Right now I am at an ashram in southern India, the Sri Narayani Peedam near Vellore.
I’ve been coming here on and off since 2005 – the year my life changed.
It’s an amazing place and I’m not going to lie, when I first came here, I thought it was pretty WEIRD!
How I got here in the first place is a story for another day but I wanted to talk about here some of the practises I have learned and how you can use them as well…
1. My Full Moon practise
Full Moon here at the ashram (and I am sure at ashrams all over India) is a massive event. Whereas we westerners tend to just point at the Full Moon and say something like “Oh wow. Is it full?” here in India it’s a VERY different story!
Rather, thousands and thousands of villages from all over gather here at the temple. Back in the day, there used to be a parade of sorts around the village, with people holding bowls of flaming branches and so on.I haven’t been here for a Full Moon for a few years now (pre-pandemic) so I am not sure if that still happens but there are definitely still mass gatherings where the priests chant for a few hours. It’s amazing!
I developed my own Full Moon practise out of this. You may have seen me on Facebook at Full Moon holding a fire ceremony. All that comes from here. Plus we do release work with the chant Om Namo Narayani. Again, all from here. It’ such a powerful thing!
2. My New Moon practise
I am fairly sure that when I first came here in 2003, the New Moon wasn’t celebrated the way it is now. These days, though, they do a New Moon yagam (fire ceremony) which again takes a few hours and involves the priests chanting. Again, super powerful.
The part that I picked up from here was that the ceremony is largely to Durga, the Goddess with the ability to destroy ignorance. That’s why I often invoke Durga at New Moon, though I also think Ganesh would be good as He’s all about new starts. I will ask someone if Ganesh is included, while I am here!
3. And speaking of chanting
Pretty much any chance you hear me do I will have learned here. To Ganesh, Durga, Saraswati and Lakshmi mainly, as well as some of other chants. I fell in love with chanting here in India and it’s only been since I started to do it on a regular basis that I have really looked into why it’s so amazing.
I won’t go into all the whys and wherefores here but suffice to say that as the research grows, there is plenty of evidence why chanting makes us feel so good and even makes us feel more connected! I am working on developing chants for the 4 main lunar phases.
I talks about chanting, the New Moon and the Full Moon during my free New Moons of 2023 Masterclass so if this kind of info floats your boat, that might too! It’s about an hour long and takes you through the New Moons of the year ahead and how to work with them – and it’s free!
Click here to access to masterclass before we take it down in a few days!
It’s an amazing place and I highly recommend a visit – but if you come here, expect powerful change!
