Wanted to do a post on songs to the Mother Goddess to commemorate Durga Puja, Iĭidn’t find many that filled me with that same feeling of – for want of aīetter word, spirituality. My husband has lit the lamp in our small shrine here in the US. Or when I wake up early morning and find that Strange sense of peace that I feel when I stand in front of the monolith lingamĪt Vadakunnathan temple at dusk. Mother in their off-white mundum veshti… I may not have been very religiousĮven then, but the sight never failed to move me. The flame, the thin spiral of smoke curling lazily upward… my grandmother or The burnished brass lamp, the golden glow of Visual memories of our little puja room - my grandmother would close the window, and the white idol of Krishna This despite the fact that we are ' ambalavaasis', 'temple dwellers', hereditarily the people who wove the garlands for the deity, took care of the temple accounts, etc. In other words, religion was a very personalĮxperience, even amidst the family. Prayers when they lit the lamps, but we never heard them – it was just a silent We were never exhorted to say our prayersĭaily, even if we were taught them. Household which didn’t follow very many religious rituals, other than regularly In fact, I veer between atheist and agnostic. Soon, it will be Diwali, and then, Christmas. Festive season that kicked off with Ganesh Chaturthi has moved intoĭussehra-Navratri/Durga Puja/Saraswati Puja (for us Malayalis) this month.

Early morning bhajan