Category: Somayag

Dear friends,
We are pleased to announce that the next Somayag will be held at the Homa Therapy Goshala, Maheshwar India, between 3rd and 8th February, 2015.

This will be the sixth in the series of seven Somayags, the inspiration for which came from Shree Vasant Paranjpe.

For the past seven years a small group of people from various countries has kept this vision of conducting a series of seven Maha Somayags on the banks of the River Narmada in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, for the healing of our planet.

To date, five of these Somayags have been completed successfully. There are still two remaining.

This 6th Somayag is known as Atiratra. Amongst other benefits its purpose is to give nourishment and longevity to all living things on the planet. (more…)

Somayag 2011 took place at Homa Therapy Goshala, Meaheshwar, India from 2nd to 7th February, 2011.

Chief Priest, Mr. Hari Apte, started the Somayag with Mr. Abhay Paranjpe. He and his devoted wife Anjali received the Holy Fire. Then they  passed it on to many others till reaching the Somayag hall.
Special constructed fire pits are build for each Somayag. Everybody got to mash some Soma herbs with water  which was then used as an offering. Here it is Simona and Matthew. Evening Agnihotra in the Somayag hall fills the atmosphere with an incomparable scent…

	Fivefold Path Mission India also invited this year to a powerful 5-days lasting SOMAYAG. It was the fourth of seven planned Somayags.
Hundreds of people attended this special Homa. They came from abroad and from all different corners of India. The chief priest was again Mr. Hari Apte, who directed all in traditional Vedic manner. Great healing energy was created during the Somayag and impurities were removed.

Photos from left to right in sequence: Village Maheshwar on the river Narmada. Chief Priest Apte´s grand daughter. Universal Peace Dances with Lisa Powers. Best Food from the Goshala Kitchen served by Ariel, Suwindi, Joshua, Sarvajit, Tom and Patricia. Dr. Ulrich Berk calming down the scared calf at the Somayag.

SUNSET ON THE NARMADA RIVER.Time to tune into nature, connect with our mother Earth, let go of our busy day and let our soul escape into the last sunrays. The beauty of the Goddess Narmada is breath taking, her majestic silence and her constant flow are deeply touching and her sound is comforting. Thank you Narmada!

Agnihotris from all continents, races and believes participated and in this one week of SOMAYAG. Over 1000 Agnihotras were lit on the Maheshwar GOSHALA ground contributing gloriously to the  Cycle of Life. Eeryone participating in the Somayag was very grateful to the organizers: Abhay Paranjpe, Sarvajit Paranjpe, Karin Heschl, Anne Godfrey, Bruce Johnson, Ulrich Berk and their many helpers from Tapovan, Goshala and from abroad. Everybody enjoyed Mother Kusum´s loving presence and care.

	Everyone danced happily. The Somayag was a blessing for  the planet, for all participants and Healing was created far beyond our understanding... Photos below show some of the tools used during the Somayag. Agnihotra with Mrs. Parvati at the Parshuram stone on the riverside. Hundreds of Agnihotras were done in every corner by the participants.

	(photo left) Evening Agnihotra gathering underneath the Krishna tree.  (photo above) Morning Agnihotra with a group of healers from Kazakhstan, where Monika Koch  frequently travels.

On the final day of the Somayag, the instruments and tools were handed over to Narmada in a celebration and all immersed themselves into her waters.
At night Anjali invited to come to the river and ghee lamps (on banana leaves) carrying our gratitude were given to Narmada.

Atyagnishtoma Mahasomayag was held from January 26-31st at the Homa Therapy Goshala in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, India, under the technical guidance of Fivefold Path Mission. This was the third in a series of seven such Somayags which are to be held at the Homa Therapy Goshala.

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Again many visitors from around the world and from India attended this year’s Somayag. It was a mixture of languages, colors, tastes, forms of being, etc. but above all, there was the feeling of having come together to share the PEACE and LOVE emanating from these Ancient Holy Fires, to seek UNITY behind the cultural and historical differences and to UNITE all our forces and strength in the name of Mother Earth, who is in dire need of healing.

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The story is written on their faces, all of their faces.

The young ones seemed to mature overnight. The older ones acquired a lightness of being that belied their years. The nervous people released; the prideful seemed humbled. I was sucked in. I could not resist; I did not want to resist.

The atmosphere was purified in ways that nearly defy the senses. Seems to have gone beyond the senses actually. It is simply not possible to stop smiling.

Where does this feeling come from? What has happened really? Six days of purification fires and mantras and tapas or disciplines by the practitioners. Intense, yes, but hardly the stuff from which one would imagine such transformation would manifest.

Then again, one might surmise similar thoughts about daily sunrise/sunset Agnihotra fire performed by untold thousands twice daily around the planet. The results so greatly outweigh the effort that attempting to figure it out rationally goes only so far. Quantum mechanics (quantum physics) might help explain it, but then again, sometimes perhaps explanations aren’t all that necessary.

The woman who arrived with a shyness and tentativeness over the six days melded into a visage of acceptance and comfort. Those originally uncomfortable being together appeared harmonious. The fifty-somethings danced into the night, oblivious to time and space.

And Hari Apte, the Yajamana, or main practitioner of the Somayag, and his wife seem to have come back to earth, at least for awhile– or had they?

And we all felt as one. It was unmistakable, undeniable and as real as the noses on our faces. The bonding between mothers and sons was unfolding before us. The ages didn’t seem to matter.

And the synchronicity, oh the synchronicity. Everyone seemed to sense it; everyone knew it, but appeared to hardly believe it.

We had tasted “heaven on earth.” We had been told of the possibility; now it seemed to be staring right at us. And I was sure no one who was there would ever be quite the same. And each one seemed to know it.

The Indians seemed to not believe what they were seeing, westerners acting as Indian as they. We all danced together, so many races, so many creeds. Indian women got up and danced with men. They didn’t touch but danced nonetheless, a highly unusual occurrence, we were told. This was the musical celebration following the six days of fire. The drummers were intoxicating, the beat went on endlessly. The old souls had returned to the Narmada. One could not stop smiling; you just sensed that time as we knew it had somehow stopped or been transformed somehow.

And the faces, all the faces; But now the babies’ faces reflecting the generator induced lights. Then the young Indians came and danced and danced and danced with an energy that belied the lateness of hour and the weather and the material limitations of a country less “advanced,” say some than the West.

It took the dancing and the music to dilute the sting of the removal of what had a few short hours earlier been the site of the Somayag. The practitioners now sat with us in their “street clothes.” “Was it really over?” we wondered.

And all the young people. You could taste and see the future in them.

You wanted to leave the celebration and go to bed. But you couldn’t. The spell of the Somayag and its aftermath had been cast.