CEREMONY OF FIRE, LIGHT : HINDUS GATHER TO RID SOULS OF NEGATIVITY.

Byline: Stacy Finz Daily News Staff Writer

More than 800 Hindus gathered in Northridge on Sunday to rid their bodies of negative thoughts and gain divine energy from a three-hour fire ceremony.

It was the first time the biannual ritual, called Gayatri Yagna, was performed on such a scale in the San Fernando Valley, according to religious leaders. The ceremony has been performed at other temples throughout Southern California for the 100,000 practicing Hindus in this part of the state.

The practice was named for Mother Gayatri, a Hindu goddess of the sun. The tradition includes placing sacred offerings to the goddess in small, confined fires so she will in return send good thoughts to the body.

Participants, many wearing traditional Hindu garb, sat cross-legged on mats on the ground outside the Valley Hindu Temple and repeated a mantra: ``May the Almighty illuminate our intellect, which leads us to a righteous path.''

``We wear the yellow saris for the sun,'' said Bhavna Shodhan, who along with her husband, Kadam, helped sponsor the event. ``This is one of our most important ceremonies. Without the sunlight there is nothing in this world.''

Some of the worshipers had been fasting for nine days to purify and cleanse themselves and came Sunday to make offerings to Gayatri to enrich their souls.

``In India, this is the beginning of the fiscal year,'' Shodhan said. ``The fasting is to bring prosperity in the next year.''

Hindus believe that the ritual produces physical, mental, environmental and spiritual benefits. Fifty different types of medicinal herbs were fed by participants to the fires in hopes that their immune systems would become stronger and they would be able to fight off diseases.

Fire in the Hindu religion represents both positive and negative, said Kenny Sharma, secretary of the San Fernando Valley Hindu Temple, which was founded a year ago.

``Fire can be a hazard, or fire can be a good thing,'' he said. ``We pray to God to keep everything calm, so this way we don't have too many calamities like the Malibu fires.''

Sunday was the first time 50-year-old Nalin Desai of North Hills participated in the ceremony, although he learned the mantra when he was 5.

``I didn't understand it then,'' Desai said. ``But I was told that it would protect me.''

Desai said the meaning of the prayer became much clearer during the ceremony as the priest, Mehash Bhatt, explained each step of the ritual.

For Durlabh Kevin Borad, the president of Vedmata Gayatri, a nonprofit organization and co-sponsor of the event, the purpose of the ceremony is to help Hindus understand the meaning of prayer, to train their minds to become friends with their souls and to teach the importance of performing services for the community.

``The best way to release endorphins is to do volunteer work,'' he said. ``If you don't work to make the world a better place, it's bad karma.''

Pankajbala Patel traveled from San Diego to help with the ceremony. She has participated in such a ceremony at least 11 times.

``This is very powerful and strong,'' she said. ``Even by sitting and just watching you catch good vibrations.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- 2) Sheetal Kapil, 13, and her younger cousin Rishi, above, participate in one of the more than 40 rituals of the Gayatri Yagna ceremony in Northridge on Sunday. At right, Kusumben Patel, left, and Probha Patel place offerings into the fire as part of the cleansing rite, named for the goddess of the sun, which drew more than 800 Hindus to the San Fernando Valley.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News