RE: Puja: water

[Guest guest]

Dear Chris,

Thanks for your rich and deep contributions regarding water and

its meaning...very interesting!!

".. One of the great

rivers (Yamuna?) is said to have gone underground in this age of

darkness, and will reappear at the end of the age. It is said to

represent sushumna nadi...."

This "buried" river is the Saraswati and there is a really

strange and magical story that happened recently regarding this

river. In 2001 at the Kumbha Mela, one of the major bathing days

occured on the same day as the huge earthquake that shook Western

India and caused so much devastation. The thing is ...that is the

day that I was in the Ganga, as I had learned it was the most

auspicious day to bathe. I have to say, the energy in the air on

that day was as strange as I have ever experienced. The sky was an

odd almost greenish yellow, the Ganga looked like mercury, grey and

still and there was a sense of anticipation hanging everywhere. I

was on the banks (with thousands of other people, mostly villagers

who had arrived in huge groups, each carrying a banner so that they

would not get lost). I had a mala that I had just gotten especially

for that immersion. We all went in in droves (of course everyone

totally fascinated with the blonde Western woman..waiting to see how

I would dry off my sari). Wave after wave of people crowded into the

river and all day long it went on, long past the "auspicous time"

and this weird sense of imminent disaster seemed to be in the air. I

kept thinking it was because I had heard so much about people being

trampled during the bathing but it wasn't that. Everything was so

odd: the sky, the water, the air. That night at dinner we all

learned that at the very time of the auspicious bathing, there had

been a huge earthquake on the other side of India. Even more

strange...was this news that appeared in the paper around a month

later. Indian engineers had discovered that the earthquake had

uncovered an underground river in Western India...It was bubbling up

to the surface. There was alot of speculation that this river was

the Saraswati...because of its location and because of the fact that

it had become visible during the most auspicious bathing day of the

Maha Kumbha Mela (an event which only happens every 144 years). The

strange thing is that I have heard no more about this.....so I don't

know what was eventually decided about this "new" old river.

What I love too about the water symbolism is what Chris alluded

to: that the 3 holy rivers that exist in India exist in our body:

the Ida, the Pingala and the Sushumna and that the sangham that

everyone wants to bathe in in Allahabad, exists, also in our own

bodies...where the 3 nadis come together...awesome!

I will not be posting for a bit (still reading and still doing

the sankalpa)...I am helping my friend to prepare for this huge

Chandi Homa. Yesterday we were digging the homa pit...Hmmm, the

walls were collapsing. The Shiva priest came from the Temple to

inspect..it seems we will be building a PERMANENT homa pit, not

a "one time only" thing. Also lots of polishing and cleaning and

weeding and puja trays etc. to prepare. But the Indian ladies will

be doing the cooking....yum! My friend who is hosting the homa has

been instructed to chant the entire Chandi every day for the 9 days

preceeding the homa...plus she has to get everything ready...talk

about tapasya!!! Anyway, don't forget...if you want to ask for a

boon from Devi, I will "collect" them next Wednesday and

Thursday...so I'll probably check in then. See you all soon.

best,

sadhvi