Five-day Shiva-Shakti Maha Yagnam was successfully concluded enabling the construction of a 35,000 square feet Sri Chamundeshwari Temple in Gaithersburg, MD. This is the first Temple in the USA dedicated to Sri Chamundeshwari Temple.

The five-day Shiva-Shakti Maha Yagnam was organized by S3 Foundation under the leadership of Sarita and Purushottam Tandu and his team of ten people. They arranged all the authentic, natural items directly from India. Purushottam and his team brought four cows from Memphis to Marland.

Legend has it that the demon Mahishasura often troubled the devas (gods) while performing yajna (holy fire rituals) on Mahabalagiri. Nobody could subdue him, because Mahishasura had a boon—every drop of blood spilled from his body onto the earth would create a thousand demons. So, when the devas prayed earnestly, Goddess Parvati took the avatar of Chamundi to destroy Mahishasura. As Chamundi, she was bestowed with the powers of creation, preservation, and destruction, by the Hindu Trinity (Brahma—the creator; Vishnu—the preserver; Maheshwara—the destroyer).

The purpose of the Yagnam was to consecrate the land on which the divine temple of “Sri Chamundeshwari Devi” will be constructed on the JSS Ashram premises in Maryland. The Maha Yagna homas are held to transform sadhakas and alleviate their challenges in all dimensions of life.

JSS Spiritual Mission is a long-cherished vision of His Holiness Sri Shivarathri Rajendra Mahaswamiji, the 23rd Pontiff of Sri Suttur Math, which is now being carried forward by the present 24th Pontiff His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji. The mission with its wide reach of 350 institutions has been serving over 1200 years. The Mission’s activities focus on spiritual services, the practice of yoga, Indian cultural education, prayer and devotional rituals at the temple, worship of deities, a celebration of all Indian festivals, and dissemination of spiritual knowledge in the sacred texts.

Five-day Maha Yagna organized a number of activities such as cow Puja, Yagasala Pravesam, punyahavachanam, Mrutyunjaya Homa japa, Sri Rudra Parayanam, etc.

They conducted Gayatri Homa, Sri Chandi Homa, Sumangali Puja, Dhanvantari Homa, Mrityunjaya Mantra Japam, Dakshina Murthy, Subrahmany Homam, and others.

More than 300 people participated in performing the Homa. More than one hundred children also participated in performing the yagna. Excellent arrangements were made to make sure all the function goes as planned.

 This Maha Yagnam was conclude on May 14th.