Bhakti and its need…

Over passing years, the mind has taken over the being. Humanity has fallen victim to the futility of the intellect. The emotional being suffers under the power of the intellect. As long as the being is not allowed to express itself, man will experience a deep and unexplainable void within.

Bhakti or devotion is the language of the being. It is supreme love towards Existence or God. It is love for love’s sake. It takes you to the inner chambers of the Lord, where reason dare not enter. It frees you from lust, ego, mine-ness, hatred, jealousy and greed, bringing equanimity of the mind and deep fulfillment. It fulfills all your wants and takes you beyond them.

Bhakti can be practiced by nine different ways which is called as Navavidha Bhakti. The nine different kinds are Sravana – listening to divine name, Kirtana – singing the divine name, Smarana – thinking the divine form, Padasevana – service to the divine, Archanaa – prostrations to divine name with flowers, Vandana – offering gratitude to the divine, Sakhya – to relate to divine as a friend, Dasya – to relate to the divine as a Master, and Atmanivedana – to offer the being to the ultimate. Through these nine ways the Bhakta or the devotee destroys the impurity of his mind and fixes it on God. His being overflows breaking the screens of the mind!

What is Archanaa?

Of the nine ways, Archanaa is one of the most effective ways to express gratitude to the divine. Archanaa is performed with different names usually which are 108 or 1008.

Archanaa when is done as sahasra-nAma comprises of one thousand names (of God). sahasra is one thousand and nAma is name. There are plenty of them, at least one for each particular divinity. The most well-known are the VishNu-sahasra-nAma. Nowhere else in world literature do we have anything to match these long, 'streamlined' poems, densely infused with meaning. These seemingly endless recitals of the Lord's names, glories and splendours, with no sacrifice of poetic elegance and grace are expression of intense gratitude of the Vedic rishis. Beautiful rhythmic sound effects and the elevating moods that these Chants produce must be heard and experienced to be believed!

Every sahasra-nAma describes the Lord's infinite qualities and his ananta kalyANa-guNa (infinite number of auspicious attributes). Sahasranama is a true representation of the majesty of encyclopedic exhaustiveness.

Laksha Archanaa and Collective Consciousness!

Vedic Worship is based on the truth that the whole Universe is constituted of thoughts and energy vibrations. It is alive and bubbling with our thoughts and emotions. Modern scientists have agrees on the same starting from Einstein who says there is no such thing as matter and energy separately with boundaries between the two and that the whole Universe is energy. The last statement of science and quantum physics saying that everything is energy is the first statement of the first Veda of the first Upanishad. "Isha vashyam idam sarvam" meaning, whatever exists is energy.

There had been numerous groundbreaking exploration of the science of thoughts and its benefits on an individual and his world around him. Several experiments demonstrate that a thought is what that affects things around an individual. Both inner and outer world scientists all over the world have time and again proven and still proving that thought when intensely harnessed in the inner world produces tremendous noticeable differences in the outer world. The intensity again manifolds itself when performed as a group. Thought generates intelligence that can improve your life, to help others around you, and to change the world.

When it comes to matter, when you divide, matter reduces in quantity. For example, an apple if it has to be shared by four people has to be cut into four pieces.

But, when it comes to energy, anything shared only multiplies. For example, if we have 10 volts of electricity in a wire, one person touching the wire will feel 10 volts and four people touching the same wire will also feel 10 volts.

In the same way, the powerful energy of Pujas and Homas when done by a group of people gets shared in total by the entire group. Imagine 10 ‘volts’ of energy generated by one person and 100 people all sitting together in a group worship. 10x100=1000 volts!

Vedic worship is the most effective when performed as a group. With the collective consciousness expressed in the intense vibration of the energy field of the worship space, miracles can happen! Peace, harmony and celebrations would naturally manifold and become abundant in the society around us preventing us from threats of crime and natural calamities. Vedic worship is the best way to keep the society in absolute balance and harmony!

One of the most effective methods to experience collective consciousness intensely is through “laksha archanaaa”. In the southern parts of India whenever any collective religious worship is planned or intended, recitation of sahasra-nAma with flower offerings is performed. This is the most sanctified way in which these sahasra-nAmas are used. Each name is taken, prefixed by AUM and suffixed by NAMAH: thus, aum vishnave namah. This simply means, Prostrations to Vishnu. The importance of Aum for Hinduism is well known. This way all the names in the sahasra-nAma are repeated to make up one thousand and eight prostrations in the form of flower offerings to the deity. Such a ritual pooja is called a sahasra nama archanaaa. A far more intensive version of this which radiates collective consciousness is for several people to sit together, perform the Archanaa in chorus and finish in a prefixed time (usually several days, each day for a certain number of hours) one hundred such sahasra naama archanaas, counting the number of archanaas according to the multiplicity of people who joined in the chorus. This composite congregational programme is called a laksha archanaa (laksha = 100,000) since the recital of the different people for the several days adds up to 100,000 repetitions of God's names.

Come and join us in this intense pooja in the living energy field and contribute to the collective conciousness to radiate intense bliss, peace and prosperity across the globe!!

Laksha Archanaa of Vishnu sahasranaama will be performed to Lord Venkateswara.

Lord Venkateswara , or Tirupati Balaji, is the presiding deity of theTirumala temple in India. Ven-kata in Sanskrit means one who can remove away one's sins. It is believed that attachment to the deity's image showers the devotee with immense joy, prosperity and fortune for a deep fulfilled life!

Participate and enjoy the blissful happening!

If you wish to have the Laksha Archanna done on your behalf, either at our temple or in your home, please call on us at: 626-205-3286 and ask for our Pujaacharya Ma Nithyananda Praba.
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