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Fabulous, given the pathetic customer service in our country yours is truly fabulous.
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-Vasuki Seshadri -
(INDIA) |
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The Kojagiri festival of the Full Moon
This is the night of the Full Moon in the year, a fairly secular event in the calendar of festivals calling for the worship of all the gods and goddesses, marked out purely for soaking in the radiation of the Moon. Yet the typical Indian attitude of reverence for all Creation in recognition of the innate divinity imbuing the manifest world implies that we must also worship the Moon itself, making sacred offerings to it in the spirit of thanksgiving! And a useful device to ensure that there be no laggards in this observance, comes the legend of Lakshmi, the Supreme Goddess of Material Wealth, who roams the earth at night asking, ‘ko jagarti?!’, meaning, ‘Who is awake?’, granting the boon of wealth to all whom she finds awake at the time. It is not uncommon to worship on this occasion, Lakshmi and also Indra, the Vedic god, King of the Heavens, who rides the white elephant named Airavat, which is also a symbol of Wealth.
Among the trader classes, it is considered auspicious to stay up at night gambling on this occasion, so as not to miss out on the opportunity for great luck favouring them, which will last through the year by the grace of the goddess!
The beaches are crowded at night on Kojagiri Purnima, with revellers out in large numbers to celebrate by the sea, the full light of the beauteous Moon. It is also an important annual Calendar event for the doyens of classical Performing Arts to enthrall the cognoscenti with inspired renditions of their art, in the enchanted outdoors into the early hours of the morning. It is on these occasions that Sharad Purnima gains full credence for the incomparable radiance of the Full Moon imbued with the grace of Saraswati, who is the inspiration for all refined creative expression, the classical arts, and art appreciation!
Ecology of the Full Moon Spirit
The Full Moon in Ashvin, which is the season of harvest, is also celebrated as the Navanna Purnima, navanna signifying the new harvest of rice. It brings the wondrous ritual of tasting the Nectar showered upon the earth by the harvest full moon in all its radiance!
The new rice grains are washed, dried, lightly roasted and pounded, then cooked in milk with sweet jaggery and coconut embellished with cardamom, raisins, slivers of almonds, pistachios and even fresh pink rose petals. This dessert is poured into a large flat dish (silver being the preferred medium for its affinity to the Moon influence, also given its vitality-inducing ions), which is placed in the open directly under the moonlight, so as to charge it with the cosmic radiation for longevity and good health.
In the meanwhile, the household gathers to take turns to offer the sacred ritual lamp to the Full Moon high up overhead, along with vermillion, fragrant flowers and unbroken rice, as a symbol of devotion. The family may then retire indoors for a vegetarian feast, the high point being the tasting of the rice kheer containing the Full Moon nectar!
Sharad Purnima then becomes a glorious occasion to celebrate the close bond of the community with the nurturing and inspiring cool, gentle and honeyed light of the Moon as it governs the cyclical rhythms of harvest, abundance and health, in the bliss of interwoven existence. At this time, the distinction between the macrocosm and the microcosm is bridged with considerable grace in an evocative ritual that transforms soul food into a sacred ritual for nourishing the indivisible unity of the body, mind and spirit.
The Maharaas of Vrindavan
The pilgrim town of Vrindavan is permeated with the hoary legends of the youthful cowherd Krishna, the spirit of divine love, playing music on his flute amid the enchanted groves, irresistibly drawing to him the cows, the deer and the married gopis, or the milkmaids, so forgetful of their domestic responsibilities and the heavy burdens of womanhood.
On the night of Sharad Purnima each year, according to Vaishnav tradition, Krishna is known to return to Vrindavan, and the Maharaas, or the enchanted circle of dance with the gopis continues to this day in the ethereal dimensions laden with the magical fragrance of the white jasmine flowers and honey in the night air. There is only one Krishna - dark like the storm clouds, tinged with the blue of the bumblebee- and many are the gopis who yearn for his love. In the course of the dancing, each woman becomes Krishna’s divine lover Radha, as He replicates himself in Spirit to simultaneously dance and to merge with each gopi in the circle, in the unity and ecstasy of Love.
As a haunting desert folksong goes, to evoke the elusive yearning of the spirit for merging with the divine,
I was cooking, and the milk was boiling
But I had to rush out to the forest
Because I heard the flute…
It was the anahad naad
I was putting my child to sleep
I left the child and rushed to the forest
For the flute had begun to play…
It was the anahad naad
The Maharaas of Vrindavan on the night of Sharad Purnima itself becomes a profound metaphor for the journey of the kundalini, the personal evolutionary energy as she travels irresistibly upwards from chakra to chakra once the flute begins to play its unstruck, anahat sound in the heart. This is because, itself enchanted by the fullness of the lunar radiance, the universal spirit has descended there, to invite her to the eternal dance of bliss and forgetfulness.
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