Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Amrtavani
Amrtavani
Blossom 19 Petal 1
March 2015
Our
Thoughts
A friend of the Sri Chakra once said she finds it especially intriguing when she notices a new person at the temple who
joins in with the chanting along with all the devotees who regularly attend. That simple act tells a lot about a person, she said, if
they can walk into any temple for the first time and jump right into chanting difficult texts out loud such as the Rudram or Lalita
Sahasranamam. Most obviously, it shows they have dedicated a significant amount of their own time and effort to learning
these texts, and theyre not just in the habit of attending temples to sit for a few minutes, look around like its a museum, get
some prasadam and go home.
Knowing the pujas or texts doesnt simply give you something to do (i.e. chant) when you attend a new temple; its the
most universal but most secret language. It can build an instant rapport wherever you go or make a very shocking statement.
This was the case at Aiyas shashti-abhapurthi (60th birthday) celebrations in August 2003 in the temple town of Thirukadavoor,
famous for its Abhirami temple. Aiya later proudly told the story of how, as soon as the priests started chanting the Ganapathi
Atharvashirsam, about 30 of his students in attendance jumped in and started chanting along.
The priests were stunned as they looked around at the multicultural and multi-racial crowd and asked Aiya, Where
have you people come from? For localized wedding parties, they were used to having people sit there and chat on the kalyanam mantapam even as the pujas were going on, not paying attention and mindlessly letting the priests run the show. It was
shocking yet refreshing for them to see a band of people from the West so respectful of and so involved in the rituals.
Similarly, another friend of the Sri Chakra went to Kashi and decided to sit on the banks of the Ganga and loudly chant
the Rudram, mostly to pay respect to that sacred ground of Lord Shiva, but also to see if anyone would notice. Everybody noticed. However, it was clear that the only people who thought it was significant for a young lady to publicly chant the Rudram
out loud were those who were well-versed in the Sanskrit text, themselves.
She and a few others among Aiyas students have taken it upon themselves to follow what Aiya had done decades ago
when he moved from Zambia to the States and was separated from his own guru, Gurujithey are quietly engaging in selfdirected learning at home, and on their own time.
The texts we chant regularly at the temple in Rochester were not passed down through the guru lineage; they are texts
that Aiya took it upon himself to learn from people he has met before and after he received Sri Vidya mantra diksha from Guruji. We chant things like Lalita Sahasranamam, Rudram, Purusha Suktam, etc. on a weekly if not daily basis, because Aiya has
incorporated them into the pujas. But if we really want to follow our gurus example, we must ask ourselves, why stop there?
When we are away from the temple and immersed in our daily lives, why cant we set aside time to teach ourselves
texts such as Medha Suktam, Navagraha Suktam, Durga Trisadhi, Vishnu Sahasranamam, Shyamala Dandakam, Hanuman
Chalisa, Abhirami Andadhi, etc.? Aiya and Guruji have both notoriously said that the Internet is the ultimate guru nowadays,
and there is no lack of audio and print materials online, in many different languages. Its also often free.
Not many people at the temple knew the Kanakadhara Stotram before it was implemented into the Navarathri puja
in 2013, myself included. Upon learning it for Navarathri, I asked myself why my guru had to make something a part of the
temple puja for me to get off my duff and learn it. I found it to be a short, simple and beautiful stotram, and I was annoyed with
myself for wasting so many years of my life not knowing it.
Engaging in self-directed learning will not only open doors like in the anecdotes mentioned above, but is where we are
ultimately to go with our sadhananot hanging on to the guru for every direction for several years. Its not limited to chanting;
most of what Aiya has learned has come from burying his nose in hundreds of books.
Years after being separated from his guru, Aiya returned to Devipuram and while there performed a Maha Sodasi
homam and Maha Pratyangira homam. Afterward, Guruji said to him that he was so happy to see all the knowledge that Aiya
had received directly from the Devi, herself. He didnt mean the Mother appeared before Aiya, sat him down, and taught him
different homams; he meant the Devi had revealed her grace to him through his efforts to independently learn about her.
It is the ultimate blessing a guru can give a student, and something I hope against hope to one day hear my guru say
to me. But to even come close, it means more independent learning and less hanging on to him. You can set a reasonable goal
such as resolving to teach yourself one new text per year, or reading treasures such as Paul Bruntons Search in Secret India
instead of a novel on the subway each morning. The rewards are well worth it both intellectually and spiritually.
March
Newsletter
Since the last
issue...
At the beginning of December
Aiya was in India, and attended
a Sri Vidya conference in Gujarat
at that time. Dec. 1-18, he was
attending to various temple
duties in India but on Dec. 19,
the temples annual India Yatra
started. The group first went to
Thiruchi and the Thiruvanaikavil
temple, where they saw Sri
Amma.
Dec. 21, the Yatra members went
to Kanchipuram and the temples
in that area. Dec. 22-23 they
were in Thiruvannamalai and on
Dec. 24, they were in Thirupathi.
On the way back to Chennai
they went to Kalahasti and then
returned to Chennai.
Dec. 25 was free day for the
Yatra group. Dec. 26-31 they
travelled to Devipuram, attending
to preparations for Gurujis
sadaabhishekam (80th birthday
celebrations).
On the first day of those
festivities, Dec. 28th, Aiya led the
ceremonies. Dec.29-31, priests
from Chennai conducted the
ceremonies.
The Yatra group returned to
Chennai on the night of Dec.
31st and attended Sri Ammas
new year speech on Jan. 1st. On
the 2nd, they attended a local
annadhanam done by Sri Amma
and the Nandalala Mission.
Around Pongal time in midJanuary, Aiya spent some time
with Guruji.
Aiya was in India until Feb. 15th;
he came back to the States the day
before Shivarathri and conducted
Shivarathri celebrations at the
Rochester temple. In
the last two weeks
of February, Aiya
was in and around
the Rochester and
Toronto areas
attending to various
private pujas.
On Shivarathri
night, Aiya made
a very special
announcement
regarding the temple
Board. Sri Natarajan
will continue as president, and
Sri Vimalan will continue as
secretary. Mr. Pathmanathan,
SriGanesh, Dr. Somaskanda, and
Shankar aiya are the new Board
members, and all major decisions
regarding the temple will be
under the jurisdiction of the new
Board from this point onward.
Past Events
All event
articles
by Kamya
Ramaswamy
Almost everyone present got to perform abhishekam to Lord Nataraja and Sri Sivakami
Upcoming Events
Event
Date/time
Location
April 14
April 19
In Three Months
Devi willing, the next issue of the Sri Chakra will
be up on the temples website at the beginning of
June 2015.
This magazine cannot keep publishing without
contributions! Articles, poems, stories and photos
about any spiritual topic are welcomed.
The next deadline for article submission is May
9, 2015. Please e-mail us with your contributions
or feedback about this issue at sri_chakra_mag@
srividya.org or talk to Kamya or Abhi at the
temple.
Sri Gurubhyo Namaha!
The Sri Rajarajeswari Peetam ~ 6980 East River Road ~ Rush, NY 14543 ~ Phone: (585) 533 - 1970
symptoms.
Further, I did not travel
with Aiyas group and had not even
seen him yet since they arrived at
Devipuram. I was still recovering in
the room on the last day when just
at the end of everything someone
knocked and said Aiya told them to
bring me vibhuti.
At Ramana Ashram in
Thiruvannamalai, I found myself on
a long, arduous hike up a mountain with no prior warning. I was
barefoot and the path was strewn
with painful rocks. It was not easy
and I wasnt happy about it. During
the roughly hour up and again back
down, I let God and Guru know
exactly how I felt about it. I wished
fervently for a pair of shoes.
Finally, when we had got-
by Pamela Lang
Transgression
& Power
by P. Pratap Kumar
part 2
facing the
worshippers. That
is where
stood the
permanently placed
stone image
of Sri Rajarajeswari,
flanked
by Lord
Ganesha
on her right
side and
the Linga
seated in
the Yoni on
her left side.
All three images were made
of black stone and were sculpted
in India by specialist sculptors
and were brought to the temple
for their permanent installation. It
was perhaps not too complicated to
understand what these three images
symbolized in some general sense.
What is not obvious to the laypersons eyes is the arrangement of
the rest of the iconic representation
in the womb-house. There is open
space left behind the three main
deities in the inner sanctum for the
priests and also the lay worshippers
to go around the images in a clockwise fashion.
The intriguing part began when Ayya started to explain
the rest of the iconic representations in front of the main deity, Sri
Rajarajeswari. In front of her was
stationed the image of Kamadhenu
with a human female face and an
the womb-house of the goddess. On and chants in the course of the rituthe right-hand side of the wombals. The energy produced through
house are the images of Dattatreya,
the sounds influences not only those
the proceswho come to
When he reported
sional image of
the temple, but
Rajarajeswari
also the entire
the sight of the
and the Ardneighborwoman to the
hanari image
hood which is
priest, both of them incidentally not
of the goddess. On the
a South Asian
returned to find
left-hand side
neighborhood
her but she was
of the goddess
but occupied by
nowhere
to
be
seen
are the images
white American
except footprints in families.
representing
the nine plan
The
a mound of ash
ets, Shivakami
temple, he
and Nataraja
pointed out,
images.
stands on the
At the entrance to the
ground that was trampled by horses
womb-house, Shanmukha and Gaand cattle before when it was a barn.
nesh are placed on the right-hand
The estrogen from horse urine, he
side, while Kamakshi and Bhairava said, seeped into the ground which
with a bell in the middle are placed makes it the most suitable place
on the left-hand side. The goddess
to build a sacred temple. Virtually
thus placed on her back with this
all my students listening to Ayyas
elaborate symbolic structure is diexplanation were quite impressed by
rectly related to the seven chakras
Ayyas quasi-scientific explanation
in the Srividya Tantric symbolism.
that hormone estrogen accentuates
With this grand entry into
the spiritual sound of Om.
the womb-house of the goddess,
And I was struck by the
we were about to witness the midfact that the womb-house is open to
day ritual. As the preparations were the lay people, which is not normal
being made for the mid-day ritual,
in mainstream Hindu temples.
Ayya led us into the hall where
there is a fire-pit at the center and
Making Srividya public
adjoining the hall is a kitchen
where food is prepared for offering
In order to understand
the goddess and the guests.
Ayyas determination to open the
On the side wall between
esoteric tradition to the public, one
the hall and the womb-house there
has to perhaps understand his own
hung a large size glass-framed
personal history. According to the
Mandala
of
Srividya
with
their
intritemple website the original name of
Puja to the flagpost (dvaja stambham) is
cate
triangles
bounded
by
the
outer
Ayya was Navaratnam Wijayaharan,
the first thing to take place each Navarathri
circle. Ayya explained that a female
the ninth and the youngest child of
in the Yoni of the goddess.
follower took two years to meticuChinnaya Pillay Navaratnam and
There is now no mistake
lously draw the mandala by hand
Kamalambal.
that this indeed is the Srividya
and embellished it with gem stones
His early childhood is
Tantra temple and the entire wombwith their appropriate symbolic
glossed over in the website, but
house representation becomes the
significance within the mandala.
mentions that he was born in Sri
union of Devi and Shiva. At this
Ayya commented that this
Lanka and graduated from Jaffna
point it made no sense to me to
mandala represents the energy of
College. His family belonged to
think of myself as an outsider to the the goddess that mediates through
Devi worship for over six generatradition that I am observing.
the temple. He then explained the
tions and the tradition was abruptly
I am now in the middle of
significance of the sound of bells
halted in 1918 after the sudden de-
10
When he reported the sight
of the woman to the priest, both of
them returned to find her but she
was nowhere to be seen except
footprints in a mound of ash (vibhuti). While the priest was collecting
the ash for the temple, Wijayaharan
asked for some, the priest initially
was reluctant to give. When the
priest finally relented, Aiya claimed
the left footprint (Dempsey 2006,
8485).
This seems to be the beginning of his transformation.
From now on the youth
was transformed into a very religiously motivated and intent on
learning more about the Devi worship. His mother was apprehensive
of his zealous religiosity but could
not stop him. He later received initiation much to his mothers objections from a female Guru referred
to only as Mataji.
Later, he became an architect and moved to Zambia in 1971
The author observed that women play a large role at this temple,
both in performing the pujas and in the practrice of Sri Vidya
11
On Naivedyam
by Aiya
The simplest way of feeding the Devi is in the shastras, and
Paramacharya (Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati) has spoken about
it over and over and over again. All
of our people cook rice, right? For
everything else, people cant resist
tasting it to see if the salt is correct.
You cant taste that food before offering it! Otherwise it becomes ucchistam (tainted). And while were
on that topic, no smelling either!
Its okay if youre in the kitchen
and the smells are wafting around
you, but you cant put your nose in
the pot and take a sniff of it!
Rice is the one thing you
dont taste when you cook. When
youre putting the rice to boil,
take about a tablespoon of toor dal
(thoram paruppu, tuvar dhal) and
let it cook in the rice. When its
done cooking, take a few drops of
ghee and put it on the rice. That is
called maha naivedyam. And even
if you dont cook anything else, that
combination is more than enough
for offering.
Some people ask if its
enough to only offer it once a day.
Do you only eat once per day? If
not, try to offer something to the
Devi at each meal that you partake.
On the rice, the ghee is added to
purify it.
Ill teach you something
for when you are serving food at the
temple. When you form the serving
line, make sure theres someone
there with a ghee patram (vessel)
who is putting a drop or two of ghee
on everyones rice as they come
through. Even that small amount
will immediately purify the food
the thoughts of the people cooking
and serving wont be transferred
12
Sri Parvati
Sahasranama
by Srividya (Amanda Carlson)
DEDICATION
This Sri Parvati Sahasranama was composed in English over a
brief period of time, always around
part 1
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14
15
16