The Art of Pilgrimage — With Veda Studies’ Aparna Rajesh

Aparna is our go-to for tips on temple travel, custom-made mūrtis and auspicious muhūrtas. Her grandparents shaped her spiritual education, and she ensures it is being carried forward to her children, too.

By Sophia Ann French

Aparna Rajesh has been part of the Veda Studies team since its inception, and she says that “Veda Studies is like my extension. There is no separate Veda Studies from Aparna.” If you’ve been following Veda Studies on Instagram, participating in retreats and attending the community events and live courses, you have likely come across Aparna’s contribution. We’ve seen her pūjas and photos in many of Veda Studies’ presentations, and her son Pranav is featured in our Gāyatrī Upāsanā workbooks. She also ships all the gorgeous bindīs and goodie bag delights that participants receive at the Veda Studies retreats.

Aparna and Shantalaji are sisters-in-law, and both were born and raised in Bangalore. Another thing they have in common is that their families shaped their spiritual education. “My biggest influences have been my grandparents. My grandfather performed sandhyāvandanam three times a day; we practised saligrama at home every day, and my mother and grandmother prepared the naivedyam (vegetarian food offered to a deity in the Hindu tradition). These rituals were always a part of our life, and it was amazing to grow up with traditional grandparents. Even both my sons perform sandhyāvandanam every day. Other than my family, my spiritual influences include the teachings of Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, and I follow the Sringeri Guru Parampara,” says Aparna. 

In addition to being an integral part of the Veda Studies team, Aparna is a qualified pre-school teacher; she studied Sociology, Economics and Logic, and early childhood care and education. “I work for an NGO called the Agama Foundation, and we serve local government schools. We are like an extension of government schools, where we enhance a student’s skills, whether it is computer science, drawing, music, sport…. We educate them about the environment. I’m also developing an app with a young entrepreneur. His idea was to develop a learning app for learning Kannada. We have several people from across India moving to Bangalore, so it is a useful app to develop for someone who wants to learn the local language in an easy format,” says Aparna.

Holy Holidays

The Veda Studies team is spread across countries, and we have a WhatsApp group for work updates. Our favourite updates are the beautiful photos we receive from Aparna from the many pilgrimages she and her family go on every year. I asked her what calls her to a place and how she decides which temple or place to visit. “I usually decide based on something I’m reading about a particular text or deity. For example, I’m reading a lot about Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya because my theme for this year’s Navarātri festival is Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. The Chinmaya Mission manages the Adi Sankara Nilayam (Ādi Śaṅkarācārya’s home) in Veliyanad, Kerala, and I’m visiting the place next month  — it is where Ādi Śaṅkarācārya was born and where he was initiated into Upanayanam. It’s a beautiful house. I’ll definitely share the pictures,” promises Aparna. After Navarātri, she’s headed to Kedarnath, as that is where  Ādi Śaṅkarācārya was last seen. “I want to go through that whole journey from his birth to his disappearance. It gives me a lot of energy and positivity when I understand him better,” says Aparna.

I asked her to share essential tips on pilgrimage travel as many students from the global Veda Studies community travel to holy sites in India. Aparna says the first step is to research. “The bigger temples always have information online and offer details on things like the sthala-māhātmya — why the temple was constructed, when it was made and who built it, the importance of the residing deity, etc. There is a book called Pilgrim’s Guide to 108 Temples of Tamil Nadu — I highly recommend it. I would also advise visitors to ensure the visit isn’t too obvious, or everyone will be recommending pūjas to you and you will lose money (laughs). Keep your visit to yourself. Sit in a quiet place and take it all in: the architecture,e everything. It’s best to take a local guide, and some temples even have designated guides. A good place to get information is the local vendors (especially the flower vendors) at the temple who know about any special pūja that might be taking place.”

Aparna during one of her pilgrimages to source mūrtis and standing with her husband next to their festive altar.

Given her love for tradition, it isn’t a surprise that Aparna is very selective about the mūrtis she houses in her pūjas. We especially love her Navarātri doll collection, and she says she’s been celebrating it since her childhood. “Gombe Habba or the festival of dolls is celebrated in Karnataka. We use dolls to display various stories from our Purāṇas. I started my collection10 years ago. Initially, I bought the dolls from the shops, but now, I have them custom-made. I tell the artist how I want the dolls to look, the details they should have…. Once you start connecting with your mūrtis, you won’t want to buy them from a shop. You want them to be yours and unique. So now all my mūrtis are handmade for me. Even the Lalithā mūrti I gifted Shantala is custom-made,” says Aparna.

Aparna’s Navarātri Doll Collection dressed up for Gombe Habba and below (right) is Shantalaji’s custom-made Lalithā mūrti.

Aparna’s Personal Sādhanā

Veda Studies is a global community, and even within its Indian students, some of us were not born into the Hindu tradition. What does Aparna make of this global practise of Indian Knowledge Systems? “Hinduism is a way of life. Everybody is welcome into this tradition. So many people from the West read the Bhagavad Gītā and are inspired by its teachings. Even Oppenheimer read the Gītā. Our traditions have also gained popularity because teachers are now accessible on online platforms such as Zoom, Webex and Google Meet. I study on the Veda Studies platform as well.” In addition to her veda studies, Aparna is trained to chant the Bhagavad Gītā, which she learned in school and studied its meaning with the Chinmaya Mission. “I also joined the Gītā Gorakhpur team to chant every day. We did that for a few months, and were then asked to do a Likhita Japa of all 700 verses. As for my daily prayers, well, Hinduism doesn’t tell you that you have to sit at a particular place, at a particular time, to do any of your chanting or devotion. I chant while I’m cooking. That is also allowed. I chant while I’m driving. That is also allowed. I chant while I’m walking. It is that flexible. There is so much flexibility in our devotion that we don’t have any reason not to pray.” 

But what if we don’t have temples and deities at home? How does one cultivate a daily prayer practice? “Start with prayers to the elements. Everybody can connect to the elements: connect to the water, connect to the air, connect to light, connect to the earth. You don’t have to imagine any deity. It is easy to connect to the elements. We have so many sūktams for Agni, for water, for the earth. It is easy to connect to these elements because we feel them around us. If you are just starting and have a beginner’s understanding of Hinduism, first understand the elements, be thankful for the elements around us, and then go on to the deities — it’s difficult for people to imagine the deities in so many forms and what they do if you have only just begun. But, connecting to the elements is very real because we feel them around us all the time,” advises Aparna.

To get in touch with Aparna, email her at [email protected]

A list of books recommended by Aparna: 

1. Vision of Gītā by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
2. Śrī Rudram by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
3. Mahagatha: 100 Tales from the Puranas by Satyarth Nayak
4. Me and the Mother: Lalitha Sahasranamam by Venkataraman Rajagopalan
5. Gems of Shankara (Published by Sringeri Sharada Peetham)
6. Divine Mother Aryamba (Published by Sringeri Sharada Peetham)
7. Shankara the Universal Teacher (Published by Sringeri Sharada Peetham)
8. Adi Shankaracharya Epitome of Excellence (Published by Sringeri Sharada Peetham)
9. Pilgrim’s Guide to 108 temples of Tamil Nadu by K.Balasubramaniam 
10. Sankarayanam: The Journey of Sankara by Subramanian Chidambaran (Indica Publications)