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Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of one's Self in a special place. The objective of doing a pilgrimage may be

1.Physically visit out of reverence to the place of birth or death of founders or saints, or to the place of their spiritual awakening.

2. An Emotional feeling getting blessing (spiritual Energy) or healing by visiting the shrines or temples.

3. A place of doing rituals to gain SAL Energy to make current life better

4. A journey process to evolve the Self to make the current and future life better.

5. To connect one's Self to the "Being".

In this section we discuss how pilgrimages can fulfill one or more about of the objectives of pilgrims

Sabarimala Pilgrimage

Please click on the top icons on various pilgrimage that our members offer.

For more details

1. "Journey to the Source" by Pradheep Chhalliyil .

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Right : Why use right hand?

Right handedness.

Usually in Indian culture we pay attention to use right hand while giving and receiving anything from others.

Human evolved from lower animals when started using hands. It is the usage of hands that speeded up the evolution by stimulating the growth of brain. Hands and brain are so interconnected. children should be allowed to use hands a lot while growing up to be smart.

The Human brain is divided into two parts the Right Brain and Left Brain. The left side of our body is "wired" to the right side of our brain, and vice versa. For whatever reason nature did this cross-over, it applies even to our eyes, which process a majority of their sensory data on opposite sides of the brain.

ustrate the characteristics which are known to reside on each side of our brains.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Courtesy of Dan Eden web site.

The right hand usage stimulates more neuronal activity in the left brain and left hand stimulates more neuronal activity in the right brain. The reason is that all our action should be done with logics. However, when doing all rituals the hand right along with left hand is used denoting the co-ordination of the two hands. Actions done with no emotional involvement will not be complete and be boring. Doing actions with no logic but out of excitement do not give the desired results and often results in more suffering. Bottom line is that the logical reasoning (analysis) along with the emotional involvement alone brings success in all our actions.

Why do we hold ear lobes and squat down to the ground before Ganesha?

It is a common simple ritual to hold left ear lobe with right hand hand and right earlobe with left hand's pointer finger and thumb and slowly squatting down to the ground before Ganesha. Lord Ganesha is also prayed for awakening our awareness which is needed to do any task to fulfillment.

When we did mischief , especially at school, the Indian teachers gave a small punishment. This is in Tamil is called "Thoppu Karanam". Now Brain studies shows this punishing act infact improves brain function for both young and adults.
See this video demonstration of how the EEG patterns change when some one does this Ganesha Ritual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSwhpF9iJSs is the link for super brain yoga

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Water Ritual

Honoring the Energy forces that influence our lives every day is important. We are born due to our Ancestors and parents. Hence thanking our Ancestors and our Parents, Teachers, and Guru who give us knowledge, every day brings blessings/ well wishes (luck) to us. Since everyone is
busy to remember this fact, Vedic tradition takes a brief moment during cleansing the external body (Shower), when the body and mind become fresh.

show-ritu

This is a simple ritual which gives us freshness and positive thoughts in our mind when done every day. It takes 10 to 15 seconds in the bathroom.

Every day in shower take a handful of water or water in a bowl and turn towards East direction and offer your honors (Prayer) to the river. Why river?. because without water there is no life. Rivers are the source of drinkable water (though Ocean is abundant with water. Why turn east?.
Because Sun rises in the East and it is the Sun that does distillation (purification) of Salty Ocean water to clouds and then Rains to the river.

It is good to pray to all the Holy Indian rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Cauvery etc and also add the country's river you are living also as a mark of honor. If you are in the USA then add to it Missouri and Mississippi too and so the river based on the country you are living.

You can even chant mantra

Gangacha Yamunecheva. Godavari Saraswathi. Narmadha Sindhu Kaveri, Jalasmin Sannidhim Kuru.

This acknowledges the importance of rivers as the source of our life.

It is good to chant Gayathri Mantra looking at the sun (if you have a bathroom window that gives the glance of the sun, it is good, even not visualize the sun in front of you).

Why chant Gayathri Mantra?- It inspires creativity in you.

Then towards your right side, and the direction will be South, the direction of Pitrus (Ancestors). Then offer one-third of the water you hold as offerings to all your ancestors. You can also chant "Arpanam" , which means your offering. Krishna in Sanskrit means black, here it means the Energy that is not visible or dark, which is the subtlest Energy. So chant "Krishnar-panam", meaning I offer to the subtlest invisible or unperceivable Energy, which is the "only one source" of all beings living or non-living. To that Single Energy source we connect with this offering.

Why Ancestors?. Because you have no existence now without their early existence.

Take a turn to your right side, then the direction will be west , the direction of the Guru. After your ancestors, you are honoring your Aadhi-guru (First guru) your parents. Think of them. Then next to your Sat-guru (Guru who gives the Knowledge) and your Acharya (one who teaches rituals). Pour next one-third of the water with the chanting " Arpanam or Krishnar-panam".

Then turn to your right, it becomes North, the direction of none and there is nothing to offer.

Take again a right turn and you face east, the direction of Devatas. Pray to the three energies "creation, sustenance and destruction, the Trimurthy Devas (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) and Tri-Devis (Saraswathy, Lakshmi and Parvathi), the Pancha Bhutas (Five elements) , Navagrahas
(Nine Planets) and all the Gods and Goddesses and the local gods also and offer the final water with "Arpanam or Krishnar-panam".

Every day doing this ritual during bath takes only less than 20 seconds but make your day and life very complete, because you are acknowledging and honoring all the forces for your existence.

You clean the body with water and do this ritual at the end of the bath. After this ritual, you take the final shower.

Taking bath with a bowl reduces the wastage of water and time. Taking bath with shower, we waste lots of water because we start to think of all worldly matters and just stand under the flowing water. By using a vessel and bowl to take bath, you are aware of the bath and time and reduce wastage of water, time and energy and also you get the belly exercise of bending down to get water.

Water's Impact: The awareness Energy becomes high when we are in contact with water and so many rituals are done with wet body and clothes. So chantings done while wet, have more impact.

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Water Prasad

In water therapy page you would have read about the importance of water, especially its ability to get the subtle vibrations.

Chanting and Water in Ancient practices

Like other traditional cultures, ancient Indian scriptures considered water a sacred element and it formed the most essential part of all rituals. It was a strict practice to keep water in a vessel at the place where the rituals were being performed, especially when chanting holy scriptures. It is considered a sin to do any rituals without water even if one does not offer flowers, fruit or any other food to God. After the rituals, the water is usually given as 'prasad' in temples and homes.

In Indian temples after the priest does the chanting he distributes water which carries the sound vibrations of the chanting. There is a great secret behind this practice. The sounds produced during chanting of holy scriptures have great influence on the health of the people listening to it. The healing effect of sounds is scientifically proven and need not be described here. Water has a remarkable property of absorbing subtle sound vibrations. Drinking this water after chanting will be doubly beneficial because the sound vibrations will reach each and every part of the cells in the body through water.

The sacred syllable "AUM" was written on a glass of water and the crystal structure that was observed is shown below:

Water crystal obtained by labeling with the Vedic sound Aum

Flavors, Aroma & Water
Dr. Masaru Emoto treated water with aromatic oils and was surprised to observe the water crystals which were similar to the look of the flowers that the aroma oils were made from

This explains again why in Indian temples, herbs were added to the water before chanting of Vedic scriptures. The most common herbs used include bilva, basil, camphor, neem, turmeric, darba grass etc. This herbal water is usually given to the devotees after worship.

Bathing Rituals in Spiritual and/or Religious Traditions: One of our friends conveyed a message that water was the only chemical substance among thousands of chemicals tested by scientist that could detect the subtle vibrations that reach the earth from stars and planets thousands of miles away. This also proves that ancient people understood the mysterious powers of water and inculcated the practice of bathing in rivers on specific days when the water receives vibrations from other planets and galaxies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0gBoV0ygJc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oSePXRbW9o