Day-5
Koothapaakam swami- Ashwamedha achidra parayanam
On ekadashis especially sukla paksha ekadashis ,it is a tradition to to do achidra ashvamedha parayanam. Achidram means that which has no blemish. It contains prayaschittha manthrams for the atonement of papams(sins)
Ashvamedha parayanam yields the results of Ashvameda yaagam which were performed by the likes of SriRama and Brahma. This fosters world-peace and unity.Even if swami’s voice is soft due to his age he carries with him almost a hundred years of experience along with a total faith in the efficacy of Vedic mantras.
Day-6
On 2/3/2015 Swami was sitting readily and as we reached his tirumaaligai by 3.00p.m. he told us that he would be doing kaataka parayanam that day.By co-incidence or rather divine grace it happened to be dwadashi that day. Since swami did not want to trouble us , he completed the parayanam in one sitting. It is to be appreciated that he had done the whole parayanam that morning itself at 4.30a.m Swami explained that he would be chanting three prashnams that day He told us the story of Nachikethas who questioned his father about the wrongness in giving inferior stuff as dhanam and asked to whom he would be given in dhaanam. The angry father said ‘Yama’ and the brave boy waited three days at Yama’s doorstep. Yama worried about the sins accruing on keeping an athithi waiting in hunger for three days As atonement Yama offered Nahikethas three boons. Nachikethas asked for peace for his father and himself and the method of doing vajapeya yagyam and ulmitately the mystery of death and what follows afterwards. By listening to Kaatakam one will overcome the fear of death . Listen to swami’s chanting……….
Writeup & Video : Vyjayanthi & Sundararajan
