Swami’s Youth Lecture Brings to Light India’s Treasures
Gopura or pagodas of Madurai Meenaxi temple from 1905 captured in one view
Swami Vidyadhishananda
HOUSTON: The youth and children of Indian Diaspora living in America were inspired by what is behind the rich temple and architectural heritage of India. Swami Vidyadhishananda, the Himalayan saint and yogi who is well known to the Houston community, set out to illustrate this richness in a discourse given on Monday, August 29th at the Durga Bari Society temple.
Entitled “Inspiring Treasures of the Vedic Heritage”, his superb slideshow presentation was part of the Youth Program at the temple premises. Before the lecture, children and youth gave a performance of classical music and dance. As well as children and their parents, the lecture attracted a packed audience. Using rare photos, many dating from the 19th century, His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda showed examples of the magic and precision of Vedic architecture and monuments. He showed how Vedic temples capture the subtle expression of the cosmos and our world. Encoded into the temple structures and carvings is knowledge about the universe and how to build with sacred geometry. He explained how this knowhow is correlated to our worship and adds more meaning to our life and learning.
The lecture began with the Jagannath temple in Puri where the architectural elements of the spire are placed at a magic angle related to the celestial movements in our solar system. The connection with the universe is even more apparent at temples like Gavi-Gandhareshwara in Bangalore where the altar of Lord Shiva is at the bottom of a shallow cave. On only one day of the year, the rising sun shines down the cave and bathes the Shiva-lingam in light. This is the day when the sun enters Capricorn, thus the temple’s alignment is attuned to the dynamic soli-lunar calendar, the Swami pointed out. A similar example was shown from Kolhapur in Maharashtra where the rising sun enters a long corridor in the Maha-Laxmi temple on two separate occasions of the year in winter months, each time spanning three days, to light up Maha-Laxmi herself. The time of the winter solstice in December is thus precisely calculated by finding the date halfway between these two periods. These temple events continuously adjust key defining junctures of the Vedic soli-lunar calendar which in turn defines the muhurta or auspicious days and times for vows and meditation.
Swami Vidyadhishananda has visited pouranic temples throughout India as part of his monastic offering known as jirnoddhara, which involves the revival of temple structures and traditions including the supervision of priestly rituals. He has witnessed with his own eyes many miraculous happenings at the natural self-manifested altars. He mentioned about the healing tradition of the temple waters. In Himavat-Gopalaswami temple south of Mysore, drops of water mysteriously appear on the crown of Lord Krishna. As the altar is covered by a roof, the water appears from nowhere. The water is collected and offered by priests as a divine drink for pilgrims. Surrounding the temple is natural hilly terrain hiding some 70 lakes each with healing power for a specific disease where ailing devotees take ritual baths. Another case study showed the Maha-Nandishwara temple in Andhra Pradesh, where water gushes out from beneath the altar of Lord Shiva, not only in copious amounts for holy dips but enough to irrigate the farmland of the surrounding communities spanning a huge acreage.
Swami Vidyadhishananda gave the audience an insight into an age when magical altars and exquisite temple structures not only uplifted the devotee but also created a forum for comprehensive learning. They still do today in India but the knowhow and craftsmanship to build such structures and monuments are rapidly being lost. The Nonprofit, Self Enquiry Life Fellowship of which Swami Vidyadhishananda is the founder, preserves and disseminates the indigenous knowledge of India and safeguards Vedic fine arts and crafts. At the end of the talk, Swami Vidyadhishananda honored Dr. N. R. Joshi for his research on the natural sound origins of the Sanskrit letters. He also met privately with some members of the Indian youth community to inspire the younger generation.
For more information, email quest@swamahiman.org or call 909-543-6003.
