Using the ancient technology of Vedic Yagyas
to solve modern day problems.
Yagya Status Update


Yagya Friends,

I want to thank all of you who have expressed concern for the safety and health of our dedicated priests and pundits. I have been in close contact with all three of our locations and all is well and both the group and private yagyas are taking place as planned.

Our Navaratri program in Kanchipuram is the main event this month. All of the priests live close to our yagya facility and have no trouble reaching the facility to perform our yagyas.

Seetharam, who manages the yagya performance for us, lives in Bangalore and due to the travel restrictions currently in place, won't be present in Kanchipuram to supervise directly. He has been on the phone every day making sure that the yagyas are being performed properly.

In fact, this situation is working to our advantage because Seetharam is performing Navaratri yagyas himself at his home. That means that we are enjoying the benefit of twice as many yagyas as originally planned. Ganesha is looking out for us!

We always start with an extra yagya day for Ganesha to remove all obstacles to the completion of the Navaratri yagya series. Seetharam performed the Ganesha yagya with our traditional offering of 1008 modaka into the yagya fire. Photos follow below.

We perform many of the private yagyas in Pune and they are already completed for the month.

In Varanasi, the yagya ashram includes residential facilities for the pundits and those yagyas are continuing as well. Private yagyas in April will be available without any interruption of the schedule.

I live in Washington state and we are under stay-at-home orders for the foreseeable future. I've moved my office to my home so I can continue to work on Puja.net. I am focused on creating a lot of content. New audio and video additions are listed in the "What's New" section at the top right of the opening page.

I'm also planning on sending out fairly frequent newsletters since I think we all need some uplifting entertainment. My video production skills are improving and you'll be seeing more video posted on Facebook.com/PujaPhotos and on my YouTube channel.

For now, please enjoy photos from the beginning of Navaratri.

If there is anything we can do to be of assistance please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Very best regards,

Ben Collins

All of our daily yagya programs are continuing uninterrupted. This includes the Abundance, Daily, Saturn/Rahu-Ketu, Navagraha, Mrytunjaya, and Foundation Yagyas.
The Ganesha yagya begins with pujas and offerings of fruit, flowers, and coconuts, among other items.
Modaka are a special sweet of toasted coconut inside a fried dough shell.

Traditionally they are considered to be a special favorite of Ganesha.
The structure that contains the yagya fire is called a "homa kund" and is constructed on the roof of Seetharam's house just outside his private pooja room.
In the vedic tradition, Agni - the god of fire - acts as a messenger who consumes the yagya offerings and delivers them to the appropriate deity.
The fuel for the yagya fire are dung cakes which burn cleanly and absorb the offerings of ghee making for a long lasting fire which gradually consumes the modaka.
In Kanchipuram, the day begins, as it always does, with Rudra abishekam and the recitation of Sri Rudram from the Yajur Veda. After that is completed, there are extensive pujas and recitations of mantras to invoke the presence and blessings of the ten Dasa Maha Vidyas.
The goddesses receive their own abishekam of milk, curd, turmeric, and sandalwood. In the above photo Durga is on the left, Lakshmi in the center and Saraswati on the right.

These three are the primary manifestations of the goddess and the Maha Vidya are elaborations on the fundamental qualities of the goddesses; power, abundance and wisdom.
After the pujas and abishekam are completed, the yagya fire is lit and offerings of ghee are made while mantras are chanted.
T he final offerings are made into the fire and it burns brightly for quite a while.


The last step is to offer final mantras to the Maha Vidyas. You can see we have one kalasa pot for each Maha Vidya. They are all different manifestations of Shiva's wife Parvati and Shiva has a kalasa also behind them.
The offering of light from burning camphor concludes the day's activities.