Ancestral worship

Day before yesterday, I performed ancestral worship of my beloved parents and brother. As I mentioned in day before yesterday's post, worship is performed not only to ancestors but also to all others who passed away including relatives, friends and acquaintances. 

Although my beloved sister too passed away, according to Sanaathana Dharmaa Scriptures, I can begin performing the ritual for her only after one year goes by after her demise. In my next year's ritual I intend adding her and Naagamani maausee  (my beloved mother's elder sister) and Shree Balaji Rao (her husband). I like and respect them. My maternal aunt and her husband were very good, unlike other relatives of that generation. 

Shree Krishnam Vandhe Jagadh Gurum🙏 

Google's birthday

According to Google Doodle in Google , Info, Google celebrates it's birthday. As all of us know, Google has brought in numerous benefits to us. It has helped in many areas including Education.

Ancestral worship

Today is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa Calender. It begins the 15 days long Mahaalaya Paksha. Ancestors, relatives and friends who have passed away are worshipped with specific spiritual rituals during this period. I performed the ritual for my beloved parents and beloved brother this morning.

My beloved parents 

My beloved brother 

En route the venue where I performed the rirual, I spotted a beautiful peacock as shown in the following photo amidst green plants:

Peacock is of special significance to Indians. It is our national bird. It is a vaahanaa of Shree Kaarthikeyaa, one of the sons of Lord Rudhraa. Most importantly, it is close to Lord Shree Krishna.

Lord Shree Krishna 

Shree Krishnam Vandhe Jagadh Gurum🙏 

Message from my niece

A few minutes ago Reshma, my niece (my beloved sister's younger daughter) sent a few photoes when Harish, her cousin (her paternal uncle's son) visited her family. Let me share the photoes as follows:

L to R: Baby Agasthyaa (Reshma's baby boy), Reshma, Harish and Murali (My sister's husband)

L to R: Satheesh (Reshma's husband) and others mentioned in the previous photo

Reshma and Satheesh work as Electronics and Communication Engineer and Mechanical Engineer turned IT Engineer respectively. I think that Harish works as an Engineer and is settled in the US. He is married to a caucasian girl and they have a son.

Toyota Corolla

As I am typing this post, I am viewing an interesting TV documentary 'INSIDE TOYOTA'.

Screenshot from the doc

Screenshot from the doc 

As a self driving car owner and driver who had driven my favourite Toyota Corolla 1.3 L for a few years when I was working in Southern Africa, I had first hand experiences with my indispensable car. When I returned to India, I liked to bring my car with me. But unfortunately Government of India had fixed 300% customs duty for any car new or used. Hence as it was not economically feasible, I sold my car in Southern Africa itself and bought a locally manufactured car after return from Southern Africa. 

I and my car in 1990

I and my car 1987

I still miss my Toyota Corolla. 

Shree Rudhra Paarvathi Fest

Tomorrow is a very auspicious in the Sanaathana Dharmaa Calender. Devotees perform Uma Maheswara Vratham on this day and offer special worship to Shree Rudhraa and His wife Shree Paarvathee.

Shree Paarvathee sametha Shree Rudradeva anthargatha Shree Lakshmi Narasimhaa🙏

Shree Paarvathee sametha Shree Rudradeva anthargatha Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏

Shree Paarvathee sametha Shree Rudhraa Devaa🙏

Jai Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏

Multicultural melting pot

This morning I had the opportunity of viewing two interesting documentary shows: One on DW TV and the other on Aljazeera TV. Both feaured multiculturalism. I tried to provide a link to the DW documentary in this post, but in vain; it was not listed even in DWTV'S 'Latest Episodes' and was not available on Utube.

The Aljazeera doc featured Africans and Indians recruited to work as slaves in sugar plantations in the Carribean. Despite the hardships that these people faced, Indians managed to preserve their cultural and traditions. 

Viewing the two documentaries was somewhat like reading a novel by Mark Twain.

I think that our youngsters should be guided to view such serials so that they can appreciate the values handed down by ancestors and follow them to this day.

Tigray in turbulence

This morning I heard a news report that violence has erupted again in Tigray region in Ethiopia. 

I nostalgically remember a few weeks of my stay in Makelle, capital town of Tigrai, along with my fellow country folks from India; we were teachers recruited to teach different subjects in Ethiopian Government Senior Secondary Schools. I remember our visits to restaurants, shopping centres and cinema halls that showed popular Hindi language movies from our country. 

I particularly remember one evening when I and Sebastian (Sebastian Perumcheril John), my Malayaalee colleague from Keralam, had our dinner at Abraha Castle, a castle turned restaurant. The gravy was vegetarian and made of green leaves. It was delicious. There was my favourite 'makkiatho' (strong coffee with milk).

I wish that peace returns to the region as early as possible.

Shree Lakshminaaaraayan Fest

Today is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa Calender. Devotees perform special worship to Shree Anantha Padhmanaabha Swami and perform Anantha Chathurdhashi Vratham on this day. Today is Friday; Shree Mahaa Lakshmi, wife of Lord Shree Mahaa Vishnu is the presiding Deity on Fridays.

Today special poojaas and functions are held in temples dedicated to Shree Ananthapadhmanaabha Swamee and all His Incarnations and Manifestations all over the world. There are numerous temples dedicated to Shree Anantha Padhmanaabha Swamee, such as this one.

Supreme Lord Shree Mahaa Vishnu and His wife Shree Mahaa Lakshmi 

Jai Shree Mahaa Lakshmi sametha Shree Anantha Padhmanaabha Swameejee🙏

Shree Mahaa Vishnu Fest

Tomorrow is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa Calender. Devotees perform Anantha Chathurdhashi Vratham on this day. This Vratham is also known as Anantha Vratham. I fondly remember my beloved mother performing Anantha Chathurdhashi Pooja.

My beloved parents 

Anantha Padhmanaabha Swaamee with Shree Mahaa Lakshmi 

Jai Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏