Ten Day Yagya Program

Each month the Puja.net yagya program offers a series of yagyas appropriate to the time of year and the traditional Vedic calendar.

In most cases, the events consist of 9 days of yagyas, followed by 1 day of Temple Yagyas for a total of ten days. Shivaratri in early spring time (12 days), and Navaratri (11 days) in the fall are longer programs as is necessary due to the complexity of the yagya rituals.

The daily program begins around 8 AM when the 5 priests perform pujas (offerings of flowers and fruit) to Ganesha to remove any obstacles to the completion of the yagyas, followed by the 5 forms of the divine appropriate to the Shankara tradition of our pundits. These are Ganesha, Subramanya, Shiva, Vishnu, the Divine feminine, and the 9 planets.

As a part of the introductory pujas, the priest perform the ritual known as sankalpam during which the names of the individuals participating in the yagyas are read along with their lunar nakshatra and the names of any family members who are being included.

After the pujas and sankalpam have been completed, the priests will perform the vedic ritual known as Abishekam, during which liquid offerings of water, milk, sandalpaste, ghee, yogurt, sugar cane water, and others depending on the season, are poured over the small statues of the deities. As these offerings are being made, the pundits recite various mantras form the Vedas, most notably Sri Rudram and Chammakam, Sri Suktam (Lakshmi), Durga Suktam (Durga), Purusha Suktam (Vishnu), Bagya Suktam, Pancha Shanti, Navagraha Slokas and Mantras, and others as appropriate.

After the Abishekam, the priest perform the same series of deity rituals only this time making offerings of ghee and wood into the sacred yagya fire while the vedic mantras are recited. Generally the yagya is completed around 1:00 PM.

A detailed description of the yagya program for the upcoming month is distributed in the monthly newsletter that is mailed out the first week of each month. Details for the current month's yagyas are always available on the opening page of the puja.net site.