Life Transitions

Yagyas for Important Life Transitions

There are also Traditional Vedic Ceremonies to ensure smooth passage into virtually every new important state of human life. These ceremonies are performed on specially selected days that may precede the event or that may occur as an integral part of the specific transition.

These ceremonies for various life stages include:

Marriage Vedic Wedding Ceremony
Conception
Strengthening the Unborn Child (Seemanta)
Safe Delivery and Birth
First Time Out-of-Doors for the Baby
Name-Giving (Namakaran)
First Feeding of Grains (Annaprasan)
Piercing the Ears (Karanchhedan)
First Hair-Cutting (Chowla)
Start of Study of Alphabet (Vidyaramba)
Entering School
Initiation into Vedic Studies (Upanayan)
Vastu Shanti Ceremonies:
Ground-Breaking for House Building (Bhoomi & Vastu Puja )
Establishing Door Frame in New Building
Entering a New Home or Building
Starting a Business
Wedding Anniversaries
Performance of Funeral Rites
Performance of Rites to Honor the Deceased (Narayanvali)


Pujas for Benefic Influence on a New-Born Child
When a baby is born a Graha Shanti Yagya is performed to help clear the path of any obstacles to the newborn’s evolution. In addition to the Graha Shanti ceremonies there are also specific Yagyas to ensure the good health of a new-born child whose birth chart has certain unfavorable combinations. These ceremonies include Mool Shanti and the Naagvali Puja to nullify KalaSarpa Yoga. These Yagyas may also be appropriate for adults with certain planetary combinations.


Narayanvali: Performance of Rites to Honor the Deceased

One of the three traditional duties for a householder in the Vedic Tradition is to pay back the "Pitri Rina" the loan of human life given by the ancestors. (The other two duties are related to the Rishi Rina and Deva Rina. Rishi Rina is the loan of Sacred Knowledge from the Guru which is repaid by teaching this Knowledge to others; and Deva Rina is the loan of God’s Grace that is repaid through devotion and puja to the Divine.)

Pitri Tarpana or regular worship of the ancestors on each new moon is part of the tradition of paying back the Pitri Rina, and the Narayanvali Yagya is considered an essential duty for every householder.

The Narayanvali ceremony is performed after the death of a blood relative to help the deceased to continue evolving. However, it can be performed by anyone for the benefit of any other person, with the exception of a man for his in-laws.

The ceremony is traditionally understood to dissolve certain karmas ("Doshas") that are associated with the actual act of dying, so that these doshas do not hinder the future evolution of the deceased.

For instance, the Narayanvali ceremony neutralises the negative effects of death by suicide, by accident, by poison, in the sky, by drowning, without a bath or otherwise unclean, when in an impure country, on the path, in a foreign land, or in a place other than one’s own home. It purifies the doshas incurred by incomplete cremation, by not having received initiation from the Guru, by not doing Puja regularly, by not receiving tulsi leaves or Ganges water just before the time of death, by being touched by any unclean persons, by not saying the Divine’s name before death, by dying during Dakshinanya or Panchak.

A related ceremony, the Panchak Shanti yagya is performed if the person dies during Panchak, the period when the moon is placed in the nakshatras beginning with the third quarter of Dhanishtha, all of Shattara, Purva and Uttar Bhadrapad and Revati, inclusive. If this happens, the tradition predicts that someone else in the family will die within a short time unless the Panchak Shanti ceremony is performed. 

To schedule a personal Narayanvali or other specialized life transition yagyas, or if you have questions,or for information on appropriate timing selection, as well as details on procedures, ingredients or fees, contact Pandit Sharma at:
1-630-240 3368
e-mail: vedicyagya@hotmail.com