The Significance of SOUND in Hindu Culture

I usually chant that shlokam, with the Niranjanam in one hand & ringing the bell with the other hand, at the entrance of the flat ! I feel, I am giving the best protection to my flat !
My routine of morning C D s are:
Sunday - Adithya Hrudayam
Monday - Rudram, camakam, Shiva sthuthis
Tueday - Devi, Durga Devi mahathmiyam, Murugan prayers
Wednesday - Sudarshanar, Vishnu
Thursday - Dakshinamurthy, Guruvayurappan or Krishnan
Friday - soundarya lahari, lalitha sahasranamam etc
saturday - Hanuman, Perumal
I enjoy all this, Suba. Over time, you learn most of them byheart.
I am glad you enjoyed the post !
Love & regards,
Chithra.

I think, this week's post has attratcted the maximum interest from everybody - the topc is such !
I am scared that my responsibility is suddenly increasing - abstract & subtle topics cannot be made very interesting !
God be with me in this thread !
Love & regards,
Chithra.

I wrote in my kitchen tips to chant any nama, when we do the cooking. It is based on sound energy.
The belief is there are devathas in our house always chanting " dadasthu".
That means " So be it".
So our hindu belief is, any word uttered by us gets seconded ! Hence the insistence on always talking " good words". These are all subtle ways of increasing positive energy in our houses.
We generally avoid using negative words in our conversation. My mother always says " If somebody asks you any question, never answer in the negative - say, it will take place shortly. The dadasthu devathas will make it happen ! "
Thanks for your nice F B .
Love & regards,
Chithra.

dear Chithra,
I am very much inspired with your posts. I am going thro them several times to understand them well. This week's post on sound is really very very nice. I would like to share my experiences-
Mine is a joint family at TVM. We have dialy pooja at home, my father used to perform everyday with abhishekam et all. My mother learned to chant the Lalithasahasranamam, Abhirami Andadi, Saundarya Lahari, Kanakadhara stotram etc. Every day she would chant these in a loud voice while going on about her work. She will give the necessry instructions in between and continue from where she left off effortlessly. In the meantime, she will also have a darshan at the Vinayakar temple of our colony, which may take around 20 minutes. She will also sing the Gita Govindam on Ekadasi days and special slokams, Lalithambal Shobanam during Navrathri.
The result is, we all could chant the Lalithasahasranamam, Soundarya Lahiri and Abhirami Andadi easily. Believe me, we have not even opened the books. We even prompt her when she stops in between. Even now I cold chant these, though I do not chant them every day now for the past so many years.Even my brothers would chant the slokas.
In a way, we will induce our children also to chant, if we chant the slokas loudly. This way we can introduce and teach our culture and tradition to our children without making it a hard task.
You must have done your home work well to give us such good insight. Thanks a lot (this seems like so little for the work you are doing, but still).
With warm wishes,
varloo

I am very happy to know that you enjoy this thread.
I learnt shlokas the same way, you have described, from my mother ! So it was effortless, I should say !
Whether I do my home work well or not, is proved from the feedbacks I get !
Love & regards,
Chithra.

Dear Chithra
If both 'ezhai' and 'maa' kolam are made with ground rice, what is the exact difference ? Is it in the design ?
In our house, there is a certain kolam (particular design) that we put on almost all aupicious days (with slight variations) which my people call the 'mana kolam'. This is also with ground rice. So is this a maa or ezhai ?
I thought ezhai meant lines, line otha-ezhai, retta ezhai etc.

thanks

Ezai kolam is " non-pulli" kolam - can be raw rice flour or wet ground flour. Makolam is only the latter.
The usage term varies with T N & Kerala.
Love & regards,
Chithra.

Hai,
I would like to share some more info on the kolam. I used to live in theru type street, all Brahmin tenents. Many of you might have heard of or would have stayed in such houses at one time of your life. The houses will have common walls and will be long and will have back streets.
In those days, when a girl attained puberty or a child is born in the family, kolam ws drawn immediately on hearing the news, whatever be the time. This was a way of informing the neighbours about the good news. The front will be washed with water and cow dung and kolam drawn. Then the people will visit the particular house to congratulate the family on the good news and they will be given sugar and a banana (for child birth) or just sugar.
And when there is a death in the family, the mourning is for one whole year. Kolam is not drawn for the whole year. Even on the shrardam day, no kolam. If there is no kolam on the doorstep, the sanyasis, beggards etc. will not ask for alms from that house. This was the norm.
Now with separate houses and flats, all these have lost their importance. But I find that this was a good system.
With warm wishes,
varloo

Hi Varloo,
You have reminded me of my granmoms house in chennai....where are those golden carefree days....when we all had so much time ! Well that was a nice way of dragging us down the memory lane and reminding us of yet another feature in Hindu culture! Thanks Varloo!

Dear Varloo,

That was an interesting addition to the kolam thread. I feel proud to belong to this rich culture, both poetic and romantic besides having the religious background. Growing up in Bangalore in a nuclear family, I was not exposed to many such things. I seem to have learnt more about India and its rich culture living abroad, as strange as it may sound.

L, Kamla