Sacred Fire on the Mountain

Hours of chanting a Goddess's name. A hair-raising drive up New England's tallest mountain. Offering food and precious objects to a sacrificial fire. A typical day in the life of a modern American Hindu?

Photo courtesy of Mt. Washington Observatory

Well, no, not really. But such activities are one part of that life. Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of experiencing the first-ever performance of an important

(rite) on New Hampshire's Mt. Washington.

But first, the backstory.  The Goddess in question is especially meaningful for me. As a little girl, I would sit next to my mother and listen to her recite the Lalitha Sahasranamam. Lalitha is another name for Parvati or Shakti, the consort of Shiva. The Lalitha Sahasranamam is a Sanskrit chant derived from the Brahmanda Purana, which has 1008 names of the mother Parvati, in her many avatars.

I loved hearing the rhythmic verses. Best of all, towards the end of the chant my own name would appear. It would thrill me to hear my mother say my name and look at me out of the corner of her eye to gauge my reaction. Over the years I learned the mantra, and made a habit of chanting it on Fridays, which is an auspicious day for the mother. It was my escape from daily chores, and also a sort of meditation.

The Lalitha Sahasranamam chant is supposed to generate big results--it's a "power mantra," if you will. The more you chant it, the better. Hindu devotees chant it for themselves and for their loved ones; priests in temples chant it for the well-being of temple devotees.

So why not use a chant this good to help an even bigger group? In Boston, a non-profit organization called "Soundarya Lahiri" decided to get a group of people together and collectively chant this 10 million times for the benefit of humanity. In a way, this was a response to 9/11, but more broadly it was for the good of mankind. The theory here is that if you pray for everyone's well-being and contentment, you will ultimately find your own happiness.

When I came across a flyer requesting people to join in the group chant, I was eager to attend. But where did the number come from? Why did they want to chant the mantra 10 million times?

It turned out that this organization wanted to perform a homam--an offering to a sacrificial fire where the Mother Goddess would be invoked. But before the fire stage of the

, there was the little matter of reciting the Lalitha Sahasranamam 10 million times in the space of 24 hours. According to custom, only then could the homam happen. As if that wasn't challenge enough, this homam could only be performed atop a mountain or in the middle of an ocean!

Luckily, tradition allows for the first stage of the

--chanting the name 10 million times--to be done well in advance of the second stage, the fire ceremony. Soundarya Lahiri organized the chanting event in June; a few months later came the homam on the mountain.

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