Salutations to Sri Ramana Maharshi

Posted by: satramana | June 10, 2017

Annaprashan for Shashwati

June 3, 2017

Devotees at SAT celebrate Shashwati’s Annaprashan.

(Samskaras are, in one context, the diverse rites of passage of a human being from conception to cremation, signifying milestones in an individual’s journey of life in Hinduism. Annaprashan samskara is celebrating a baby’s first taste of solid food.

In Hinduism, the samskaras vary in number and details according to regional traditions. They range from the list of 48 samskaras in the Gautama Dharmasutras from about the middle of 1st millennium BCE, to 16 samskaras in the Gryhasutras texts from centuries later. The list of samskaras in Hinduism include both external rituals such as those marking a baby’s birth and a baby’s name giving ceremony, as well as inner rites of resolutions and ethics such as compassion towards all living beings and positive attitude. – Wikipedia)

Some Hindus will perform all the samskaras, while others will perform only a few that are meaningful and significant to them.

Below we share Shashwati’s Annaprashan in images and recitations.

Happily, Shashwati looks on at the activities of the day.

Raghunatha and Jyothi, parents of Shashwati, along with other devotees prepare prasadam for the event.

Janani plays with Shashwati while preparations are made.

Nome and Ganesh discuss the order of offerings.

Devotees gather in the Sri Sadisvara Mandiram and Nome reads from the Taittiriya Upanishad

From the Taittiriya Upanishad:

II.ii.1

All beings that rest on the earth are born verily from food. Besides, they live on food, and at the end, they get merged in food. Food was verily born before all creatures; therefore it is called the medicine for all. Those who worship food as Brahman acquire all the food. Food was verily born before all creatures; therefore it is called the medicine for all. Creatures are born of food; being born, they grow by food. Since it is eaten and it eats the creatures, it is called food.

III.vii.1

His vow is that, he should not deprecate food. The vital force is verily the food, and the body is the eater; for the vital force is lodged in the body. (Again, the body is the food and the vital force is the eater, for) the body is fixed on the vital force. Thus (the body and vital force are both foods; and) one food is lodged in another. He who knows thus that one food is lodged in another, gets firmly established. He becomes a possessor and an eater of food. He becomes great in progeny, cattle, and the lustre of holiness and great in glory.

III.x.5-6

He who knows thus, attains, after desisting from this world, this self made of food. After attaining this self made of food, then attaining this self made of vital force, then attaining this self made of mind, then attaining this self made of intelligence, then attaining this self made of bliss, and roaming over these worlds with command over food at will and command over all forms at will, he continues singing this sama song: Oh! Oh! Oh! I am the food, I am the food, I am the food; I am the eater, I am the eater, I am the eater; I am the unifier, I am the unifier, I am the unifier; I am the first born of this world consisting of the formed and the formless, I am earlier than the gods. I am the navel of immortality. He who offers me thus, protects me just as I am. I, food as I am, eat him up who eats food without offering. I engulf the entire universe. Our effulgence is like that of the sun. This is the Upanishad.

Two bowls of sweet rice are offered. One to Sri Ganapati and the other to Siva Lingam.

Mother Jyothi and Shashwati look on during the ceremony.

Shashwati looks rather serious about the whole matter!

Father Raghunatha and Shashwati meditate during the ceremony.

While waiting for the feeding, sister Saieesha and father Raghunatha meditate, as Shashwati examines her hand saying, “I am not this gross body, I am not the five cognitive sense organs, nor am I the five vital airs. I am not the mind and I am not nescience, too! I am not the eater. I am the Self, which alone is.”

Devotees recite from the Bhagavad Gita and Annapurna Stotram.

From the Bhagavad Gita

brahmārpaṇaṃ brahma havirbrahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam

brahmaiva tena gantavyaṃ brahmakarmasamādhinā 4-24

Brahman is the offering, Brahman the oblation ; by Brahman is the oblation poured into the fire of Brahman ; Brahman verily shall be reached by him who always sees Brahman in action.

ahaṃ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṃ dehamāśritaḥ

prāṇāpānasamāyuktaḥ pacāmyannaṃ catur-vidham 15-14

Abiding in the body of living beings associated with prana and apana as Vaishvanara, I digest the four-fold food.

om pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidam pūrṇātpūrṇamudacyate

pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevavaśiṣyate

oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

Om. That is the perfectly full. This is the perfectly full. From the perfectly full, the perfectly full springs. Of the the perfectly full, having taken the perfectly full, the perfectly full alone remains. Om Peace, Peace, Peace.