VILLAGE DIARY II : THE OTHER SIDE OF BHAGWAT PURAAN PAATH

IT'S ALL IN THE GENOME...
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Here is what I have captured of the other side of the beautiful and lovely village life in my recent trip to our ancestral home - a village called Godriya, in the vicinity of the place where Lord Buddha attained Nirvana. It was fun to see that our kids also enjoy the place like we all brothers have done over the years... as Puneet always says, its all in the genome....

So walk with me and I hope you will enjoy the journey.

On the way to Gorakhpur from Lucknow...

From Gorakhpur to our village in Kushinagar has a stopover too...
no we did not ran like Animan loves doing, but it was about a
changeover...

The way leading to our ancestral home

As we reached, we were greeted by one of the most beautiful sunset...

And then the time to join in the Bhagwat Paath and party

... and the morning sunrise was even more soothing... from the rooftop

And all set to explore the places around our village, specially the Bansi river

The sugarcane is all cut from the fields, and now being processes to make
Gur

Reaching the no man's land between UP and Bihar border, early in the
morning is an exhilarating experience. Animan is  doing the SRK thing..

A window to nature....

While we were not the only one out experiencing it all...

Then there were things to do... miles to go

Kids to take care of...

Another day, another part of the nature....

A closure to our week of fun and spirituality, with a visit to Buddha
Shrine in Kushinagar, where he attained nirvana

The time for one more last selfie...

Finally leaving you with some of the interesting images from the journey....

And then the Purnaahuti... Homam to close the week long Bhagwat Puraan

lose the week long Bhagwat Puraan

It was a real pleasure to the part of my mother's life long desire to hold this Bhagwat Puraan paath... Wish we all could do this again. 

I hope you have enjoyed the journey with me... if you would like to know more about the Bhagwat Paath, please do check out my previous post....

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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VILLAGE DIARY - BHAGWAT PAATH

VILLAGE DIARY : BHAGWAT PURAAN PAATH AND IT'S ALL IN THE GENOME

Bhagat Puraan Paath - 7 days of rituals and to cap it all some memories from there...

An amazing celebrations of Ram Navami with the Bhagwat Paath my mother wanted to do for ages, so my younger brothers K K The King and Animesh got together and made it happen. So I went to my ancestral village on 23rd March and I am back in Chennai after a week of rituals, story telling, meditation and mantra chanting but still the hangover continues.. it was an amazing time to connect with the soil of our birth, where we have had spent our childhood...

Baal Krishna

WHAT IS BHAGWAT PAATH?

The Bhagavata takes the form of a story recounting Vyasa's work being recited for the first time by his son Shuka to the dying King Parikshit, who owes his life to Krishna. Longing to hear of Krishna before he dies, Parikshit hears the Bhagavata recited by Shuka, including questions by the king and replies by the sage, over the course of seven days.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa (Devanagari: भागवतपुराण, also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam or Bhāgavata, literally meaning Divine-Eternal Tales of The Supreme Lord) is one of the maha (Sanskrit: 'great') Puranic texts of Hinduism, with its focus on bhakti (religious devotion) to Supreme God Vishnu (Narayana), primarily focusing on Krishna. The Bhagavata Purana includes many stories well known in Hinduism, including the various avatars of Vishnu and the life and pastimes of his complete incarnation, Krishna or Svayam Bhagavan. It was the first Purana to be translated into a European language, with three French translations made also between 1840 and 1857.

Krishna giving the Bhagwat Geeta paath to Arjuna @ Rishikesh 2014

TEXT SOURCE : Wikipedia, to read more click here...

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Thinking about those days spent so beautifully does not cover it... so I will leave you with some images... and of course the videos

So here it goes... let me start with the symbolism... 

Invoking the Sun god before the homa...

To begin with there's our Durga Ma, who has been with us over the ages, helping, supporting and guiding us, where ever we are...

Our ancestral temple of Durga ji... where we all performed the final Homa

And the place across the canal, from where She came to our house centuries ago.... The original Swayambhu Durga Ji sthan (The self appearing Goddess Durga place) we are now reconstructing as another temple...

The Durga Temple across the fields...

And the beauty surrounding it...
There are hundreds of peacock around the Durga temple that we have made
across the village where we have our fields...

Now with this introduction and giving you the feel about the place, let me come back to the Bhagwat Paath....

A very popular pundit who undertook to read and relate stories from
Bhaagwat Puraan for 7 days....

And the audience...

The fun and bhakti went hand in hand...

Along with the devotion...

There were the moments to capture...

And then there were times to pray...

The Purnaahuti - Havan, culminating the closure of Bhagwat Paath

The whole gang was there to celebrate the closure...

And it was a pleasure to have Bhabhi and Chachi
together, and as Animan said...
"The most elegant presence"

And I was there too...

And with this, Bhagwat Paath came to an end, graced with the rare presence of stalwarts of our family....

The cherished moments of togetherness..

And there were us, with our daily ritual of taking pictures before
the puja started every day...

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Wanderlust in my village - Kushinagar                 Village Diary II

STILL LIFE: Another Day in Deva Bhoomi - Rishikesh

After many years of thinking, finally my cousins Ritesh and Ravi decided to join me on my latest trip to Rishikesh. Recently one of my friends asked me, which temple I visit to meditate and practice sadhana and I said, "You don't need a temple, just sit down any where on the banks of Holy River Ganges, you will find peace". And I believe it so... as many of the Rishi, Saints and Sadhu's have been doing Tapasya in and around this place for thousands of years and the Ganges has been the source of their energy...

This time, I was invited by Swami Omkarananda Ji to spend some time with him on this trip as well as work on the Yoga Center and it was a pleasure to be with him. The place where we stayed, curtsy Swami Ji, is the ashram where South Indian Star Rajnikanth stays regularly. It was interesting to hear from Swami Ji some of the stories about the simplicity of the Star, who could actually go out to have Ground nuts from the road side stall, without getting mobbed...

The following images from the journey to one of the most holiest places ... Hope you will enjoy them.

Although the journey started in Delhi, this is on the way to Rishikesh
from Dehradoon...

This time, there were two camera crazy guy, happily capturing the journey
while...

... Shilu kept on waiting on the side lines of our shooting spree..

As we reached ashram, the beautiful sky line welcomed, in its full
glory. The holy river Ganges was very inviting as it softly flowed by...

Soon, we were joined by our host, Swami Omkarananda... before we were
to leave for one of the most powerful temple of 'Neelkanth Mahadev"

Though the sun was not too hot, but some were looking for
opportunity to pose....

And the journey to Neelkanth Mahadev was on...

Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple, 30 KMs by road from Rishikesh, is
beautiful but then the trek of 16 KMs is far more exciting..

One of my favorite places 'Little Buddha Cafe - German Bakery',
The view of the river is beautiful from the place.. as we waited for...

Swami ji along with Satya and his wife to join us for dinner...
Those few hours together was very interesting as we discussed Yoga..

Sun rise is always beautiful in Rishikesh. After hours of meditation
along the banks of Holy Ganges, this view is powerful source of energy...

The ashram also hosts Super Star Rajnikanth, who visits regularly and stays
in this room. Interesting to hear about him from Swami Omkaranada.

As Superstar Rajnikanth loves to do, many of the devotees spend time,
deep in meditation... One of the devotees caged in her own thoughts...

One of my favorite places in Rishikesh, Muni Ke Reti - The Beach along
the river, soft sand white and serene invites you to sit down and think...

While some of the kids monkey around in the sand... they wanted me
to capture their backward flip... 

And some monkey, fooling around with Coca Cola.. yes finally he /she
opened it ...

And some (more?) ... having fun in the river Ganges at Triveni Ghat

And some are watching the life pass by...

Some are devoting themselves to a life of devotion....

Another day started with spiritual bath and the ritual breakfast of
Puri, Sabji and Jalebi... 

And the time to take our leave of Rishikesh and holy river Ganges..
It was interesting, at many levels, to be with my cousins on this trip.

Swami Omkarananda and his friend, joined us to see us off. It was good
learning as I spend some time with him... Looking forward to next time

And the sun sets on another journey to Deva Bhoomi Rishikesh...

Hope you have liked the walk with me on this journey of self exploration ...

__

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Through the lens of Kaanvaria - Rishikesh