17.-20. February 2011

17. February 2011

On Feburary 18th, my birthday, the moon was full. And thus, as usual, pradakshina was “on” – always at night before the fullmoon, thus on February 17^th. I started during the evening sun, with many colourful flowers. Then the sun faded and suddenly the moon appeared from behind Arunachala. That was truly impressive. In the end the big Arunachaleshvara-Temple in town, and many other smaller temples with fires in front. The following slide show gives you a few impressions:

And here are two short video clips with temples, fire, people and a cow!

18th February

For some reason - perhaps because of my birthday -  today the Nataraja, the dancing Shiva, was especially beautifully and relaborately decorated:

Ramana Maharshi's Samadhi Shrine was of course, as every day, beautifully decorated as well:

And the goddess Mahishasura-mardini too was especially decorated ...

... and in addition received before the ritual worship a garland made of small lemons.

Then, as always on Fridays, the Shri Chakra Puja was celebrated, where inside the Samadhishrine von Ramana's mother special verses in Sanskrit werde chanted in honor of the goddess.

The following video shows part of this ceremony:

20th February 2011

Today a two-days ceremony began, and for this occasion Brahmin-priests from another town had arrived. They recited  several times in succession the  Rudram, a text, more than 2000 years old, from the black Yajurveda. The following video clips give an impression of this ceremony.

 

Now the light, the flame, is being waved - Arati:

 

 Now everyone gets up and the flame is being waved in front of the large picture of Ramana Maharshi:

 Finally the flame is offered to everyone:

In the end of the ceremony it looked like this in front:

In the background on the large painting: Ramana Maharshi.

The"Puja" or ceremonial altar. On the drawing the Arunachala and the town of Tiruvannamalai with the large temple - one can see the big entrance towers:  

Here is a foto with a similar view: