March 27th – Geetha’s Seemandham
Seemandham is a traditional Hindu ceremony to provide for the blessing of mother, father and baby. It is conducted during the 8th month of the pregnancy.
While Geetha and I do not have extensive relations within Vermont or Boston, especially those on the Hindu side of the family, we had prepared to do this ceremony by our selves. Upon securing an auspicious date (March 27th), Geetha contacted the Sri Lakshmi Temple, in Ashland, MA, and secured our time with a priest.
As the day’s approached, and the time of the ceremony was finally finalized, we found out that members of my family were going to be able to attend, which meant the world to Geetha and I… My sister, Allison and her entire clan (Gary, Rhiannon and Liam) made special arrangements, and took time off from work, college and school to join us. Unfortunately, because it took us so long to finalize the time, and because of prior commitments, my father was unable to attend.
Allison and her family arrived, via the Amtrak Downeaster, late in the evening prior to the ceremony. After some scrambling and juggling we found spots for everyone to lay their head, and were soon asleep… In the morning, we were able to process 6 people through our tiny bathroom in < 1.5 hours, which I thought would be impossible… It was amazing that everything just came together…. Including that my sister brought one of the Sarees that were purchased by our in-laws for her during our wedding, and chose to wear it for the Seemandham…
We had to set everything up for the ceremony, which was a first, and Allison was incredibly helpful… Please check out the album located HERE…
The Seemandham ceremony fell in, as best I can tell, three parts:
- We made offerings to Ganesh.
- We made offerings and requested the protection of our Ancestors.
- We conducted the actual Seemandham ceremony.
I have seen/participated in the offerings to Ganesh and ancestors several times so conceptually I was very familiar with these… The one thing that was different with this ceremony is that the Priest actually required me to chant the Sanskrit mantras… Fortunately he was kind enough to let me “repeat after” him… Somehow I made it through and didn’t get hit by lightening! (I jokingly compared the chanting to playing Guitar Hero III, in that as I got better with the recitation, the Priest would go faster… in the end I’d give myself 3 stars, 83% accuracy, and a streak of 36)
With all of the Ceremony completed (about 2-3 hours) and everything cleaned up (we had to do this ourselves), Geetha and I took my sister and her family to a local (so-so) Indian restaurant called, aptly enough “Mother” India. We feasted for at least another hour, and then it was time to say adieu… We walked our Family to the train station just across the river from our apartment, and got them all on board, safe and sound at 4:12PM…
All and all, while hectic, and at times confusing, we had a very amazingly special Seemandham. It was the first Hindu ceremony that my family has been able to attend, and it meant a great deal to both Geetha and I that they could be there for us… In retrospect we could not have, and would not have wanted to do it without them…