{"id":14825,"date":"2016-12-10T00:38:53","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T08:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=14825"},"modified":"2016-12-10T00:39:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T08:39:13","slug":"balaji-guru-vandana-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/balaji-guru-vandana-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"BALAJI GURU VANDANA 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Devotees performing Satyanarayana Pooja. (Balaji Temple, San Jose)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The annual Guru Vandana celebrations began with a four-day program at Balajii Temple, San Jose, Calif., from Nov. 11-14, writes <b>Madhumita Banerjee.<\/b> \u2013 #Siliconeer @Siliconeer #SiliconValley #BalajiTempleSanJose #SwamiNarayananda #SatyanarayanaPooja #Guruvandana<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Day 1, Nov. 11:<\/b> Swami Narayananda started with 108 <i>Kalasha sthapana<\/i>, initiated all devotees who performed <i>puja<\/i> with <i>Diksha Mantra<\/i> and invoked the Lord to have His presence on all the four days. The devotees chanted <i>Om Namo Bagavathe Vasudevaya<\/i> 108 times. As it was <i>Ekadashi<\/i>, Swamiji performed <i>Abishekam<\/i> for Sri Panduranga and Rukmini. Devotees who wore <i>dhotis<\/i>\/<i>saree<\/i> got an opportunity to go up on the altar to perform <i>abhishek<\/i> to Sri Panduranga. Swamiji gave <i>satsang<\/i> about the <i>ekadashi vratam<\/i> and <i>mahapradasam<\/i> was served.<\/p>\n<p><b>Day 2, Nov. 12:<\/b> Swamiji re-invoked all the Gods and Goddesses with <i>Navagraha Puja<\/i> and performed <i>Mahalakshmi Abhishekam<\/i>. Godessess Mahalakshmi was adorned with beautiful Gold <i>malas<\/i> and flowers. Devotees chanted <i>Lalitha sahasranama<\/i> and sang songs on Mahalakshmi.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14793\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14793\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a data-size=\"850x638\" class=\"lightbox\" href=\"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14793\" src=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-02.jpg\" alt=\"Swamiji Narayananda performing pooja. (Balaji Temple, San Jose) \" width=\"850\" height=\"638\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-02.jpg 850w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-02-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-02-560x420.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Swamiji Narayananda performing pooja. (Balaji Temple, San Jose)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Day 3, Nov. 13:<\/b> Swamiji performed 108 <i>Kalasha Abhishekam<\/i> for Lord Balaji. Devotees who took <i>diksha<\/i>, took their <i>kalashas<\/i> and Swamiji offered to Lord Balaji. Devotees chanted <i>Vishnu Sahasranama<\/i> while Swamiji was doing <i>Alankaram<\/i>.\u00a0 When the curtain opened, Lord Balaji looked stunning with silver <i>kavacham<\/i> and beautiful flower <i>malas<\/i> made by the temple volunteers.\u00a0 Devotees chanted \u201cVenkataramana Govinda!\u201d Swamiji did <i>Ashta vandana<\/i>, and concluded the puja with <i>Mangala Aarti<\/i>. <i>Laddu <\/i>and <i>Maha prasadam<\/i> was served.\u00a0 More than 200 devotees attended the puja.<\/p>\n<p>On the final fourth day, Nov. 14, Swamiji performed <i>Sri Satya Narayana Puja<\/i> with 108 <i>Kalashas<\/i> followed by <i>Katha<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The program concluded with salutations to our Guru Swami Narayananda Puri. Balaji Temple volunteer Sri Parthasarathi beautifully presented a short talk about the concept of Guru in Hindu tradition, the greatness of the spiritual Guru, to know the ways to serve him and to dispel the ignorant notion that he is just another human. He sang a song on <i>Guru Ashtotram<\/i> and <i>geetham<\/i> while Chandrasekar Vittaladas assisted by Padma performed <i>Pada puja<\/i> to our Swamiji. Temple priest Swami Vittala Nityananda talked about our Swamiji working tirelessly, guiding the devotees and requested all the devotees to do more seva. Prabu Goel talked about Swamiji\u2019s dedication, discipline, wisdom and service to all the devotees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14794\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14794\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a data-size=\"850x638\" class=\"lightbox\" href=\"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14794\" src=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-03.jpg\" alt=\"Sri Prabhu, Poonam Goel, N. Swamiji, Hema and Manoj Pombra. (Balaji Temple, San Jose) \" width=\"850\" height=\"638\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-03.jpg 850w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-03-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/PAGE-BALAJI-03-560x420.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sri Prabhu, Poonam Goel, N. Swamiji, Hema and Manoj Pombra. (Balaji Temple, San Jose)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Swamiji gave a talk about how God is great and honored Prabhu Goel for helping the temple with large donation. Temple devotees Krishna Sheelam and Elango spoke about Swamiji\u2019s goal and requested all the devotees to help the temple for further improvement. All the devotees offered flowers to Swamiji and took his blessings. The food was sponsored by Hema and Manoj Pombra family.\u00a0 More than 600 devotees attended in the 4-day festivities.<\/p>\n<p>Swamiji thanked all the devotees and volunteers who contributed successfully organize events for all the four days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devotees performing Satyanarayana Pooja. (Balaji Temple, San Jose) The annual Guru Vandana celebrations began with a four-day program at Balajii Temple, San Jose, Calif., from Nov. 11-14, writes Madhumita Banerjee. \u2013 #Siliconeer @Siliconeer #SiliconValley #BalajiTempleSanJose #SwamiNarayananda #SatyanarayanaPooja #Guruvandana Day 1, Nov. 11: Swami Narayananda started with 108 Kalasha sthapana, initiated all devotees who performed puja&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/balaji-guru-vandana-2016\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":14772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[2646,2649,2648,56,147,2647],"class_list":["post-14825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-balaji-temple-san-jose","tag-guruvandana","tag-satyanarayana-pooja","tag-silicon-valley","tag-siliconeer","tag-swami-narayananda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}