Heaven on Earth: Guruvayur Temple - New book

December 19, 2008

Dear GuruDevs, I wrote to you about an upcoming book by Viswanathanji yesterday and the same evening I got to know about another book on Guruvayoor.Some of you may have already heard about Pepita Seth, one of the hand few foreigners allowed to enter Guruvayur temple. She has written a book about Guruvayur temple after considerable research and our long time group member and writer Smt. Lekshmy Rajeeve-ji has written about it in The Hindu.Here is the linke she forwarded to me - http://blogs.thehindu.com/delhi/?p=7647

Lekshmy-ji, Thanks for letting us know about the book, anything related to guruvayur is definitely in all our interests. Please let us know if Guruvayur group members can get a group discount for buying this book! Thanks. Om Namo Narayanaya:Sunil.

December 20, 2008

Radhe Krishna!

I saw the book in the recent book exhibition at Bangalore.Â Â Looks

good, but the price is very prohibitive.Â Lots of photographs by

Pepitaji I wrote to Niyogi about publishing my second edition, but he

has replied in the negative.

Love

KVG.

Sunil Menon wrote:

Dear GuruDevs, I wrote to you about an upcoming book by Viswanathanji yesterday and the same evening I got to know about another book on Guruvayoor.

Some of you may have already heard about Pepita Seth, one of the hand few foreigners allowed to enter Guruvayur temple.Â She has written a book about Guruvayur temple after considerable research and our long time group member and writer Smt. Lekshmy Rajeeve-ji has written about itÂ in The Hindu.

Here is the linke she forwarded to me - http://blogs.thehindu.com/delhi/?p=7647 Â

Lekshmy-ji, Thanks for letting us know about the book, anything related to guruvayur is definitely in all our interests. Please let us know if Guruvayur group members can get a group discount for buying this book! Thanks. Om Namo Narayanaya:

Sunil.

December 20, 2008

Om Namo Narayanaya:

Dear Sunilji,

I bought the book from Eastern Book Corporation-

http://www.easternbookcorporation.com/moreinfo.php?txt_searchstring=16344

at MRP rate and it was freely shipped. They also supply to overseas buyers at the MRP rate. It is also available at Amazon - http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/8189738364/sr=/qid=/ref=olp_pg_used?ie=UTF8 & coliid= & startIndex=0 & qid= & sellerID= & sr= & colid= & condition=used

In short, the book is an encyclopedia on our temple and has many beautiful photos.

Regards,

Krishnapriya

--- On Sat, 12/20/08, Sunil Menon <menon_sunil wrote:

Sunil Menon <menon_sunil[Guruvayur] Heaven on Earth: Guruvayur Temple" - New bookguruvayur Date: Saturday, December 20, 2008, 3:16 AM

Dear GuruDevs, I wrote to you about an upcoming book by Viswanathanji yesterday and the same evening I got to know about another book on Guruvayoor.Some of you may have already heard about Pepita Seth, one of the hand few foreigners allowed to enter Guruvayur temple. She has written a book about Guruvayur temple after considerable research and our long time group member and writer Smt. Lekshmy Rajeeve-ji has written about it in The Hindu.Here is the linke she forwarded to me - http://blogs. thehindu. com/delhi/ ?p=7647

Lekshmy-ji, Thanks for letting us know about the book, anything related to guruvayur is definitely in all our interests. Please let us know if Guruvayur group members can get a group discount for buying this book! Thanks. Om Namo Narayanaya:Sunil.

December 20, 2008

Om Namo Narayanaya!Please see the article in The Hindu about this book and the author.SrikrishNArppaNamastu!Inside a sacred world K.K. GOPALAKRISHNAN Writer

and photographer Pepita Seth talks about how her book, the first on the

Guruvayur temple, happened. Photo: K.K. Gopalakrishnan

long haul: Pepita Seth. Sitting in her quiet apartment in Thrissur

surrounded by piles of unpacked cases, Pepita Seth is content. She has

just finished six years of hard work and research on a book on the

Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple. It is work she feels she was fated to

do, especially when she looks back and reflects on how she originally

came to India.

In 1970, she explains, she “retraced the 1857 march of my soldier

great-grandfather from Calcutta to Lucknow after discovering his diary

in an attic. That first experience of India initiated a deeper

curiosity and two years later I returned to ‘find out about elephants’,

which of course brought me to Kerala, to Thrissur and then Guruvayur

where the first photograph I took was of Guruvayur Kesavan, the

legendary temple elephant. Only years later I realised just what an

auspicious beginning this was.”

Lengthy sessions

The book, which includes detailed descriptions of rituals and

concepts behind them, is the first such book on the temple. During

lengthy sessions with the temple’s officiating priests, she came to

admire their patience almost as much as their knowledge. Since almost

nothing has ever been recorded or written down, she had to repeatedly

check, and counter-check facts, especially when some clarifications

appeared to be contradictory.

Though well known as a writer and photographer, Pepita has no formal

or academic credentials. “Although born in London, I was brought up on

a farm in a very rural part of England. My parents had no time for

formal schooling and, in a way, no interest in me being educated; it’s

not only India that focuses on The Son! Therefore to a large extent I

am self-taught. As soon as I could read, I began devouring books as a

way of unconsciously educating myself. Though I would have liked to

have gone to university, it was not an option,” she reminisces.

The films experience

She worked in films for many years starting on the lowest rung and

working her way up to being a Film Editor. “This heightened my sense of

the visual and was of enormous help when I began taking photographs of

lengthy rituals. I treated them as a film, which some critics have

recognised and described my photographs as having a ‘cinematic

quality’. My visits to Kerala increased; with little awareness of what

I was doing, I stumbled through the dark taking photographs of Kerala’s

ritual universe.”

She continues after a pause: “Of course whatever the downsides of

life, my work and life in Kerala has always satisfied a deep inner

need, which is why I pressed on. From time to time a miracle would

happen; I would have an exhibition here, an article there… just enough

to silence those who repeatedly told me to ‘stop this Kerala nonsense’.

Then in 1994 I went to Malabar and into Theyyam’s extraordinary

universe; an experience of massive importance and a huge marker in my

life. I spent five years — five seasons I should say — on that project.

Out of it came an exhibition in New York and some lectures that

initiated a lot of interest in my work but, more importantly, left me

feeling that Theyyam is still unfinished business, something I will

eventually have to return to.”

“After an uneasy period” Pepita returned to Kerala in 2000 to

‘settle’. “In 2002, I began this project. It has massively tested me,

even as it has sustained me and given enormous personal satisfaction. I

had no clue it would take so long, which is just as well. My initial

intention, so far as I had one, was to cover ‘everything’ that happens

within the temple’s walls. Ignorance was bliss… as I began discovering

the layers and complexities of the universe I had entered I repeatedly

tried to escape. But even as I became increasingly aware of the

difficulties I saw that I had no right to stop. This only increased my

problems; at one time I had an almost permanent headache as I struggled

to grasp concepts that were almost beyond my comprehension. I finished

writing a month ago.”

Why Guruvayur?

“I feel that Guruvayur is important on many different levels: it has

existed for centuries and sustained devotees while maintaining its

complex ritual cycle... There is ‘something’ intangible but deeply

felt. People’s relationship with Guruvayurappan is intense and often

very moving; He is loved. I could go on but I am sure you know what I

mean! And, of course, I am a devotee!”

Nevertheless, she adds “I would never have had the audacity to think

I could do anything at Guruvayur. A casual question on why I never did

anything there ignited my interest and the fact that I was looking for

a project that did not involve too much wandering around in the middle

of nowhere in the middle of the night, like Theyyam for instance.” Yet

she never followed any specific method. “As always, I just followed my

instincts, my gut feelings and my emotions and, as already mentioned,

the conviction that I must ‘honour’ the subject I am working on.”

Scope

Her aim has been to produce a book whose words and pictures will

cover all aspects of life within the temple, not only its myths and

history but its rituals, management, priests, hereditary families,

devotees, elephants, performing arts and descriptions of all important

events. The difficulties she faced are summed up as “my own doubts

about my ability and the struggle to understand the ritual concepts. It

took me four years to finally — I hope! — get something as basic as a

complete list of the balikkals (the small stones

around the temple indicating the presence of minor deities to whom

offerings are made) and the order in which they are honoured.

Perseverance was essential. When I started I was often consumed with

fear and blind panic but, as I gradually calmed, I took comfort from

the Lord’s presence and the often oblique way in which I was helped. I

received help from an extraordinary number of people. I should also

stress that I never ever felt I was a foreigner or was being treated as

one. Frankly, it is years since I have felt like an outsider.”

The book, Heaven on Earth, will soon be published

by the Delhi-based Niyogi Books, something she is particularly pleased

about since she feels it is right for it to be produced in India. But

Pepita is not relaxing or taking a sabbatical. “For a start there is

still a lot of editorial and design work to complete,” she says, even

as she admits that she is already working on an article about

Muchilottu Bhagavathi, one of Theyyam’s most powerful deities.

Om Namo Narayanaya:

Dear Sunilji,

I bought the book from Eastern Book Corporation-

http://www.easternb ookcorporation. com/moreinfo. php?txt_searchst ring=16344

at MRP rate and it was freely shipped. They also supply to overseas buyers at the MRP rate. It is also available at Amazon - http://www.amazon. ca/gp/offer- listing/81897383 64/sr=/qid= /ref=olp_ pg_used?ie= UTF8 & coliid= & startIndex=0 & qid= & sellerID= & sr= & colid= & condition=used

In short, the book is an encyclopedia on our temple and has many beautiful photos.

Regards,

Krishnapriya

--- On Sat, 12/20/08, Sunil Menon <menon_sunil@ > wrote:

Sunil Menon <menon_sunil@ >[Guruvayur] Heaven on Earth: Guruvayur Temple" - New bookguruvayur@grou ps.comSaturday, December 20, 2008, 3:16 AM

Dear GuruDevs, I wrote to you about an upcoming book by Viswanathanji yesterday and the same evening I got to know about another book on Guruvayoor.Some of you may have already heard about Pepita Seth, one of the hand few foreigners allowed to enter Guruvayur temple. She has written a book about Guruvayur temple after considerable research and our long time group member and writer Smt. Lekshmy Rajeeve-ji has written about it in The Hindu.Here is the linke she forwarded to me - http://blogs. thehindu. com/delhi/ ?p=7647

Lekshmy-ji, Thanks for letting us know about the book, anything related to guruvayur is definitely in all our interests. Please let us know if Guruvayur group members can get a group discount for buying this book! Thanks. Om Namo Narayanaya:Sunil.

December 23, 2008

dear members (in Mumbai)

the book is available at strand book stall ,fort, mumbai at 20% discount.(www.strandbookstall.com)

saseedharan--- On Sat, 20/12/08, Krishnapriya <skandapotri wrote:

Krishnapriya <skandapotriRe: [Guruvayur] Heaven on Earth: Guruvayur Temple" - New bookguruvayur Date: Saturday, 20 December, 2008, 4:03 PM

Om Namo Narayanaya:

Dear Sunilji,

I bought the book from Eastern Book Corporation-

http://www.easternb ookcorporation. com/moreinfo. php?txt_searchst ring=16344

at MRP rate and it was freely shipped. They also supply to overseas buyers at the MRP rate. It is also available at Amazon - http://www.amazon. ca/gp/offer- listing/81897383 64/sr=/qid= /ref=olp_ pg_used?ie= UTF8 & coliid= & startIndex=0 & qid= & sellerID= & sr= & colid= & condition=used

In short, the book is an encyclopedia on our temple and has many beautiful photos.

Regards,

Krishnapriya

--- On Sat, 12/20/08, Sunil Menon <menon_sunil@ > wrote:

Sunil Menon <menon_sunil@ >[Guruvayur] Heaven on Earth: Guruvayur Temple" - New bookguruvayur@grou ps.comSaturday, December 20, 2008, 3:16 AM

Dear GuruDevs, I wrote to you about an upcoming book by Viswanathanji yesterday and the same evening I got to know about another book on Guruvayoor.Some of you may have already heard about Pepita Seth, one of the hand few foreigners allowed to enter Guruvayur temple. She has written a book about Guruvayur temple after considerable research and our long time group member and writer Smt. Lekshmy Rajeeve-ji has written about it in The Hindu.Here is the linke she forwarded to me - http://blogs. thehindu. com/delhi/ ?p=7647

Lekshmy-ji, Thanks for letting us know about the book, anything related to guruvayur is definitely in all our interests. Please let us know if Guruvayur group members can get a group discount for buying this book! Thanks. Om Namo Narayanaya:Sunil.