dhnayavAdah

June 27, 2006

Namaste Sarasvatiji,

Thank you for your warm welcome mail.

I live in Pallavaram, Chennai.

I go to Guruvayurappan temple at Nanganallur on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Do you also live in Chennai?

Yes I am also of the same thinking that vidyAdAnam is a great dAnam among the dAnams. If one has the capacity to teach, it is a an opportunity to clear the rishi rnam. I remember my teachers telling me that if we do not share the knowledge that has been learnt, we will be bound to take the form of brahma rakshas.

Teaching helps as tool for nidhidhyAsanam, in the process of preparation for the classes. Swami Dayanandaji used to tell us that we should never go to a class without prior preparation.

About brahmarakshas: that reminds me of the temple at Sringeri. There is a small temple for Brahmarakshas at the entrance of Sharadamba temple.The story goes like this.

A brahmarakshas(BR) was following Adishankara from kashi pestering him to release him. Shankara had promised that he would release at an appropriate time. But this BR was all in a hurry and was pestering Shankara. He was annoyed and he said 'May you be the pAlaka of this place." So the first puja is offered to him. There is a belief that obstacles to learning and fear gets cleared by performing an abhishekam to BR.

Not many people know about this because this small(BR) temple goes unnoticed. As we enter the Mutt campus we are more keen on having darshan of SharadAmbaal and admire the architectural beauty of the temple.

I got to hear this story from the BR temple Pujari while sitting there and watching the rathothsava preparations in the evening. So this was a valuable information for people who would like to visit Sringeri. He or she should first offer their prayers to this Brahma rakshasa.

Regarding Samskritam, I am too happy to share all that I have learnt from my teachers.

Om namo narayanaya

Lakshmi Muthuswamy

gets better. Check out the new email design. Plus there’s much more to come.