Informational posting - Vijayadasami

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Dear list members,

Today is Vijayadasami, marking the conclusion of the nine-day Navaratri
festival that is devoted to the Mother Goddess. This day marks the victory
of Mahadevi over Mahishasura, the bull-demon. It is also regarded as the
day Lord Rama defeated Ravana of Lanka. It is traditional to regard the
Vijayadasami day as the day to begin one's studies, and therefore
Vidyarambham is observed on this day. The day before Vijayadasami is
dedicated to the worship of Saraswati, the Goddess of learning.

In conjunction with this, I have uploaded two new files to the Sringeri
web-site that I am maintaining. One is dedicated to Goddess Sarada of
Sringeri, and the other is about Swami Chandrasekhara Bharati, the
paramaguru of the present Sankaracharya of Sringeri, Sri Bharati Tirtha.
Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati was a renowned jivanmukta, and he passed away
on Mahalaya Amavasya, the new moon day marking the beginning of Navaratri,
in the year 1954.

The URL's are http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vidya/sringeri/sarada.html (on
Goddess Sarada) and http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vidya/sringeri/chand.html
(about Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati).

Best wishes,

S. Vidyasankar