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She held the long metallic ladle learning to balance it as she becomes the “Yajmaan”. Simply translated it means Yagya ka maan rakhne wala or the one who initiates the ceremonial fire and sees it to its completion.
The Yagya was for the freshest intentions for the year 2021.FOR UNIVERSAL PEACE, HARMONY AND GOOD HEALTH FOR ALL. Apparently, a year marking Earth’s entry into the golden age introduced to us as “NEW EARTH” popularized by Eckhart Tolle years ago has arrived.
COVID-19 is still far from over with constant debates about newer vaccines and their efficacy and emergence of newer strains. Some of has got affected, some still battling, some spared, some leaving the earth planes and some waiting to be born.Fear still looms largely in the human psyche in different nooks and corners and the world seems to be fed up. Courage is still needed to release the grip over past gently and more confidence to be ushered in to owning our authentic “NEW US “post epidemic introspection. Some new chapters starting for all of us.
Ananya my teenage daughter had to be coaxed to sit at the place for Yajmaan despite protests from my younger son who thinks he is the natural choice. Not an easy privilege to give up by the young man he is becoming. He will have to perform it repeatedly marking his milestones as he will learn to shoulder responsibilities gradually. FOR NOW, THE FEMININE NEEDS TO RISE! I feel grateful that I came from a lineage where the girl child was celebrated and given an equal status so patriarchy has left us with dents and not deep wounds in comparison to others who are still angry.
I am glad that when I write “Beti Bachao” on my hospital premises I mean it for the ones that got spared have to become the savior for the others someday.
The ceremony proceeded with vocalization of intentions as I looked at my daughter. A growing young woman she felt a little awkward as she sat in the responsible seat without much warning.I watched her silently as she confidently participated in the small ceremony.
How different it would be her I thought to myself?
I am here to teach her to be on her own from the very beginning like I was taught.
She is not going to be like me at all. She will be initiated into herself and who she is meant to be. She is not going to wait for marriage to be seated on the “Vamanga” (traditionally the left side assigned to the woman for rituals) she will learn to better her own half. She will fill that missing piece that leaves some of us seeking in a midlife phase. She will learn early not to hold a man hostage to her expectations or struggles. I wish for her life to be like an open and expressive book written in braille only for those whose finger tips are sensitive to read her stories.
She with her ancestral lineage will learn to surrender her past, bitterness and brokenness if any into the all-consuming fire from time to time as I did, not scared to dream again. As the yagya was reaching its culmination the “Poornahuti” mantra reverberated demanding from all of us the offering of completion and to renounce the purposeless rumination and unpleasant lessons in the fire that would burn everything converting every intention into ashes and returning it as the white smoke circling back into the universe strengthened and renewed.
She would hold noble and novel dreams close to her heart energizing them with the vibrations of her love. The dream is allowed to be small, big, imperfect, silly the way she wants it to be.Some would express themselves on her forehead eventually as fine lines, wrinkles and some may contribute to a shade of her dark circles underneath her eyes.
I intended as she got blessed by all those gathered there from all generations men and women folk that she be in full acceptance of herself bodily and not allow herself or anyone to label her as ugly, fat, dark, skinny, short to define her. She should be able to dissolve them all in her own worthiness and self love.
I wished that she would be emotionally intelligent and expressive so that she does not have to fight or hide her emotions in future.I wished that she would be abundant and passionate so that she would know how to give from the heart and love more fiercely. She should not represent merely a gender but her own masculine and feminine force in balance.
She should be in her own power through the fire burning in her soul to provide her the necessary thrust to propel forward.She should be conscious of who she is and yet shy in her confidence constituting her double-edged sword kept under cover aware of the traits that she needs to display without manipulating anyone.
She should be the magic and the magician.
She should be the enchantress and the hidden.
She should be the “Being “and the “Doing”.She may emerge to be the powerful vision of a dented dream which needed to be stitched back in place many a times of her mother and grandmothers.
The priest blessed her with long life, energy and magnetism along with “varchasvi” the one who is going to establish her own QUEENDOM in her power. She sat in silence receiving the showers of flower petals and rice grains bowing her head in deep respect. Finally, the ceremony was sealed with a powerful blessing for the feminine as she is claiming her rightful place in 2021.“ASHMA BHAV, PARSHUR BHAV, HIRANYAM STRUTITUM BHAV! It means when the time comes be steadfast like a big boulder (Ashma) that nothing can shake or break when it comes to achieving her goals. No amount of destruction or distraction shall waiver her undaunting spirit as she emerges yet deeply rooted in herself. When the time comes grip the hatchet (parshur) firm to defend herself and be Nirbhaya (without fear) not looking for anyone to save her. She will protect herself through her weapons. When all is accomplished, she will become the Golden one (Hiranyam) with her own colors and hues, solid, precious and worthy.She will be who she is meant to be from this time forward.
