Prasnam - Second Part

I promised a second installment, and here I am.

When I first heard about Panickar's call for a session with him, to unravel the past history of our family tree, there was this sense of unease, as it was not a mere probing into my past, but the family's, and to that extent involved a more heavy responsibility, to be the sole recipient of information.

Moreover, there was also this skepticism related to this kind of a probe itself, as this could just turn out to be an amateurish adventure, with some strange findings, which could lead to difficult/impossible purgatory rituals, being prescribed for a remedy.

On the credentials of the man, I had reliable references, and all in the family, were of the opinion, that having received a specific response, without any possible cue, regarding the 4 brothers, a visit to him was more than OK.

Well folks you know the rest. The purgatories have all been performed, and in this piece, I will make an attempt to recap my own feelings that have emerged after this hectic exercise, about what/where do we go from here.......

1. I had mentioned earlier, about the prescriptions covering almost exactly the deities, to whom we have in the family been offering obeisance. I had also touched on the point that my pancha - aayathana pooja covering deities such as (a) Ganapathy (b) Subramanya (c) Vishnu in various forms as nrusimha, Hayagriva, Rama, Krishna, Yegyanarayana, the navagrahas, durga,lakshmi,saraswati, and Samba sadasiva which together form the 5 aayatanas for me. Let me get to Panickars prescription, which covers every one of these, very precisely as if to address them all specifically.

2. First the Ganapathy Homam , followed by a Navagraha homam.

3. A special puja to Subramanya; Geetha and I were specially led by a procession accompanied by nadaswaram and tavil vadyam, into the sanctum sanctorum, as if to tell us that He has heard our prayers.

4. We were asked to donate specifically to Lord Nrusimha and Vamana at the place where we had booked a 13 times "til" offering to our "pitrus". As to Hayagriva, it was an unique experience; In Arumukhamangalam, in the "aayirathuenn pillayar" I was very intrigued/surprised to behold Lord Hayagriva, in the vigraham. I was later told by our man in Perunkulam, Vaikuntam, that as per the legend in those days Lord Vishnu finding no place for Himself amongst Siva and Ganapathy worshippers, had sought Lord Ganesha's help, and the latter, asked Vishnu to come and reside in Him. Many devotees therefore, in the Ganapathy's idol, see Vishnu Bhagawan in His various forms; I saw Hayagriva, and I am told many behold Tirupathy Balaji.

5. We were also asked to do a special Puja to the "meru" which Jinji has in his puja. ( Durga, Lakshmi Sraswati)

6. Krishna was covered by "santhana gopala" puja.

7. Finally the Uma Maheswara puja.

Incidentally while I was thinking about the Sarpa homam, I found that in Jinji's puja there is a "nagam" which is part of his worship.

So what is my take on all this? Well methinks, probably there was a need for re-inforcing/strengthening the worship regimen to offer a course correction, in view of a difficult patch, we are all enduring. It covered nothing new or extra, and therefore a probably clear message that, while we are doing what is prescribed and passed on to us by the previous gen, a bit of extra as part of reinfocements as said earlier was given to us as a reminder.

Our Jignyaasaa to find the true meanings of our existence seems to be on the right path, though the journey is neither easy, nor short, appears to me as the message of this whole exercise.

Love to all.

Vichu