P E O P L E

Leading Priest InitiatesScholar into Saivism

Chennai ceremony fulfills long-term desire

f^BA CALDWELL BEGAN THE STUDYsf yoga in 1978, under the guidanceof Swami Muktananda, and has con-sidered herself a Hindu ever since.

She lived full time at his ashram in India un-til 1982, and upon his mahasamadhi thatyear returned to the University of Californiaat Berkeley. She completed her Ph.D. in an-thropology in 1995, having spent two yearsin Kerala on her thesis. During that time,she formally converted to Hinduism throughthe Arya Samaj. She has remained a prac-titioner of Siddha Yoga under the guidanceof one of Swami Muktanandas successors,Swami Nityananda. Last year, Ambaheld the post of visiting professor atHarvard Divinity School

Her spiritual life has continued todevelop, and in the fall of 2001, justbefore Navaratri, she began to attendthe Sri Mahalakshmi Temple in Ash-land, Massachusetts, where she wasbefriended by the temples Saivapriest, Sri Bairava Sundaram, and hiswife, Mangala. "Through their guid-ance and friendship," she told HIN-DUISM TODAY, "I came to know aboutMangalas father, Sri SambamurthySivachariar. I developed a strong de-sire to meet him and to take formaldiksha, initiation, from him to deepen

my knowledge of Saiva and Sakta worship."She sought and received permission from

her guru, and from Sri Sambamurthy him-self, for the initiation, and then went toChennai in March, 2001, for the ceremony."I was very warmly welcomed," she recalls,"by the families of both Bairava Sundaramin Madurai and Sri Sambamurthy Sivachari-ar in Chennai, who hosted me at theirhomes with great love and kindness."

The initiation was set for the Thiruma-zhissai Siva temple outside Chennai, thebirthplace and ancestral home of Sri Sam-bamurthy. The March 31 ceremony was

Blessing: Receiving kumkumfrom Sri Sambamurthy

Receiving the mantra: Sri Samba-murthy Sivachariyar, (standingon right, under cloth) recites theSaivite mantra during initiationof Amba Caldwell (center)

very elaborate, as it coincidedwith the temples Brahmotsavamfestival, which brought 150priests for the rituals. Therewere ten other initiates that day,mostly young boys and men fromSivachariar's family. "I was theonly woman and the only West-erner included in this ceremony,"she said, "but I was told it wasdone for several Westerners be-fore." This was also the day thatSri Sambamurthy was presentedthis magazines Hindu Renais-sance Award honoring him asHindu of the Year for 2002. [SeeNov/Dec, 2001]

The rituals preceding the initi-ation into the mantra were elaborate. At onepoint, Amba was asked to throw a handfulof flowers onto a yantra, or sacred diagram,with five faces corresponding to the fivefaces of Lord Siva. The color segment inwhich the flowers land indicates the lineageof Sivachariars that one is joining. Ambaslanded in the white segment, indicating herinitiation lineage of Satyojata, which is inthe western segment of the yantra. Theshakti, or feminine power, associated withthe Satyojata face of Shiva is Ambika orAmba, which the priests all felt was fittingas her name, Amba, already had been given.They added, "You are white and you arefrom the West, so it's perfect!" The priestsdetermined that the initiation name shouldbe "Satyojata Ganashakti Amba."

Next came the moment of initiation, whenthe mantra is spoken in the ear of the initi-ate by the priest while both are under a dec-orative cloth. Amba recalls, "I then offeredflowers into the yagna pit and to the presid-ing priest and was seated under the red silkcloth. For all the previous initiates the priest

sitting near the yagna had been theone to give the mantra. But now SriSambamurthy himself had joined us.He loudly and powerfully bestowedthe mantra in my ear, and then it wasover."

After the diksha, the priests whohad presided over the ceremony car-ried two kalasams, water pots, repre-senting Lord Siva and Parvati, aroundthe temple, then bathed the Siva Lin-ga inside the sanctum. "The waterfrom the kalasam was also dousedover us initiates," Amba said, "and afeeling of real ecstasy ensued." "^

Contact Amba Caldwell atsarahleec@prodigy. net

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