HH Jagadguru Swami Sathyananda Saraswathy’s Mahasamadhi Divas was celebrated on the 23rd , 24 th and 25 th of November 2008. The celebrations included Poojas like Havan, Nag Pooja, Sampoorna Adhyatma Ramayana Parayanam , Lalitha Sahasranaam Archana, Sree Rama Rajyabhishekam and Annadaanam.

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On the 23rd, Swami Krishnananda Saraswatiji also started at Ramagiri, Swamiji’s great tradition of chanting “Hare rama hare rama, rama rama hare hare ; hare krishna hare krishna , krishna krishna hare hare”  whilst walking around the ‘Mahadeepam’ at the temple centre, holding the divine ‘Tamburu’ musical instrument in hand. Various devotees chanted in such a way from morning till night for the three days, and this tradition will be repeated on all festive occasions. Schoolchildren from the Ashram’s Adivasi Vidyalaya (tribal-school) joined in the chanting and were given new blankets for the winter.

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On the 25th, the VEDA MANDIR PRATISTHA was carried out amidst the chanting of Lalitha Sahasranaam and Adhyatma Ramayana.

The Mandir (Sreekovil) represents an ideal divine person by  :

• Swamiji’s Paduka – the holy feet of Swamiji.
• The four Vedas – Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharvaveda. – The Shareeram (body) of the temple.
• A Deepam (Lamp) -  The Buddhi (wisdom) of enlightenment.

Devotees were initiated into Veda by giving them printouts of the essence shlokas of each Veda for personal recitation. The mason and his son who constructed the Mandir were also felicitated and blessed.

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This was followed by Bhoomi Poojan of the Sathyananda Sarovar: a planned artificial lake to be formed over 5 acres of land.

It has two objectives-

1. To store water run-off during the rainy season and thus raise the surrounding water table, thus benefitting the parched nearby villages who are grappling without water and depend on the Ashram for their water supply needs.
2. To facilitate the building of ‘Ashram replicas’ of great sages like Vashishtha , Vishwamitra , etc. surrounded on all sides by water within the lake, as a part of the proposed Ramayana Theme Park.

The preliminary work of clearing the valley had already been completed and thus Bhoomi Poojan was carried out on the most auspicious occasion, to begin construction of the dam required for the project.

The foundation stone was worshipped alongside the Vedas, Paduka and Deepam, then raised by Swami Krishnananda Saraswati above His head and offered to the lotus feet of Sree Rama and Swamiji. It was then carried in a procession whilst chanting ‘Hare Rama’ to the riverside. Laying down the stone before the image of Gurupadar and the Murtis of Hanumanji and Lord Shiva in the riverside ‘Parnakutir’ (hermitage) , Aarati was performed. Abhishekam of Sree Rameshwar Mahadev (Shivlinga) was then performed by all devotees. The procession then continued to the depth of the valley where the Sathyananda Sarovar shall be formed, and ‘Bhoomi Poojan’ was performed. The devotees all shouted ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ , ‘Sathyananda Saraswati Maharaj ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Sita Ram’ !

Thus has this great project been inaugurated. A few pics follow:

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The memory of Swamiji and His great ideas and achievements was summarised by Swami Krishnananda Saraswati thus:

Great sages like Brahma and Vyasa conducted great Poojas at Pushkar and Naimisharanya respectively. This Veda Mandir is Swamiji’s Pooja. It symbolises the essence of his teachings. One who can understand the depth of this concept will understand Swamiji.

Jai Sita Ram.

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