Marking the 3rd anniversary of the magnificent Statue of Equality, 216 feet tall statue of Swami Ramanujacharya and 108 Divya Desams around it, the Brahmotsavams started in all fervour. As a precursor to this event, Vishwaksena puja, Punyahavachanam and other related activities happened yesterday, 9th February. Today, the Brahmotsavams commenced amidst lot of cheer and festivities, with great devotion. Today also happens to be the day of Punarvasu star, the birth star of Lord Rama. Here is a detailed report of today’s events.
Seva Kalam at Yaga Sala
After the meditation session, HH Swamiji gave a brief outline of today’s scheduled events.
Devotees proceeded towards yagasala. Morning prayers were offered.
Swamiji graced Theerttha goshti to the assembled devotees after aradhana.
Dhwajarohanam
Lord Rama arrived on His Surya-prabha Vahanam.
Garuda patam (the flag where Garuda was painted on the sacred cloth attached to it) was prepared the previous day and worshipped in yagasala. The ruthwiks fetched that Garuda patam too.
The flag was offered prayers and was hoisted atop the flag post, dhwaja sthambham. Various devathas were invited through mantras. Different devathas have different ragams and thalams, using which they are invited.
The flag will rest atop this dhwaja sthambham for the entire duration of 9-days.
Garuda is embodiment of Vedas. Just as the final aim of Vedas is to give clarity about God, he always carries God and ensures the devotees get good clarity about God. In all Brahmotsavams, he is the one who is given the responsibility of inviting all the Devatas to the place of worship. In the form of a flag, he also identifies the place of worship.
The agamas state the procedure by which the Garuda flag has to be hoisted at the beginning of Brahmotsavams. As part of this procedure, a special food offering is prepared. Agamas state that this prasadam has special powers of begetting ‘sat-santanam‘. The couples who are desirous of having children consume this prasadam after worshipping. Many elders have experienced that such couples are blessed with progeny.
So, it has become general practice that such couples look forward to getting that prasadam and in turn, grace of God. Garuda was very attached to his mother. To rid her of her servitude from Nagas, he overcame humongous obstacles and fetched amrutham or nectar from Gods. He exchanged that amrutham with Nagas and set his mother free from the bondage. He blesses the couples with the boon of children.
Devotees taking sankalpam for japam |
Devotees performing meditation comfortably in the newly constructed hall |
Meditation / Pra:thah smaraneeyam / Ashtakshari Japam –
The day started in a serene atmosphere at about 6 AM, where the devotees, scholars and vedic students assembled for morning prayers and meditation.
HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji guided all the assembled folks on how to prepare for meditation.
We purify our body, indriyas and manas by our thoughts and then prepare to start the meditation. This purification process has been explained in our scriptures. We start with a sankalpam, sit in a comfortable posture, place our right palm on top of left palm (both of them facing upwards) and keep chanting the manthra at a slow pace in our mind. The number of times we chant is of no significance. What matters is that we chant the name of God with love and devotion. We visualize the embodiment of manthra, residing inside us – Lord Srimannarayana along with Mother Lakshmi and His parivaram. He wakes up, cleanses us and receives our prayers / aradhana.
The God resides at our naval when we sleep. We awaken Him and bring him to our Hridayam or heart. He traverses upwards towards the head and again rests at naval when we sleep. It is a continuous process. We visualize fire or Jyothi which starts at our naval and slowly pervades entire body. It purifies entire body by its power of burning down the internal doshas. We then imagine that a nice, cold stream of water originating from God showers us in entirety and refreshes us. After it dries out by the air of God’s grace again, the cycle then repeats – fire burning out the doshas of body, God’s grace in the form of refreshing water showering us and again God’s grace in form of wind drying us out. We repeat this cycle three times in our mind.
First cycle clears the body, second cycle cleanses the indriyas and the third cycle purifies our manas and jnanam. We then assume the form of sukshma sariram or subtle body. God carefully takes hold of this subtle body and traverses across the vast universe, crossing many spheres, planets, sun, etc. The scriptures say that there is a shell of liquid covering the entire universe, called ‘avarana jalam’. God makes us traverse those purifying waters too and brings us to the river Viraja. A person residing there touches us and gives us a new body, which is capable of entering God’s abode – paramapadam.
We take a holy dip in a pushkarini there and get decorated by other dwellers of that place. Garuda then takes us to where God is seated. We climb up to the God stepping on His feet. We emerge from God’s feet again completely purified.
The body that we possess at that moment is a completely new body, given by God. We again meditate on the God that is residing inside our hridayam along with His parivaram. We offer all services to God – like giving bath, offering food and giving Him rest. We ask God to give us necessary strength and tools to continue our daily routines. We offer managalam to God and take an oath that we will lead the day today as Service to Himself. We then conclude our meditation or japam.
