a Snickers for Ganesh

ganeshlite
Originally uploaded by alxindia.

so, a few nights ago, a group of us did a fire homa (healing Vedic ceremony) at a friend's home. he's hoping to sell the house, and soon, and wanted to get an extra push to remove the obstacles that seem to be preventing the sale of the home.

so, we were on the deck at dusk doing a Laxmi mantra for 1/2 of the homa. the sky was beautiful, getting darker blue as it went along, and the tinges of sunlight around the west horizon (mountains) were fading completely... it was a beautiful night.

after Laxmi, we did 108 times of the Ganesh mantra. as we were about to start, all of a sudden, Ganesh came strongly into my mind -- Jonathan and I were telling stories about him and his nature, and how much he LOVES the sweet things, like his laddus.... -- and I realized we needed to offer something really sweet into the fire for him if this homa was going to be a true Ganesh puja.

I asked if anyone had cookies, or candy -- no one had anything like that. omigawd, it's Santa Cruz and everyone's healthy vegan eaters, non-refined sugar and all. no sugary snacks!

and then -- mercifully! -- one lady remembered she had a Snickers bar in her car. peanuts! caramel! chocolate! oh, perfect!

so she went to get it and we went on with the homa... and after the 108 Ganesh mantras, the passed coconut with all the offerings, we put that Snickers bar on the tray of offerings... and into the fire it went!!!!!!!

(now I wish I had a photo of that Snickers bar, perfectly landed as it did in the fire pit, label up -- oops! we should have unwrapped it?! -- surrounded by roses and incense pieces and quickly engulfed in hungry flames...)

just one of the more surreal moments in the life of an American pujarini.

& it was clear from the fire's response that Ganesha got the offering and was quite merry about accepting it!