Krishna and the Mountain...Govardhan Puja and Karma Yoga!

Meady's Musings Production does not own this picture or its rights and a re-print of it can be bought on this site.

It's the funniest thing...discussing the festival of Diwali and how it's celebrated world over with a friend...I came to thinking...well in many parts of the world Diwali is celebrated as a many days festival and as such on one of the days depending on the part of India you are in or from where in India your ancestors came Govardhan Puja is performed.

Now our point of raising this here on the prayers is to do with some of the series we have had on here before...in particular the God series where we explored God as water but we didn't explore however God as rain did we?...but it is interesting and it is why we are bringing this up on the prayers now...God as rain or rainfall in Hinduism is personified as the God Indra...he is also God of Gods or Deva hi Dev or God of the God Kingdom or God of Heaven or King of Heaven i.e. svargaloka.

Now we can see how rain or rainfall can be personified as a deity on its own i.e. deified especially by peoples of the past and rural peoples of today as in an agrarian society one needs rainfall to get those crops growing and flourishing...and it's how our stories here on the prayers begin and tie in....

Govardhan puja is done to celebrate the great mountain and the act of Krishna while incarnate on earth lifting it to shelter a village form the wrath of Indra...as he was pouring down his rain...because you see he had made it that the farmers at the time had to pray to him to get rainfall for their crops but the thing is when the farmers had to spend this whole chunk of time preparing and praying to him...well they couldn't tend their crops. And so Krishna said to them:

"Why do this? You people are farmers and should be spending your time tending to your crops not praying for rain! LOL! Are you people crazy! LOL!"

But the people said:

"Oh Krishna but we must as if we don't Indra will get mad! Really mad and we will either not have enough rain to nourish our crops or either he will rain down his wrath on us and flood out all our crops."

"So Krishna went on and on expounding his view of Karma yoga...recall this post here...and he told the people he would deal with Indra and they should tend their crops."

Now Indra got mad...he did get really mad! And he rained and rained his wrath down...but Krishna the supreme being that he is...lifted up Goverdhan hill with his finger and shelthered the entire village...crops, villagers, cows and all! So hence Krishna is seen to have defeated or humbled Indra...who came and asked for forgiveness...so the lessons learnt are that although the elements and nature can be worshipped they are just part of the whole. And the Universal or Supreme One himself, her or itself in this case personified by Krishna in the end is incharge. And such a being does not act on pride nor requires grand prayers and offerings onto to him,her or it to perform their roles. It's what they must do...in the same way so too we have roles that we should perform well...i.e. perform karma yoga...right action...that is each of us have our roles to act out...and we should act them out as well as we can! Indra, you, Krishna and me and all of us here on the prayers! :)Because even the Supreme One personified here as Krishna never asked to be glorified for what he did...he was just doing his karma to preach to the villagers and then to lift the mountain to protect them from the wrong actions of Indra as he Krishna is the Supreme One and as such his role is to do these things! LOL!

So Karma Yoga it is! :)

But we all in the end like to give praise even though it's not needed so when the farmers had done tending their crops and like us...when we are done with our daily chores...they did join in UCP:Universal Collective Prayers and although Krishna and the hill were just doing their jobs...the villagers honoured the great mountain for sheltering them and Krishna for lifting it and there you have it they performed Govardhan puja! :) Prayers from the heart...not extortion (you see because Indra was saying if you didn't pray to him he'd not do his role and that was just wrong man!)...and prayers not instead of your other work but after all your work is done!

Don't mind the accents of the Hare Krishnas from ISKCON here in the Youtube vid below showing the Govardhan puja as even if their mouths form the Sanskrit and Hindi words kinda badly their hearts are in the right place...and they're Bhaktivedantas after all so that's all good! And the beautiful picture at the top of the blog is also an original ISKCON print if I'm not mistaken!

Happy Diwali 2010 with Wonkie Cartoons!

UCP-Universal Collective Prayer has been on a kinda go slow...remember us saying so!

So we've decided to blatantly plagiarise a blog from another place to keep up with the Diwali celebs on the prayers...well with credit so it's legal...well not really plagiarise anyway seeing as it's really just a link back...but here is the cartoon from the top of the blog...



And since the cartoon speaks of Amitabh Bachchan we here at UCP thought we would just let you know of how he is in reality spending Diwali right now in India in his own words according to this article:

"Superstar Amitabh Bachchan when asked about his Diwali plans said, “”My father’s marked verse on the Ramayana shall be read, a gentle prayer shall go up for all, from all; sweets and bonuses shall be disbursed to staff by members of the family. There are now preparations on for Diwali, the lights for the house are being put up. The simple single toned white-yellow lights will be put all over the boundary and ceiling of the house and once up, they will be switched on when we shall finish our Diwali puja and light the first lamp.”

Well as far as we see Big B is going traditional way and we will definitely see the junior B with the Bachchan bahu celebrating Diwali."

And for sure in his own words with these twittering tweets from his Twitter account:

"# T175 -A united family is a model of unlimited strength ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -Just back from a family jamboree ! Nothing in the universe can ever be a bigger force than the coming together of family !! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -The greatest joy of life is to live up to commitment ! Give all to receive all ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 - सुख शांति आप सब के जीवन में सदा बनी रहे . मंगलम मंगलम मंगलम ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -लक्ष्मी माता देवी का स्वरुप आप सभी के घरों मे प्रवेश हो . यही इस्वर से प्रार्थना है . about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -दीपावली की अनेक अनेक शुभकामनाएं . ये वर्ष, हर वर्ष आप सब के जीवन में खुशियाँ ही खुशियाँ लाये . आप सब का जीवन मंगलमय हो . नमस्कार about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -A most prosperous Deepavali to all ..may all the Gods and Goddesses shower their unstinted bounty on you .. be environment conscious ! about 6 hours ago via web

# T175 -It is remarkable how sufficient water intake can revive energy ... just did some gallons of it and feeling like conquering the world ! about 20 hours ago via web

# T175 -Up and about ... intake of water is minimal and need to improve that .. pooja in the house today ..and tomorrow .. love festivity about 20 hours ago via web "

UCP's Ode to Diwali!

Remember we said if we were having any particular Diwali fun here at UCP we'd come share it with you all...although in general we here at UCP are on a bit of a go easy until the launch of the Advent calendar for 2010. Well we've been having that particular fun and so here we go! Here's a UCP poem for ya...it was developed for a small Diwali function that we are a part of organising yearly and was read by a lovely lady there at the function! It's particularly about Diwali or Divali (as it is often spelt there)as it evolved in the country of Trinidad and Tobago which is the home of the Meady's Musings Production House that houses the producers of UCP! So although UCP normally spells Diwali with the 'w' throughout this particular ode you will see it spelt as Divali with the 'v'. Although UCP normally goes with the 'w' spelling to cater for the wider audience it banters too...after all it is UCP-Universal Collective Prayer and so not just for those in Trinidad and Tobago and most other parts of the Hindu world spells it with the 'w'.

So here it goes...UCP's Ode to how Divali evolved in Trinidad and Tobago as it came as a festival with the indentured labourers in the 19th century from India and then grew into a national celebration!

Divali-An Evolution

A UCP poem written in free verse or shall we say the dance that is UCP! :)

You came in the hearts of ancestors
From a continent far away
Your light burned brightly within those souls
That occupied bodies that toiled and toiled

The Ramayan they read and often sang
As your deeyas they lit to celebrate the return of Raja Ram
For he is the hero of that great epic
That Sant Tulsidas had spun

The Goddess Lakshmi on your special evening came
To homes made of mud, bamboo and tapia grass
Prayers were said and then deeyas were lit
The villages came alive
With a thousand lights and smiles
One neighbour offerred food and drink to the other
Gifts were unwrapped and new things begun

And so you came to them and then us
Year after year after year
And we continued to celebrate your arrival
With good faith, reverence, cheer and prayer

The festivities began to spread
Whole villages gathered
To extol Shri Ram in the form of village theatre
A leela is a story and a story is a leela
So this story of Ram is Ramleela
And some of us have done this leela a 100 years since this year

We continued to gather to celebrate you
Bamboo bursting
Small stages performers began to alight
However on that one special night
All the villagers still stayed at home
To welcome the Goddess Lakshmi
And to bright deeyas light

Then we became independent
And the festivities continued to become more abundant
Larger events were held
Festivities came to towns
Garlanded mayors sang songs of praise
Your flame grew brighter
As momentum for you grew and grew
Oh Divali we so loved you
So much so that in '86 in your name a village was born
Divali Nagar it was named
You see you now had your own village
And wait that's not all...

Love for you continued to overwhelm us
Every office and company started to sing your praise
To celebrate you became the vogue
Your name had spread throughout the nation
You became a tourist sensation
Everyone wanted to dress for you in Indian fashions

And today Oh Divali
Your lights continue to burn brightly
Not only in the hearts of a few
But in the hearts of a nation
For you, Divali this must be overwhelming
To see your praise go on in weeks of celebration
To see brilliant fireworks displays
To have your own personal village
To be celebrated across the nation

But one thing Divali I'm sure must make your heart the warmest
Is that despite the evolution of you and us
Your light still burns brightly within our souls
We still as a people toil and toil
We still welcome the Goddess Lakshmi to our homes
And still special deeyas we light so bright
As with loved ones with sit in prayer and celebration
For on that special day named after you...
It is Divali!

Happy Diwali 2009!- Let There Be Light!

This year at my company's Diwali celebration I was asked to give the opening prayer and then explain a bit about it in relation to our theme that was very straightly focussed on Diwali this year as it was about "The Light of True Knowledge"

At first I felt a bit daunted by it...first of all I'm a blogger but I don't like the big official speeches! And to go on and break from convention in that most people just say opening prayers at functions as formalities...they dont explain them! :) Plus as readers of this blog might know true prayer is like a dance not to be taken all serious and buttoned down for me! :) Although I can see it being serious too if you are all in Shiv like meditation but formality? It does take away from the prayers...but it was also I realised in the end like taking my Universal Collective Prayer blog on the road! :) And although I started off a bit uncomfortably especially having to brave microphone issues...I felt the dance of UCP in the end! :) So I'd like to share that joy of coming up with the prayers here with you! :)

I tend to figure things out not just say them for so...it's my nature...prakriti...so...I asked myself what is true knowledge? What is this light of true knowledge in Hinduism? I even read a few pages of encyclopedic synopsis on Hinduism in preparing for my prayer and was happy to see how diverse and large the Hindu diaspora is in following...about 300,000 in Trinidad and >1M in places like the US and South Africa. I was contemplating saying something to honour Ganesh first and then saying the universal hindu prayer on light...the Shanti mantra...Asatoma sadgamaaya...but wasn't sure exactly...but then right there at the heart of the article my initial thoughts were confirmed...even the encyclopedic synopsis felt that those verses from the Upanishad was the heart of not just Diwali but Hinduism...really those few lines does sum up the very core of Hinduism doesn't it?

Asato Ma Sat Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.


Translation:

Lead Us From the Unreal To Real,
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Aum (the universal sound of God)
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.

Later on I would hear that even President Obama used it in his Diwali speech!:) And all over the web I found all this talk about its use in the Matrix movies...

However in all my preparation I found this lovely little channel on Youtube to be the most helpful and lovely of them all... and I will attach from that lovely little channel- Edewcate, the three groups of prayers I recited in the end. Edewcate really is a neat little simplistic site for anyone wanting to learn about lots of stuff not just kids but people who approach things like them as Jesus said...with the heart of a child-Hey, it's really the only way to learn! :)







And then for my explanation I decided to talk about my cute little Ishq Devata- Ganesh! :) and why prayers to him always comes first to remove all obstacles..Then I explained some of the stories in Hinduism that explains why in the 2nd set of verses the prayer says "to destroy my enemy's intellect! "...citing Rawan and the emperor of Holi fame! :) And on the whole that prayer asked for the enlightened beings to come help me...so I envisioned it in that order...pray to Ganesh to remove obstacles to even ensure the rest of the prayers goes well...then...ask other enlightened beings to help me out especially when around beings of very little light and then to reflect on my own issues through meditation...reflected in those lines of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.


And tonight on the prayers I'd like to wish everyone a Happy and Holy Diwali 2009! :)

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti!

It's Diwali Time!

It's Diwali time and from the Piarco International Airport here in Trinidad to central where the heart of Diwali stays as the Diwali Nagar to down south in the heart of the oil industry there are displays and shows galore! I just thought I'd share with you some footage from my adventures so far.