This morning, to my surprise, I was woken up by the sounds of vedic chants playing in my mind. I am not a very religious person. I do pray but my knowledge of vedic chants is limited to a few that I have grown up reciting every day as prayers in school.
I recently had the chance of attending the ongoing Nirisimha Jayanti celebrations at Ahobila Mutt, near Diamond Garden. I was introduced to the evening temple ceremonies, step by step by my close friends Vidya and Ramya.
As the temple priests performed the rituals and chanted the mantras in sync, I stood there completely immersed in the whole magical atmosphere. There was something very powerful and soothing about the rhythm, the ups and downs of voices singing it together. These sounds are so powerful, so moving, and at some level, very comforting. In difficult times, most of us pray, be it vedic mantras, Hanuman Chalisa, psalms and prayers because they give us the strength to deal with the situations we fear facing. Such is the power of chants.
