Sri Vidya Temple and The Ekadasa Rudra Homam Event

So David and I traveled way outside our bubble this time.  We were home being bored and saw in our local paper that there was a very rare Hindu event taking place just 28 miles from where we live, and it was open to the public.  We took the opportunity to see and experience something that the Hindu’s believe have never been attempted in the US and it’s rarely been done outside the US.  So what a chance this was.

When we arrived we went to the information tent to see what this was all about.  A nice surprise was they had volunteers that would give you a tour and explain everything.  Thank goodness there was an information packet to take too because there is way to much information to absorb at once.

Let’s start with the Temple. The Temple building was built on a cowshed (pasture) and therefore trampled by cow’s feet. This is a sign of auspiciousness. The property itself lies between two rivers, one flowing south and the other flowing north. This creates a very rare “Varuna Pradakshina” which is also propitious for establishing a temple. Moreover, the land slopes down toward the east and a cemetery is located to the north-east. While walking the property they found a trisulam, naturally formed on an oak tree. The combination of all these features made the property ideal and unique for building a temple.

Every twelve years Kumbhabhishekam is performed. This is the spiritual and physical renovation of the temple. Kumbhabhishekam ensures that the spiritual energy of the temple does not gradually decline, but is always retained. For this sake, they were holding an 11 day Athirudram event that will not only ebergize, and spiritually cleanse the temple, but the surrounding area and all the people involved.

40 years ans 40 days is the time it would take you to finish 1 Athirudram if you chanted 1 Rudram a day. It will take 121 Homa Kartas 11 Rudrams a day, for 11 days to complete the same amount. Athirudram is considered the most powerful of all rituals from Vedas. Homa, or “Fire Sacrifice”, is considered the most effective form of ritual. So, performing Athirudram Mahayagnam (a chant that is over 6000 years old) where every line is accompanied by an offering made into the sacrificial fire, is by far the most auspicious event possible. We have included a short video of this below. It really does not show the entire scope of this event. Keep in mind that the temperature outside was 94 degrees! The main tent that the ritual was being performed was nicely done. They had fans blowing out the smoke and blowing fresh air in. It was surrounded by beautiful pots and conk shells (that faced north) that were filled with water and spice. The water and spice is said to collect the energy from the chants. At the end of the event, on July 11th, there will be a processional of all the pots and conk shells with the water. The water will then be poured over the statue to re-energize the temple and it’s powers. There is a wire that is strung from inside the tent to the temple’s main statue that will also collect and re-energize the temple.

They invite you to walk around the main tent to observe and collect some of the energy yourself. You must walk clockwise. They explained, this is because your blood flows clockwise in your body. So you must walk clockwise, even around the property and the temple.

This, as you can imagine, was a lot to absorb. I did not remember all of this. This information was generously provided in the information packets. There’s so much I didn’t explain. Please feel free to visit the temple’s website, www.esrividya.org, or the website www.atirudram.com/srividya/ for more information on this event, and the temple. Here is a nice link, www.democratandchronicle.com, to our local newspaper that wrote a nice article describing this event. It was very interesting and we are glad we went. Here are some more pictures of this event and the statues inside the temple. The statues represent there Gods and protectors. They were gracious enough to let us take pictures and video, we did ask first.