homas, pujas and advaita

[Guest guest]

Prasadini, I also did the homas with Karunamayi last month in Palo Alto, and it was great. I really like her. She inspired me to take up the Sri Chakra abhishekam practice.

I also sponsered a homa at Amma's Chicago program this summer, and it was one of the highlights of the tour for me. It was at dawn, outside in this parking lot, and Br. Shanti???? (can never remember his name) did it. It was so powerful and so sweet at the same time. Very deep.

Years of reading Nisargadatta, Krishnamurti, and others kind of turned me off of ritual worship for a while, but when I read that Nisargadatta did arati and puja to his guru until the day he died, and that Ramana Maharshi even installed a Sri Chakra Meru in the temple and instructed that it be worshiped regularly, I got REALLY confused! Adi Shankaracharya composed Saundarya Lahiri, Mahishasuramardini Stotram and other hymns in praise of Devi, so surely there is something inherent in ritual worship that is in harmony with advaita, but what? Now, years later, after observing repeatedly that the performance of ritual worship is a means to the EXPERIENCE of advaita, and is actually well-suited to people like me, who are predominantly emotional in nature, I am all for it.

love,

Prajna

 

 

"Children, all of spirituality is contained in that one word: Awareness." - Amma

[Guest guest]

One of the most profound advaita books in ancient Indian literature is

the Yoga Vasistha (also known as the Maha Ramayana). This is the

discourse of the Sage Vasistha to Lord Rama (who is considered one of

the incarnations of Vishnu). A very good translation by Swami

Venkatesananda is available at a discounted rate at Amazon:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0791413640/sr=8-1/qid=1155731349/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8176543-9528164?ie=UTF8

 

labd

 

 

 

> Years of reading Nisargadatta, Krishnamurti, and others kind of

turned me off of ritual worship for a while, but when I read that

Nisargadatta did arati and puja to his guru until the day he died, and

that Ramana Maharshi even installed a Sri Chakra Meru in the temple

and instructed that it be worshiped regularly, I got REALLY confused!

Adi Shankaracharya composed Saundarya Lahiri, Mahishasuramardini

Stotram and other hymns in praise of Devi, so surely there is

something inherent in ritual worship that is in harmony with advaita,

but what? Now, years later, after observing repeatedly that the

performance of ritual worship is a means to the EXPERIENCE of advaita,

and is actually well-suited to people like me, who are predominantly

emotional in nature, I am all for it.

>

> love,

>

> Prajna

>

>

> "Children, all of spirituality is contained in that one word:

Awareness." - Amma

>

>

>