NEW AGE PUROHIT DARPAN BBBBdddd¤¢¤¢¤¢¤¢eeeeLLLL ffff¤¤−−¤¤−−llll¡¡¡¡¢¢¢¢qqqqaaaa ccccffffÑÑZZÑÑZZ Book 1 SSSSAAAARRRRAAAASSSSWWWWAAAATTTTIIII PPPPUUUUJJJJAAAA Purohit (priests) – Kanai L. Mukherjee Bibhas Bandyopadhyay General Editor – Aloka Chakravarty Arunkanti Banerjee Editor of Mantras Sovana Roychowdhury Publishers Mukherjee Publishing, Kolkata, India In collaboration with Association of Grandparents of Indian Immigrants, USA First Edition NEW AGE PUROHIT DARPAN PPPPuuuubbbblllliiiisssshhhheeeerrrrssss Mukherjee Publishing, Kolkata, India 8B/2, Temar Lane, Kolkata-700009 E-mail: [email protected] In collaboration with Association of Grandparents of Indian Immigrants, USA Home Page: agiivideo.com October 4, 2013 (jq¡mu¡, B¢nÄe 17,1420) ISBN # ii NEW AGE PUROHIT DARPAN Reviewers Ratna De Sujit Das Henry Arthur Pallerin III Arabinda Misra Manas Roy and Sukumar Ghosh Rohini Chakravarthy and Monisha Chakravarthy Arundhati Khanwalkar Aurin Chakravarthy Tara Chattoraj and Maya Chattoraj Shyamali Ghosh Saoni Ghosh Technical Assistants Shuvajit Das Shubhajeet Banerjee Anuradha Chakravarthy Rohini Chakravarthy Global Communication Dilip Som Amitabha Chakrabarti ILLUSTRATOR Monidipa Basu iv dedication This book is dedicated to The Children of Indian Immigrants – The proud bearers of Indian heritage v NEW AGE PUROHIT DARPAN vi Foreword Through many thousands of years of sustained Vedic culture, Hindus focused on their spiritual approach through unique worship (puja) rituals. The priests learnt and chanted the prayers in Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, through shruti and smriti (hear and remember). When Sanskrit was replaced by other languages in course of time, the meaning of the chants got lost. Yet the hum continued to bridge the individual’s soul with its Creator. It did not bother the devotees for being ignorant of the meaning of those chants as their deep faith filled the void. Thus a single syllable “Om” could realize the presence of the Unknown, the ekakshar (ekAxr) within us. Today the magical effect of jap (repetitive chanting) became a part of worship for all religions. Truly enough, the finest things of life have no language – love, kindness, compassion. With the spread of Hinduism over the globe, the world is now inquisitive to know the meaning of those Vedic chants which we hear during puja rituals. Our children should not feel shy to explain to the world the thought behind those rituals howsoever it may look strange and repulsive. History records India’s great contribution in shaping World Civilization through ages and our coming generation has the responsibility to carry that torch. It is so very satisfying to see that the Association of Grandparents of Indian Immigrants has taken the heavy responsibility to explain the rituals followed in Purohit Darpan. They notonly transliterated the mantras but touched on their history, significance and inner meaning of these in an understandable global language, Englsh. It is highly commendable. I pray to Lord Almighty for its success. BBBBuuuuddddhhhhaaaa DDDDeeeebbbb BBBBhhhhaaaattttttttaaaacccchhhhaaaarrrraaaayyyyaaaa Chief Priest of Kali Mandir Wasington, D.C., USA vii NEW AGE PUROHIT DARPAN UNTO HER FEET – GODDESS SARASWATI There is no distinction between secular and spiritual so far as knowledge is concerned, all knowledge is sacred. Saraswati (goddess of learning) bestows both spiritual knowledge as well as worldly knowledge on us. She represents the unity of all knowledge. Saraswati is also called ‘Vani’ (speech). She is a wonderful austere goddess, so inspiring to the human mind. The more knowledge we have, the more wealth we can create. Except through efficient work, inspired by knowledge, there is no other way to gain wealth. We cannot create wealth by magic and mystery. That lesson we have to learn. Saraswati is primary and Lakshmi is a by- product of Saraswati. Pure science is Saraswati and applied science is Lakshmi. Knowledge applied to agriculture improves the wealth of the nation, so also industry. Everywhere these two goddesses reign. Going to the university, studying various books, and contemplating on them make us the students of Saraswati. After graduation, our hard work of applying the earned knowledge on our job leads us to the worship Lakshmi. Then alone Lakshmi-kataksha or her grace will come to us. But it is also important that we should worship Saraswati once a year as earning of knowledge never stops. It also develops in us shraddha (respect for others), bhakti (sincerity) and humility (devoid of ego) so that we can be real humans what God intended us to be. I am very happy that Cyber Grandpa is publishing this book on Saraswati Puja for the new generation where the mantras are translated into simple English and histories of many of these mantras are available. The book brings to life our glorious past when we were the leader of the world civilization. I pray to goddess Saraswati that she may give us pure devotion to her holy feet. Swami Nirvikarananda Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Janakalyan Trust Mumbai, India viii VOICE OF NEW GENERATION As a child of Indian immigrants growing up in the United States, I had never considered myself to be particularly religious. I identified myself as a Hindu by default simply because of my family ties. However, I never felt comfortable expressing this openly to my friends and classmates. As one of very few non-white, non-Christian students in my school, my main goal was simply to fit in and feel as if I were the same as everyone else. While my father taught me some simple prayers to recite each morning and evening, I shied away from performing this ritual when classmates visited my home for dinner – I did not want them to see me as different, and so I would try to hide this part of myself. The experience simply made me uneasy. Despite the fact that my late father was a Maharashtrian Brahmin – a community known for its deep faith in the Hindu religion – and my mother the daughter of a Bengali priest, my family never forced Hinduism on me in any great way. At most, I enjoyed the comics of Indian folk stories, as well as the videos produced by my grandfather that brought these stories to life. However, these stories served mainly as entertainment for me and I did not seek any deeper meaning. Indeed, while my family would attend temple functions and pujas, I was never sent to “Sunday School” nor forced to learn Indian languages. In fact, I did not receive the so-called “Sacred Thread” in the Upanayan ceremony at the age most Brahmin boys do. And so I proceeded through life without giving it much thought. While I would now celebrate the opportunity to expose others to my culture, at the time I had no such desire. However, when I was in ninth grade, my father was suddenly and unexpectedly diagnosed with malignant lung cancer. Over time, we learned he was beyond any medical treatment. Perhaps feeling a sense of spiritual duty before his passing, he made it priority only weeks before his death to arrange and perform the sacred thread ceremony for my brother and myself. He approached my grandfather, the author of ix NEW AGE PUROHIT DARPAN this book, to assist with this process. Thus my brother and I received our sacred threads in a small, rushed ceremony. My father died only weeks later. While I was then officially inducted into the Brahmin fold, I still did not feel any specific change or desire to learn more about what had just happened. If anything, I was simply angry at everything that had happened; the seemingly unfair nature of my father’s passing. I still did not wear my sacred thread, for fear of seeming different from those around me. I continued to live as a typical suburban American child among my friends – this was my culture. However, as I grew older and reflected on my past, I became increasingly curious about the purpose of that ceremony, and why my father had wanted it done so badly even though he had never pushed for it during the traditionally practiced time of adolescence. I hoped to find peace with the difficult events that transpired – a way to come to terms with the past. At the same time, I grew increasingly interested in the religious practice of my grandfather whom so many people in the community respected. And perhaps most importantly, I began to ask him questions – many, many questions. Spending long rides in the car with both of my grandparents, I would continually inquire about their past. These incredible individuals led multifaceted lives as both academics and as religious leaders in their community. Through these conversations, my thirst to learn more about my culture heightened exponentially. Once in college, I took a class on Indian mythology, but that still did not satisfy my desire to learn more about cultural practices, and more importantly the reasons for their existence and the origins of the ideas. I discovered a deep-seated desire to connect the philosophical underpinnings of Hinduism with the practiced rituals. Over time, I realized that when I was young I could not develop an interest in the practices because I did not understand their significance. With the benefit of some small degree of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual maturity, I then found myself to be quite fascinated with the philosophy and associated ceremonies. While I still take part in an academic and professional community where religion is x