HAVAN - Fire Ceremony

Havan is fire ceremony. It is a practice which involves making a prayer from deep in your heart and putting it out there with love, grace and beauty. It is an experience which bridges matter and consciousness, where thought fails to. 

Agni, the fire god, takes the offerings of the mundane world, to the Divine world, in his fire, creating conscious transformation in the heart and mind of the one who offers. This is also known as sacrificing the ego. Sacrificing the ego, to the Soul.

Kirtan is the delicious practice of chanting beautiful mantras in beautiful melodies with rhythm and beat, in a group. Havan is a beautiful ceremony with fire and mantras to purify the environment and the mind. Together they refine the body, mind heart and the environment around.

Havan Chants

Gayatri Mantra
Om Bhur Bhuvah Svaha Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dheeyo Yo Nah Prachodayat. 
Chanted quickly 54 times (15 minutes) or 108 times (30 minutes).

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
Om Tryambakam Yejamahe SuganDHim PushteevardHanam
Urvaa Rukamiva Bandhanat Mrityor Mukshee AmAmritat.
Chanted quickly 54 times (15 minutes) or 108 times (30 minutes).

Havan Kund.

Havan is the celebration. Kund is the fire pit.

HAVAN is a Fire Ceremony which helps to uplift the heart and purify the mind and environment.

The KUND is a fireproof pit in which one lights, and encourages, the fire. It is generally set on top of a set of bricks, or fire-proof tiles. It can be built so that it sits higher than the floor or ground.

Around the kund place greenery & flowers which represent fertility, beauty and largesse i.e. at least a foot deep around the entire kund to make it look pretty - and - when indoors it will help to protect immediate surfaces around the kund.

Ensure there is a FLAT SURFACE for the kund - and also for people to sit on. Organisecushions or blankets, for the sitting comfort of those who attend.

The havan facilitator sits in the South, the place of Innocence, facing North, the place of Power.

Directly behind the facilitator sits an ALTAR i.e. a table, a holding place representing the Divine containing flowers, candles, photos of the divine, and prasad.  Directly in from the altar are four persons for feeding the fire with 1: wood 2: with ghee and 3: with samagri and 4: counting the mantras with a mala

Persons should not take a SEAT at the havan until the facilitator conducts them to their position.

The facilitator needs to see the person doing the MALA - and the mala person should hold the mala to their heart centre during the mantra recital so the facilitator can monitor the progress of the mantra

WOOD. Small kindling sized pieces for a small kund. Even as possible i.e. orderliness. I have this in the havan kit.

SAMAGRI - This can be bought, or made, from garden flowers and herbs which have been dried and then chopped and crushed, as fine as possible. Dried lavender leaves and rosemary, are perfect as they represent purity and remembering the Divine. Or samagri is available from Indian shops.

CAMPHOR –  a sybol of purity, camphor gets the fire lit quickly.

INCENSE – represents taking the mantras and havan sankalpa directly to the Divine.

KUM KUM – eyebrow centre paste i.e. ash/vibhooti. The person doing theASH/VIBHOOTI on eyebrow centres needs a small dish for mixing the ash with water. Vibhooti is ash that has been through many stages of filtering and purification until it smells sweet.

COLOURED powders or coloured rice are used for decorating the area directly around the havan.

TEE-LITES – ONE for each direction at the havan corners/directions.   Others for layers of  lineage or dedication.

GHEE, purchased from supermarket. Use a butter-sized container. Ghee should come from a fresh, unopened container, not one that has already been used. Long-handled small spoon is needed. Available from Indian shops.

PRASAD – sweet food -  provided by the havan host which should not be eaten or tasted during preparation or before ceremony. Prasad is :

placed on the altar

can be fruit and nuts, cake, chocolate, etc

handed out after the havan is ended as food from God/the Divine, and is given from the right hand of the giver, into the right hand of the recipient.  It is not for the recipient to help themselves to. The receiver is ‘given’ prasad as a symbol of a gift from the Divine.

Apart from these basics there is a flow from the introduction, through the main celebration ceremony of mantras, to the completion of the ceremony.

Always a beautiful experience.

Om Om Om and Magic !