Meandering thoughts - Sita Sreeraman

We just finished celebrating Navarathri, 2021. I received many forwards about Navarathri - the significance, dress colour code, stories and more! The energy during Navarathri is generally high - it is a festival where women tend to dress in rich bright colours, the music slokas, pujas all add to a general lift in energies. Meeting friends, singing/chanting together, sharing prasadam, subtly we are all uplifted and in higher spirits, more smiles, more laughter, more singing, it is an uplift of energies. When we feel good about ourselves and our spiritual energies are high, we can handle any setback with greater dignity and grace. We can handle successes also with a greater balance and grace, both ways. Either success or challenges, we handle them with a grace. Vice versa, when our energies are low, even a tiny challenge can shake us more than it should. We do go through cycles. When my 12 year old asked about the three Goddesses - Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati, and asked me if they are...

My Appa, Sri T.P. Sreeraman composed many slokas on Trikkurappan, the Shiva deity of our temple Trikkur, a cave temple in Trichur district.  Appa also taught Rudram to many after his retirement. Appa chanted Rudram daily as part of his prayers.  From left, Appa, Vaidyanatha Vadhyar, Ramachandran Mama Drukpuresha or Trikkurappan temple is a temple on top of a small mount in Trikkur, a picturesque village with the Manali River flowing through it. Legend has it that the small mount fell off as Hanuman carried the mountain with Sanjeevani to Lanka. There is a small Hanuman carving on the walls of our temple. The temple is a cave temple with a Lingam and worshipped as Soma (Shiva + Uma). Appa said there is a carving of Ganapathi on the cave walls.  One can climb the mount and the scenic beauty of the area is revealed in complete from this elevation, the green tapestry of coconut trees, paddy fields, the Western Ghats in the distance, the cool breezes, the feeling so serene and...

 After many years, Zurich saw about a feet or two of heavy snowfall in day. In a few hours, Zurich and around were transformed from a desolate gray in to a luminous winter wonderland. Some makeover! The beauty both breathless and serene, the air so fresh.. the trees bending under the weight of snowfall like a heavy fruit laden branch.. the white of the snow so bright, so luminous.. what magic! Such a pristine, pure sight to behold! Just seeing the snow, feeling it in the hands and just being with it.. a silent communion with Nature and God! The stillness so poignant! There are times when I think God or the higher intellect shows his/her hand in overt ways (usually this is subtle like a bud blooming) and snow is always one such experience! I feel God is playing with his sieve, dusting icing sugar on planet earth, one of his play times.. We humans can at best capture these moments and bow in humility to the creator above, the artist who with a few strokes can create such magic! For t...

Periyava Thunai My esteemed Appa Sri. T.P. Sreeraman and my Chitappa Sri T.P. Gopalakrishnan participated in many Soma Yagams and were directly involved in the 1990 Athirathram at Kundur and in 2004 Apthoryagam at Mulangunathukavu, both in Kerala.    Maha Periyava gave Appa two duties when Appa visted Periyava after his retirement in April, 1988. One was to take care of my grandfather and the second was to work on the rejuvenation of Yagams in Kerala. Appa thus became an instrument of Periyava in this lofty endeavour and devoted his energies completely to this. My Chitappa was like Lakshmana to Rama, accompanying Appa and assisting Appa in every way he could. Together, they went to Sengalipuram, Koneru Rajapuram and other villages in TamilNadu which in the early 1990s saw many yagams.  In the software and manufacturing world, we have Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, ISI and other standards which layout processes and methods for measuring quality. When it came to our daily life and p...

 The Bhakti tradition in India has seen a renaissance in the last few decades. With the rise in the Bhakti and pujas, the conduct of ancient Vedic rituals like Soma Yagams have declined to almost zero. Most Puja rooms in our grandparents times were simple rooms with a few pictures of Gods/Goddesses, the oil lamp, the kolam or rangoli with home grown flowers and fruits and the food cooked at home being offered as neivedhyam. There was no room for ostentation. There was an emphasis on personal hygiene (madi/acharam), simplicity and individual practice/ritual be it Shiva Puja to the Saligramam or daily prayers.  With the rise in material prosperity, the temples became yet another way to display wealth especially by families who came into wealth recently - be it as the 1008 prasadams, manicured lawns, silk clothes and jewelry to the Gods/Goddesses, the many change in ensembles(Alankarams) to the Gods with fruits, vegetables, savouries etc. And the annual ustavams/functions with ma...

Hari Om Swami Gurukripananda, GK Mama alias Chami (24.Feb.1927 to 12.Dec.2020) A Shraddanjali  from GK family Compiled by T. S. Jayaraman , s/o Smt. G.K. Anandavalli, (poorvasram) younger sister of GK Swami.   Swami Gurukripananda, Chami Mama attained Samadhi in the dawn of 12 Dec at 4 a.m. At 3.45 am he wanted to get up to go to the bathroom. He could not get up. He called Mahender for help. It was all over in 15 minutes. As per the custom of Sri Sivananda Guru's Divine Life Society all rites were completed on the same day by 9.30 am. Mama's Sodashi is on Dec 27, when the Ashram does Annadanam to the Ashram inmates. Lineage: G K Kailsanatha Iyer, my maternal grand-father was a great Vedantin who lived in Gangaikondan village in Thirunelveli District. An ardent disciple of Sringeri Sri Chandra Sekara Bharati, Thatha himself wanted to live the life of a renunciate (Mama followed this tradition). Swamigal however advised Mama against it and gave Thatha two ...

Hinduism, pre-independence and a couple of decades after, was mostly a religion of subtraction. From material wealth to the reduction/subtraction of the six evil tendencies, it was about subtraction.  --- Lust or desire ( Kama), Anger (Krodha), Greed ( Lobha), Attachment (Moha) , Arrogance (Mada), Jealousy (Matsarya)  The four Ashramas/life-stages in life was about subtraction   --- Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retired) and Sannyasa (renunciate)  A way of life to move from outer experiences to inner! Ostentation was eschewed. Appa used to jokingly remark that silk sarees were worn to create jealousy and want in other women. And how his mother had only 2 silk sarees and she was content with it, though she had the resources to buy more.  Wise words, jokingly said, but so true!  On a serious note, Kanchi Maha Periyava, Jagadguru Chandra Sekara Sarawati and also Sringeri Maha Periyava Chandra Sekara Bharati, Ramana Maharishi are...