Travel back to Bangalore

We started from Mantralayam on 19th itself since 20th was Ekadasi and as not preferred. It is is always better to head back from Mantralayam by taking teertha prasada and on the day of Ekadasi there is no prasada.



On the way back we had the birthday celebraions

Upanayana

Upanayana

Pooja Samagri: 

• Flowers
• Fruits
• 
  

Procedure:

On the day of the Pooja, do the Enne Sastra

Travel to Mantralayam

We started travel to Mantralayam on Thursday 18th Oct

Devarasamaradhane

Devarasamaradhane 

Pooja Samagri: 

• Flowers
• Fruits
• Cha

Procedure:

On the day of the Pooja, do the Enne Sastra. Two married ladies need to do the enne shastra for the family (Mother, Father, son and the kalashgitti). They also do kadalaarathi to the family. Then, the family needs to stand under the chapra and okhli neeru needs to be done. Basically Okhli neeru means, Water with sunna and haldi is kept. 
In the actual process, the family is made to sit under the chapra. Five glasses are kept around them and hasi dhara is use to connect the 5 glasses. After applying kumkum to the family, the Okhli neeru is put on them. This water should fall on the head and the back. They then go and take head bath.

Warlu kallu, Beeso kallu and onake pooje: Previous day itself make sure to wash and clean the warlu kallu, Beeso Kallu and Onake. Apply sunna to all of them in such a way that it looks decorated. Immediately apply Haldi dots on it such that it turns red and looks like kumkum. We can also decorate more with paint etc. 
During the pooja, tie Arshanada Kombu with hasi dhara to each one of them (kallu).  First do Ganesha pooja first. In a small plate keep Ganesha idol, do the Ganesha ashtothra, sing Ganesha songs and do pooja. Put flowers and gajje vastra. Do agarbatti pooja. Also do nevidya with banana on beetle leaves with beetle nuts. Then do haldi kumkum pooja and put flowers to the kallu. Put gajje vastra also. There are songs that are sung during the pooja time. Now we need to use the kallu. In the Warlu kallu, put arshanada kombu and Wheat. Use Onake and hit it to make powder. It will be a coarse powder only. Now, put some wheat in the beeso kallu and grind it. Add wheat flour as well to the beeso kallu since the wheat does not grind into fine powder. Once it is ground into coarse flour, mix it with the powder from the Warlu kallu. Take some wheat grains in a plate and put one finger ring in it. Cover it with another plate. This should be put in the mother's pallu and the son has to find the ring. It is like a small game. This should be done 3 times. Each time the son finds the ring, he should say, "muttu kande, hawala kande, muthinante janeevara kanutene". Again do the warlu pooje with haldi and kumkum. Now mix the coarsely ground flour with little water and make a thick paste. Take a white towel which was dipped in haldi water and dried previous day itself. Put small sandige using this paste on the towel. All the 5 ladies and the mother and son should put the sandige. Others can also put. Each one should keep 5 sandige. Do haldi kukum pooja to the sandige too. Offer flowers too. Now 2 ladies do aarthi to god and pooja to all the new items that have been purchased for the function. They do the aarthi to the family also. Then the mother does pooja to all the new items. She also does pooja to the kalasha which the kalashgitti holds. In the Kalash put 5 beetle leaves, some water and haldi and kumkum.

Chapparada Pooje:

Yellamadevi Pooja

1. Yellamadevi Pooja

Pooja Samagri: 

• Flowers
• Fruits
• Saree
• Baaginada Items (Mara, etc...

Procedure:

Day before the Pooja - Give Haldi (from home) and coconut oil to the lady invited for the pooja. She is going to be treated as devi. This lady should be from the lower cast.
Day of the Pooja - 

1. Take head bath and everybody in the house should observe fast until Devi has her food.
2. Fast until the lady has the lunch
3. Prepare the lunch. Include Holige, Ambode
4. Perform Yellamma devi Pooja.
• Do regular pooja with haldi, kumkum, flowers etc
• Do Ashtottara
• Play Yellamma Songs
• Hurna aarti should be done
5. Once the invitee arrives, do the following
• Arrange for lunch
• Do the Paada pooja. Make sure to give saree with blouse piece, bangles, haldi - kumkum and flowers.
• Udi tumbabeku. Raw rice, coconut half with fried gram, jaggery and dried dates. Offer all this to the devi (the lady who has been invited).
• All members of family shall do namaskaara to the devi and take her blessings
• Only after the invitee has had food, all the family members can break fast and have lunch

Upanayana Procedures

Upanayana is one of the key occasions that we as parents have to perform as part of our responsibilities towards our kids. After this ritual, vatu gets the permission to enrol for Veda vidyabhyasa and following Hindu traditions.

Upanayana is a very elaborate ceremony similar to the scale of the wedding and includes many pre-rituals leading up to the actual ceremony. Below is the list of procedures that we performed as part of Aditya's Upanayana.

Gotra: Atreyasa
Veda: Rigveda
Mutt: Uttaradi Mutt

1. Yellamadevi Pooja

2. Devarasamaradhane 

3. Upanayana

Swamiji blessed us with the dates for Aadi's Upanayana !!

Background:

I have tried to arrange for Upanayana couple to times before but it was not possible due to one or the other reason.  Both Mamata and I were very frustrated that the right time is not coming along.

In the very first attempt in 2014 we had decided the dates and also had got the presents for all the attendees. But we had to cancel it because there was some clash with the dates for few key stakeholders.

our second attempt was in 2017 but had to cancel again as the dates was not convenient for few key stakeholders.

Then in 2017 / 2018 our quest to get the date and perform Upanayana became stronger. Also we had made up our mind that come what may we will go ahead with the ceremo y regardless of who can make it or not.

Main objective was to have the Upanayana done for Aadi and make him eligible to learn the hindu Vedas and rituals at the right age.

One we had made up our mind it was slightly easy to look for dates as the dependencies got drastically reduced. 

I reached out to Ananth ji (Dwarapalakaru for Mantralayam Swamiji ) on  28-Apr-2018 requesting him to speak to Swamiji and help me with the dates. 

He connected me with Nageshachar to get the dates finalized based on kids and our horoscopes. Our plan was to peform the Upanayana for both Aadi and Aarav together. Nageshachar provided us fee dates that met our criteria. But unfortunately none of the dates fit well within our requirements and we had to forego those dates. This was very depressing for us.

Meeting Swamiji !!
Prasanna, Deepu and I went to Mantralayam to do the seva. As part of this visit, I wanted to meet Swamiji to take his blessings and also seek his permission and the date for performing Aadi's Upanayana.

All three of us did the sankalpa to do the 3 day seva Starting from Thur 26th July to Sat 28th July. These 3 days were very peaceful and fulfilling for us. We engaged ourselves in doing the Rayara save in every possible way. Participating in picking the prasadam, managing the Panchamrutha distribution, preparing the Mantrakshata, cleaning the premises etc.. One of the days we got the opportunity to do Panju Seva. Prasanna and I did the Panju Seva under the guidance of Narasimha Achar.

Anant Ji, helped us meet with Swamiji to take his blessings. We requested him to pose the question of Upanayana dates. Swamiji was very kind to bless us and also give us the dates. 

Option 1 : Vijayadashami

Option 2: Rayara Aradhane

Option 2 was ruled out just because of the immense crowd and all the Achar's being very busy with aradhane. So option 1 was the only date we could go with.

Also Swamiji said that we could perform Upanayana for both Aadi and Aarav on the same day. He said that both brothers can have the Upanayana done on the same day. Only restriction is that 3 brothers cannot have Upanayana done on the same day but 2 brothers is OK.

Swamiji blessed me with Phala Mantrakshate and also with a taayata assuring that Upanayana will happen without any hindrance.