Jnana Yajna 9
Year & Dates:
March 6, 1955 to March 29, 1955
Yajna Topics:
Aitareya Upanishad
Place:
Kozhikode, India.
In Kozhikode, during the 21-day long ninth yajna, Pujya Gurudev extolled the glory of Aitareya Upanishad, bringing out the essence that “Consciousness is Brahman.” People from all walks of life were shown the grand vision of a spiritual unity above all visible differences.
Notable was the discipline in the growing audience who rushed out of their homes to be in perfect time every evening for Pujya Gurudev’s masterly presentation of the thought-provoking scripture. The punctuality and discipline that Pujya Gurudev personified was making a mark on the yajna audiences everywhere. Along with timeliness, the sense of sacredness for the Hindu rituals was also being revived.
Discipline and Devotion
The Akhanda Kirtan with hundreds chanting with faith and fervor, the orderly and spectacular procession of people on foot, in cars, trucks, and cycles energizing the atmosphere of Kozhikode – the glorious vitality of a disciplined Hindu outlook was evident. As in all earlier yajnas, when Pujya Gurudev walked among the seated devotees sprinkling Ganga waters from Gangotri, it was an incomparable blessing that purified all. The people were also entranced by the five-day Mahamrtyunjaya Havan that had concluded earlier. Carrying the sacred ashes from the Havan-kund, a most enthusiastic crowd accompanied Pujya Gurudev to Guruvayoor in eleven buses after the yajna concluded. Chanting the Tryambaka mantra, hundreds of devotees immersed the Havana’s ashes in the Guruvayoor temple tank; they took the Avabhruta Snanam, a sacred bath and entered the holy temple for a great darshan of Lord Krishna as Guruvayoorappa. It was an extraordinary experience of devotion, so different from a noisy worship, all because Pujya Gurudev could instill a devoted sense of discipline, both inside and outside the Yajna Shala.
In Admiration
K Vasudevan Nair records his early memories of what kept a varied audience engrossed in Pujya Gurudev’s talks: His audience generally were not merely retired officials and old men and women without much work or a vocation. Energetic youth who hurried from their officers to the Yajna Shala, without even taking their evening tea, lest they miss the introductory remarks of the Swamiji that day and lost the trend of the discourse, young students who gladly kept away from their football, tennis and other games, Cinema fans who willingly stayed away from theatres etc., besides practicing lawyers, half-starved teachers, profit-loving merchants and men and women from all walks of life vied with each other in being punctual at the Yajna Shala before Swamiji took the Adhyaksha Peetham. What is the secret behind the great Swami Chinmayananda and his hold over a large concourse of people? The discourses on tough subjects like the Upanishads and the Gita when treated by him in his simple but masterly style, combined with his ready wit and sparkling humor, enable a man or woman with average intelligence to understand and digest them. The fire in us is kindled by Swamiji. The ball is set rolling, we ponder over things.
Photo Gallery
The Aitareya Upanishad yagna is inaugurated with flag hoisting, following the tradition of the country!
The devotees, including the Maharaja of Cochin, eagerly await to receive Gurudev with Purna Kumbha
I will conduct the yagna and will also do the inauguration prayer. Repeat after Me!
Gurudev opened the portals of Vedanta to women as much as men! And the women were wrapped in attention and devotion to Him!
From young to old, from the simple-minded to scholars, all have their ears attuned to Him!
Gurudev looks on during the seva of feeding the hungry devotees.
Return back on the road by which from the Supreme you reached here and realize THY OWN SELF!
“Think,” Says Pujya Gurudev
In a portion of the city, when we want to create a park, the contractor and his creative activity are limited by the type of people that are to come and seek their recreation therein. If children are to visit, he has to create the park with the fittings common in a children’s park; if youngsters are to come to play and sweat, the contractor has to lay out fields for cricket, hockey and football, with facilities for other vigorous games, such as basket-ball, volley-ball, tennis and badminton; if old, retired people are to use the park there are to be plenty of trees and comfortable chairs in which those superannuated men can sit round and air their views and their senile bodies! Similarly, the Lord, the Creator…the Supreme, conditioned by the total Vasana’s in the Cosmos…is not free to create a world for the better or the worse, but He has to serve the totality as a contractor would his principle.
From Aitareya Upanishad Yajna Prasad Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 20,21
Similarly, in a scriptural discourse between the Guru and Shishya, the teacher sometimes flies to a point very much high where a sincere cannot easily reach in one single flight; and yet, the teacher, with the instinctive love of a mother-bird, will encourage the inner personality of the student to fly up slowly and steadily to the peak where the master stands. At rare occasions the teacher, in all love, flies back where the disciple, in sheer despair, has fallen down in intellectual exhaustion. At such moments the Guru prescribes a dose of Upasana to revive the pilgrim to greater exertion and more vigorous endeavor.
From Aitareya Upanishad Yajna Prasad Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 15
Consciousness Unveiled: “Tat Tvam Asi”
Uncover the profound teaching of “Tat Tvam Asi,” guiding you on a journey from the ego-driven existence to the essence of consciousness. Experience the joyous realm of self-discovery in this enlightening exploration of Upanishadic wisdom.