17DEVI MAHOTSAVAM 2013

LOCAL HISTORY / STHALA PURANAM

Satha Chandi Homam at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple- A personal account by Sri K. Venkatraman (“Ramani’)

that “LokaH SamasthaaH Sukhino bhavanthu – Let ALL worlds live in peace and happiness”. Despite devotees reciting the sacred Vedic words “Agnimeede Purohitham……”, one may not understand or remember the meaning all the time. [Rig Veda 1:1:1 that states: We praise Agni, the devata behind Divine Fire, the priest (purohita), Minister of the sacri!ce (ya-gnasya deva), the O"cer of Oblation (Hotr), supreme Giver of treasure (rathna dhathamam), Ref: ‘#e Vedic Experience’, by Raimundo Panikkar, Publ:Motilal Banarsidas, 1989]. He is the receiver, conduit and the station for the devathaa-s in-voked in Him. In every homam, the presiding deity is in-vited and invoked in Agni. All the physical (adhi bhouthika) o$erings are received and consumed by Agni who transacts with the invoked Devathaa-s (adhi daivika), and returns ap-propriate spiritual and material (adhyaathmika) treasures for the upli%ment of the humans who do yagna. #ese three-pronged roles of Agni is one of the secrets of yagna and is illustrated in thousands of Veda mantras regularly chanted, albeit, mechanically by us. To Agni we o$er the bounties from the nature only for the Devathaa-s to receive them and bless us. #is is also explained in Sri Bhagavad Gita quite well. In Bhagavad Gita 3.10, Sri Krishna says “saha yajnaaH prajaaH shrustvaa purovaacha prajapathiH | anena prasav-ishyadhvam esavostivshTa kaamaDhuk” || In the beginning of creation, Lord said that by performing this yajna , you will be granted all your desires. (Note: Sacred texts have many layers of meanings and only the simplest meaning is presented here as full explanation is beyond the scope of this article. Words Yajna and desire can be interpreted in many di$erent ways)

Quite understand-ably, these answers did not satisfy some. When I was very dejected about all of this and want-ed to !nd mean-ingful answers, my friend’s father showed us a picture where one could see Lord Muruga emerging from the !re during a Homam. Some

Satha Chandi Homam was performed at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple for the !rst time in the United States in August 1999. #e homam was performed for 10

days by Sri Shanmuga Sivachariar, Sri Kalidoss Sivachariar, our temple priests and other visiting priests under the guid-ance of Late Sri Sambamurthi Sivachariar. Over a thousand devotees participated in the event. We are indeed fortunate to again have Sri Shanmuga Sivachariar and Sri Kalidoss Si-vachariar performing Navachandi homam along with other pujas in this Devi Mahotsavam. Let us trace back how Chan-di Homam has become closely associated with display of the sovereignty and divinity of Sri Durga Parameshwari at SSVT.

One learns by asking QuestionsIt is a time-honored tradition to learn new things by asking questions to enrich our knowledge and questioning helps even those who know the answers to recapitulate, refresh and re-orient their perspective. Many questions were raised before, during and a%er the Satha Chandi Homam event that helped to bring forth answers that provided clarity. Here is a brief synopsis to help reinforce the beliefs and knowledge about our hallowed religion.

Homams (Havan) are always an integral part of Hindu wor-ship. In the weeks before the event, there were some ques-tions were asked about the homam itself, such as - “why do we have to o$er costly sarees and ornaments that are eventu-ally dropped in the !re”, “couldn’t we donate it to the needy instead”. #is lead to the profound answer that Hindus o$er

Ghee, Rice, Sarees, Ornaments, Me-dicinal Herbs to Gods and Goddess through the !re. Agni (Fire) is the medium through which God receives our o$erings and gives back multi fold to the devotees and to the needy. All our temple wor-ship is for the well being of all the liv-ing beings as our prayers are o$ered

Sri DeviAppearing in the !re for the faithful during

Satha Chandi Homam

Sri DurgaAppearing in the !re for the faithful during

Satha Chandi Homam

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Satha Chandi Homam at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple

DEVI MAHOTSAVAM 2013

LOCAL HISTORY / STHALA PURANAM

were still skeptical of it being nothing but a !gment of one’s imagination. Time went by and the Acharyas arrived and the Satha Chandi homam started. When Sri Sivachariar was asked the same question of donating the sarees, food, fruits and jewelry to the poor instead of o"ering in the homam, he answered in his own style: “A farmer has a bag of paddy for sowing. He can either give that bag to the poor to satisfy their immediate hunger or he can sow them and cultivate the crop, produce many bags of rice and donate a lot more to the poor. Similarly whatever we o"er as oblation to Goddess through the !re, will be given back several times over with Her blessings”.

Nobody knew at the moment that the skeptical many would have a “live demo” of this statement.!!On the evening of the !rst day when we were receiving the prasadam, someone mentioned about the Goddess emerging from homam !re and asked me to show the pictures taken on that day. I re-plied that if that was meant to happen it would happen. A#er the Acharya bhojanam, we were pleasantly delighted to see God’s image in one of the day’s pictures. I thought it was Ayy-appa’s image, but later we realized it was the image of Utsava Vigraha of Devi, which was decorated, at the temple and kept next to the Durga Shrine. We then saw Durga’s form with Her hands in another picture. Next day, one devotee identi-!ed Simha Vahini in one of the pictures (Pictures of Durga, Sri Devi and Simha Vahini are re-printed here).

Delighted, I called Washington Post and explained to the ‘Religion’ section-editor about these pictures. $e edi-

tor asked me to send the negative of the pictures. A#er seeing the negatives, he asked me a question “whether we are praying for the rain”. At that time (Summer, 1999) Washington Metropolitan area was in the grips of a severe drought. Ev-ery day on the media the unending drought was discussed at length. I talked to Shanmuga Sivachariar who was aware of the drought and he replied: “whenever the Satha Chandi Homam is performed rain will come even in the midst of a 100 year draught”. I informed the Washington Post Editor that we had arranged the Satha Chandi Homam to get the blessings for the construction of the Rajagopuram, but our acharya informed us that

per the scriptures rains would come down when one per-forms this homam. $e editor asked me to send the Devi Mahathmiam book with the meanings explained in English, which I did right away. Next day he asked me whether I knew of the rain forecast over the next weekend, which I did not. $e editor later informed us of his plans to cover the event on the !nal day. To every one’s delight the heavens opened and a heavy thunderstorm came down on the Saturday before the !nal day. It washed and cleaned the homakundam area be-low the Ayyappa Shrine. In those days it was not an enclosed space, even though there was a roof over it.

$e Washington Post Editor came with a photographer and covered the event. He also interviewed Sri Sivachariar and a few of us on August 15, 1999. During the week the editor called me and said that the editorial team at Washington Post was excited to publish an article about Satha Chandi Homam and that it would be published on August 21, 1999. I asked him whether he was going to publish the pictures that were given to him. He asked me back whether we thought that God would show up only when we took the pictures. He said that%God would show up even when they took the pictures and that their pictures would be published. His answers and what we subsequently saw in the print opened my eyes to the power of faith in our%Sanathana Dharma. $eir article and the pictures are reproduced below. She the Mother Durga Parameshwari is always the reigning Queen and She does choose for Herself when, to whom and how to reveal Herself!

Sri Simha VahiniAppearing in the !re for the faithful during Satha Chandi Homam

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The heavens opened three times during a 10-day prayer marathon for rain at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, twice in brief but tor-

rential downpours.Shanmugam Sivachariar, one of 11 priests from India who led a rare Hindu ceremony at the temple last Sunday, refused to take credit for the rainfall.“It’s God’s holiness that gives the rain or the sun,” he said.Sivachariar smiled, however, when asked if the long hours of chanting and the !ery oblations to Devi, the Mother Goddess, had brought at least minimal relief during the area’s worst drought in three decades. “Maybe, maybe,” he said.With no end in sight to the dry weather, religious communities throughout the area have begun seeking divine help to end the crisis, reciting ancient liturgies or adding contemporary prayers dur-ing congregational gatherings. For the last two weeks, several local mosques have concluded their regular Friday services with the salat al istiqa’, the Islamic drought prayer that says in part: “O God, give us rain and make us not of those who despair.”Roman Catholic parishes, especially in the hard-hit farm areas of Southern Maryland, pray for rain during the “weekly intention” at Sunday Mass. And other faith groups, including Baptists and Buddhists, ask for rain through prayer or meditation."e Hindu ceremony in Lanham, the !rst of its kind ever held in the United States, is called Satha Chandi Homam,

Chandi for short. "e phrase means making 100 homam, or !re o#erings, to Chandi, one of several names for Devi."e ritual requires the services of at least 10 specially trained priests from India, who, according to temple president K.G. Venkatraman, chant for 10 days the 700 verses of the ancient Sanskrit text “Devi Mahatmyam.” At the same time, the priests burn gi$s to the goddess, who the priests and congregants believe resides in the !re and whose image, they also believe, appears in the %ames.Many of the verses praise Devi and her all-powerful in%uence on the universe, both good and evil aspects. But most emphasize the ultimate victory of good over evil, symbolized in a passage where a lion-riding, weapon-wielding Devi wipes out every demon she encounters. Congregants participate by circling the !re at the end of each day, adding per-sonal gi$s that might please the goddess and bring a blessing to their lives."e ceremony usually is performed in times of great distress, such as famine,

drought or violence, Venkatraman said. But its universal appeal for the supreme goddess’s guidance and blessing led Sri Siva to begin organizing a Chandi months ago--long before the onset of the drought.Temple leaders hoped that the high-powered ritual would give spiritual sup-port for the growing Hindu population in the Washington area, now estimated at 40,000 to 50,000. It also would aid ef-forts to complete the construction of Sri Siva, which was dedicated in 1990 and was the !rst of a half-dozen local Hindu temples. But it lacks a rajagopuram--a tall, multitiered spire that completes a Hindu temple the way a steeple com-pletes a church.When the priests began arriving from India two months ago, they also saw a need to pray for rain in the mid-At-lantic and Northeast and for peace in a troubled nation, Venkatraman said. “It’s God’s choice to do it this way,” he said.Most of the ceremony took place in a large porch area o# the temple’s lower

level, where visiting and local priests fed the !re with handwoven silk, chopped and whole fruits, herbs, %owers, jewelry and ghee, or clari!ed butter. A vent hood captured the smoke and carried it into the air to “seed” the clouds in the hope of bringing rain, Venkatraman said.Last Sunday, the concluding day of the ceremony, jars !lled with holy water were placed on an altar behind the !re and on a large table near the audi-ence. At the end of the day’s !ve-hour service, the priests and many of the 1,000 congregants put the jars on their heads and carried them upstairs to the sanctuary. "ere the priests poured the water over the images of various deities in individual shrines.Sivachariar, 24, said the “energy” in the !re was transferred to the water, much as water conducts electricity. And the water, in turn, was poured over the images the temple’s worshipers see every day.In that way, the Satha Chandi Homam will stay with them, said Sivachariar, who came from Madras to assist his father and the Chandi’s head priest, 75-year-old Sri Sambamurthi Sivacha-riar.As the young priest spoke Sunday, the sun broke through a gray cloud cover, ending any chances of precipitation that day. Yet Sivachariar seemed unper-turbed, con!dent that the overall impact of the Chandi and of Devi’s grace on the local community and the nation would be felt for a long time to come."ere always will be days when the Mother Goddess is angry and human wishes go un!lled, he said. You have to keep praying “so she smiles again.”

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

By Bill BroadwayWashington Post Sta! Writer

In Drought, Hindus Look to Goddess

RainPrayers

for

Circle:Touching thumb to fore!nger symbolizes the unity of individual and universal spirits

Chanting: A priest chants near the !re. Some Hindus believe that they see the outline of Chandi in the !re, including her face, headdress, and uplifted hands.

Holy men: Sri Sambamurthy Sivach-ariar, above, wearing prayer beads, came from Madras to lead the 10-day !re ceremony in Lanham.Left, two priests who brought the holy water from the !re area prepare to pour the “energiszed” water onto a statue of one of the divinities in the sanctuary.

O!erings: Priests pray during the Satha Chandi Homam held at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Lanham. The phrase means making 100 homam, or fire offerings,to Chandi,

one of several names of Devi, the Mother Goddess. The ceremony was the first of its kind ever held in the United States.

Photos By Rick Bowmer -"e Washington Post

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