja is called a kumkum archana because with each nama a small pinch of kumkukm (a natural red powder symbolic of Lakshmi) is offered





And there are 10 more days to go!