Vavubali Online Puja

Vavubali Online Puja

August 8, 2021

9:00am MDT

Vavubali is a very important thanksgiving ceremony performed to show our gratitude towards our ancestors and mother Nature. Vavu refers to the new moon day and bali means offering. Hence the name Vavubali. Every year this ceremony is performed on the new moon day of the Malayalam month of Karkidaka. Anthropology says it has been two hundred thousand years since human beings have evolved and existed on the planet Earth. If we consider 20 years as one generation then we’ve crossed 10,000 generations so far. We need to understand that only 3 to 4 generations are living at a time on earth. The traditional belief is that one year of the human world is equivalent to one day in the ancestral world. So, this ceremony which is performed once a year in our human time scale is the equivalent of welcoming and feeding the ancestors everyday on their time scale. Hence they get fed daily!

We have three forms of indeptedness

• one to God's powers, or natural powers,
• second to the Rishis, the ancient realised Masters who imparted the Supreme knowledge to humanity,
• and the third to our ancestors, in the lineage.

During the ceremony we offer specially prepared rice ball(s) called pinda to our ancestors. After the offering is made, the Prasadam is left in nature to be consumed by birds, fishes, animals or insects. This becomes Bhuta Yajna. Bhūtayajña refers to the offering of oblations to all the creatures in nature. Through the ritualistic offering of water, known as Tharppanam, we payoff our debts to the Natural powers and the Masters. This becomes Rishi Yajna and Deva Yajna. In India, along with these rituals, people also engage in feeding the poor and distributing clothes to the needy. They also donate to charitable causes. This becomes Nriyajna - Serving the mankind. When we follow this tradition we realise that we are all, like links, in the same chain. The Ancestral Puja, thus becomes the Bramha Yajna. In this way we will be performing the Pancha Maha Yajna (the five great offerings) as described in the sacred scriptures.

To find out more and to register, visit: https://amritaworld.org/vavubali/