Today morning , at Divya Saketham, the program commenced with ‘Garuda patam a:vishkarana’ .
After completing the A:dhivasa homam and honors to Garuda, Garuda patam, the picture of Garuda was taken before the feet of the Lord to seek permission. The Lord granted Him permission for the uthsavams.
Then, Garuda patam along with the Lord were brought out near the dhwaja sthamba. A:ra:dhana was performed to the dhwajasthamba and all the devathas were invited to come and preside over the uthsavam. The garuda patam was hoisted by HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji amidst chanting of Vedic manthras. Prasadam was offered to Garudalvar.  This prasadam ‘havis’ was distributed to barren women as the scriptures said that whoever eats this prasadam will be blessed with a good child.
After this program, the Lord was taken to the Ya:gasa:la. Rituals were conducted to invoke agni devatha. There are 3 types of Agni and each agni is generated using a different procedure.
- Ba:la:gni — This agni is created by churning two sticks. The fire thus created from friction is used for yajnas, homas, consecration of temples and doing homas to fulfill desires.
- Yuva:gni – This agni is created by focusing a magnifying glass on the dry grass blades. This agni is used for all uthsavams in the temple.
- Vruddha:gni – This agni exists in the kitchens of old traditional temples such as Sri Rangam and Sundara bahu Swamy. Here the fire is never extinguished. No one has any clue since how long the fire is existing in this manner. This fire also exists in the houses of great Vedic scholars or people who upkeep the traditions.
For the Bramhothsavams, the yuva:gni was lit and taken to the kunda on the western side. From there, the fire was passed to the remaining homakundas.  In the Yagasala, Lord is worshipped in 5 forms – air, water, fire, earth and space.
Lord within the fire is worshipped through Yajna kunda, God  in the space is worshipped through mandala, Lord in the water is worshipped using  kumba, Lord in Earth is represented by the bimbam, the Yajna Murthi and the chanting of manthras by the priests represents the Lord residing in air. Then Lakshmi Narayana puja was performed, concluded by purna:huthi.
In the afternoon, the Vedic students performed skits, dances and yoga exercises. The audience was spell bound seeing the young kids perform so well.
The evening program started with homam and purnahuthi. It was raining heavily. Everyone thought that the thiruveedhi , procession of Lord will be cancelled. But, to everyone’s amazement, rain stopped, The atmosphere became pious. Lord Krushna sitting under the Kalpavruksha came out decked up in all finery. He grabbed the hearts of all the devotees. They danced  merrily and sang His glories.
After the procession, Lord entered the temple. The program concluded with thirttham and prasadam.
To everyone’s surprise, the rain started again. Devotees were forced to stay in the temple. Swamiji blessed everyone by giving prasadam to each and every devotee. Indeed, it was Lord Krushna’s leela. He blessed us all with His divine darshan and prasadam from the divine hands of our Acharya. We devotees prayed to the Lord to similarly make us cross this ocean of samsara easily and bless us with divine bliss.
Jai Srimannaryana
