A while back, Pradosham fell on a Saturday. I learned on Astroved.com that Pradoshams are the days when it is easiest for Lord Siva to remove our karma. Saturday Pradoshams are rare and are especially powerful. Saturdays are ruled by Saturn, who is himself a form of Siva. I signed up for a group Pradosham homa from Astroved. That morning, I got a call from my husband who was at work.

He had reached into his pocket for the copper stubby Vel he carries there. The stubby Vel is thick and short and nearly impossible to physically bend. But on this morning, the Vel was impossibly bent and doubled over. My husband could barely believe it. I felt that a terrible karma had been avoided, by the grace of Siva, Muruga, and Datta. My husband threw the bent Vel into the ocean and got a new Vel to carry.