Ganapathi Homam, Special Offering for Lord Ganesha by Kalloor Namboodiri

Lord Ganesha or Ganapathi, the Hindu god with the elephant face is considered as the divine power that removes all obstacles in our way. Hence, special offerings for Lord Ganesha will be done before starting any serene things. Ganapathi Homam is a regular ritual being conducted in almost all temples before starting other rituals. Usually, it has to finish before sunrise. A tank will be made using bricks and the floor of it will be polished using cattle dung. The chief priest will chant holy hymns and pour pure ghee in the holy fire lighted inside the tank. Different food articles such as coconut pieces will be offered to the god and the remaining will be distributed among the devotees as Prasada. Devotees accept this Prasada as a symbol of blessing from god.

There is a Devi Temple in Pazhayannoor in Ernakulam district of Kerala which is regarded as the family deity of the royal dynasty that ruled the erstwhile princely kingdom of Kochi. Ganapathi Homam was a regular thing in this temple too. Kalloor Namboodiri, the members of the famous tantric family in Kerala, Kalloor Mana have the right to perform this ritual in this temple. Usually, the young people belonging to this family used to go there to perform Ganapathi Homam.

Once, all the young members have to go to different places on different works and there was nobody to perform the Ganapathi Homam at Pazhayannoor Devi Temple. Hence the head of the family decided to go there and to perform the Homam. However, he was not able to wake up early morning. Secondly, he could not chant hymns loudly so that the devotees present there can hear it. Finally, he never distributed the Prasada among the devotees, instead, he used to offer entire thing to the holy fire.

The changes in the daily rituals made the devotees unhappy and at first, they approached some youths from the priest’s family requesting them to come and perform the Homam. They rejected the request saying that it is the head of the family who had to take a decision on this matter. Then the devotees approached the King and narrated the entire incident.

At the same time, one of the prominent personalities in that area encountered Kalloor Namboodiri and insulted him of performing the rituals in the wrong way. The harsh words of that person hurt Namboodiri and he sends one of his assistants to the King. He has handed over a message also written in a palm leaf. The message was that the Namboodiri will not perform Ganapathi Homam from the next day unless the king visited the temple and witnessed the Homam.

Hearing the allegations of the public and receiving the message from the Namboodiri, the king went to the temple immediately. He met Namboodiri and asked the reason behind leaving the temple. Then Namboodiri told the king that he is performing the rituals as per the methods he learned and the people are complaining about it due to their ignorance on the matter. He requested King to be present there and see the Homam through a small window with one eye closed. King agreed.

The next day Ganapathi Homam started as usual and the king and two of his bodyguards watched the entire thing through a small window with one eye closed. At the end of the ritual, to their surprise, they saw an elephant coming out from the holy fire. Namboodiri offered all the food articles available there to that elephant. It ate entire food and went back after blessing the Namboodiri with its trunk.

The king and his bodyguards could not believe their eyes. Their eyes which were open to see such a holy and serene sight lost sight and became blind. They came out and fell on the feet of the Namboodiri.

Kalloor Namboodiri blessed them and then told the king that all the members of his family who are performing this Homam are witnessing the same. Lord Ganesha will appear in front of them in the form of an elephant. He cannot leave it half-starving and hence he is feeding it with entire offerings.

King got happy and even now Kalloor Namboodiri is performing Ganapathi Homam at this temple.

Kalloor Namboodiri, the Undisputed Tantric of Kerala

Kerala tantric rituals are widely known around the world for its effectiveness. They are not mere religious rituals but it involves a lot of science too. Driving out the negative energy and bringing in positive energy is being done in each tantric ritual. The power of rhymes lies in the way they are uttered. The energy generated with a high-level concentration of mind will be emitted through sounds. The energy will get converted into sound energy of different wavelengths and will produce the desired result.

A scene from Kerala Tantric Ritual

There was a person called Kalloor Namboodiri in Kerala who was an expert in tantric rituals. Actually, Kalloor is his family name and Namboodiri is his surname. Even now the members of the family continue the rituals performed by this Kalloor Namboodiri.

Kalloor family is basically from Kottackal, but later got settled in Pattambi in the present day Malappuram district of Kerala. The male population of this family is known as Kalloor Namboodiri and this particular Namboodiri in this story lived in the 17^th century. He decided to visit Vadakkumnatha Temple and to remain there for quite some time worshipping Lord Shiva. He used to enter the temple as soon as it opened in the early morning and sit there chanting different prayers of Lord Shiva and immersed in deep meditation. He leaves the temple premises in the evening for having taking bath and again he used to come back and sit in meditation till the temple is closed. He lived on a single meal all these days. Years have passed like this and there was no change in Namboodiri’s routine.

One day he sat in meditation and the temple priest did not notice him. As usual, the priest locked the doors of the temple and left for the day. Late in the night when Namboodiri woke up from the meditation, he found the temple doors locked and no way to go outside. There was nothing much to do, so he sat behind and started chanting prayers of Lord Shiva. Suddenly a book fell in front of him. He took it in his hand. Suddenly he heard a voice from nowhere which asked him to stop his worship and go back to his house. The voice also instructed him to practice tantric rituals as mentioned in that book.

Another scene from Kerala Tantric Ritual

Believing those as the words of Lord Shiva, Namboodiri left the temple the next day morning and reached his home. After being at the house for a year, he left for a pilgrimage. On the way, he reached Thiruvananthapuram, the present capital city of Kerala, and the capital of the erstwhile Travancore dynasty. By this time he has become very famous as a tantric and hence he received a special welcome by the then king. King arranged a room for him well inside the palace and invited him to dinner together.

After dinner, both were sitting talking about different things. Meanwhile, the king requested a favor from the tantric. He narrated the incident.

His predecessor King Marhtanda Varma has killed Ettuveettil Pillais, a group of warring lords who rebelled against the kingdom. Even after killing, the King could not control his anger. He made all the women folk of their families marry the fishermen, thus putting an end to their clan. When there is nobody to perform after death rituals, the souls of these warring lords could not rest in peace. They used to come to the city and started creating a lot of trouble to the citizens. They come out from the sea where their bodies were immersed after killing and used to wander on the streets till they reach the east fort. They cannot enter the east fort as there is the Padmanabha Swamy Temple. They are afraid of Lord Vishnu who has been worshipped inside the temple.

King told Namboodiri that many tantric have tried their best to remove these evil spirits but everything ends in vain. He requested Namboodiri to try something to get rid of these spirits.

Tantric Namboodiri asked King to send a brave soldier to him. By the time the soldier arrived, Namboodiri finished certain rituals. Then he wakes up from the ritual site and came near to the soldier. Handing over a letter written on palm leaves to the soldier, Namboodiri asked him to go to the West Fort through which the spirits enter inside the city. The soldier is instructed by the Namboodiri to throw the letter to those spirits when they come near to the gate.

The soldier did the same as instructed by the Namboodiri and to his great astonishment, he saw all the spirits weeping in pain as if somebody is beating them. After a few seconds, all of them turn back and started running towards the sea as if somebody is chasing them. They all disappeared inside the sea.

The soldier returned and narrated the entire incident to the King and Namboodiri. Then the Namboodiri assured that they will never come again to trouble the king and his subjects. King was totally happy and presented many valuable gifts to Namboodiri. And since then nobody has seen those evil spirits on the roads.