Full moon today, and in the full feminine. Igniting passions and perspectives, renewal of energy, mind, heart, and journey. Embracing being wild and free, to connect back to the heart, intuition, nature… all in all a time to decide what is for us and what’s not.

Ceremonies today are a little extra, as we are at the Brahma Temple in Pushkar. - With Dillip.

We are guided through, given all the information and history such fascinating culture and it’s given us a more insight and meaning to the day ahead.

After removing our shoes, and handed beautiful red roses, we wander through the temple. Hand over our roses and bindis to the gods along with our prayers.

Another two stops to add our bindis, prayers and the last one is hands open as we accept the offerings.

A cute colour Rajastan outfit catches my eye, for Allie of course. And then we decide to get some skirts to solidify our presence for the day. Yellow, improves blood circulation for me, and good luck red for Belle. We pause for a Chai and Coffee and adorn our skirts.

We head to the lake, to begin our ceremony.

FYI - On the land of Lord Brahma, the special rituals of Shradh /Paksha are performed in remembrance of ancestors by their families.

Padma Purana Pushkar is the most significant place for performing the rituals of Shraadh for the departed souls to stay in peace and be happy. Lord Rama and Pandwa came here at Pushkar to perform here Shradha ritual for their ancestor.

According to Bhagwat Geeta

"acchedyo 'yam adahyo 'yam

akledyo 'sosya eva cha

nityah sarva-gatah sthanur

achalo 'yam sanatanah" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Two verse 24)

"Sri Krishna said: This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting; present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same."

As the soul is ever lasting, Hence It became very significant to perform Shraddh during Pitru Paksha for the departed souls to rest in peace. Shradh rituals can be performed by the family member of deceased person especially by son or grandson, few additional steps has to be flowed if the rituals are performed by other person. It is very special event performed on the Bank of Pushkar Lake involves certain steps.

- Sankalpa - Commitment before performing ritual describing all details.

- Pind Daan - (Pind - round balls of flour created with special mantra for rituals) is done for for the salvation of the soul of their ancestors.

- Tarpan or sprinkling of water is performed, along with repetitions of mantras and texts from the Veda.

- Under the guidance of priest a person who is performing rituals has to repeat the mantras after the priest. Devotee make Donation of food, clothes after this ritual.

We accept our offerings plate and look over the lake at the female temple. A beautiful photo op and a monkey scares Belle, plate goes flying and a little squeal. This is probably a great omen if we decide..

We are each guided to a Brahma and the prayers begin. For ourselves, family and ancestors and loved ones passed. To ensure health, long life, happiness and abundance. A beautiful prayer, I’m told to repeat after the guide and we bless all. Bindi applied to my third eye, string wrapped around my wrist and holy water on my head. I empty the plate into the lake and it’s complete.

Almost complete, a donation is made.

We are hurried out of the place, I understand why it’s a place to visit and am happy we are continuing our journey to Jaipur.

We view the lake in Ajmer and a few more hours are in Jaipur.

Another recurring theme, which is funny because it’s also part of my commitment to 2023 - listening to my intuition. Dillip pulls rank and we are off to view some of his hotel recommendations… I feel my skin crawling as we head to an area that is full of men hanging around outside. As two females travelling alone and wanting to get dinner, it just doesn’t feel right. We also check the reviews online - Belle the Review Queen and I are not convinced. A few more words are spoken haha. Eventually, we find a place to crash for the night that had their own restaurant with good reviews in the city centre that we wanted and a Veg Tail - Happy ladies.

The shower was warm, the Thali was good and the music played all night.

We are literally Nanas on this trip. I’m here for it and all the AirPod working wonders.