The IDEA is to spread awareness in young minds that Devipuram helps them connect to their own inner divinity through pūjās. Devipuram also tries to give them a taste of how it feels to be worshipped like a Goddess or God. Once the young minds feel that, they will start empowering themselves and society. Bonding to goals of Devipuram (which is empowering spiritual connections for harmony) will develop.
What is spirituality?
The clear answer can be found in Upaniṣads.
“Asato mā sad-gamaya = move me to truth from untruth,
tamaso mā jyotir-gamaya = move me from darkness to light,
mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ-gamaya = move me from death to life,
oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ = peace be to self, environment, and for gods to be.”
This is the meaning of spirituality. Among them, life is easily the most important. For without life, nothing is important. And enthusiasm, enjoyment, and vitality are verily the juices of life.
Preamble:
Every person who is young and growing embodies many great qualities of life such as innocence, enthusiasm, freshness, passion, and love (of beauty, music, dance, power, intensity, intellect, curiosity, and adventure). Most progress has its origins in innovation, seeking fun, curiosity, and adventure. These are the qualities that make life worth living. They are divine and deserve to be promoted. Recognising and bringing out the divinity in a person enhances vitality, the quality of life. This process is called adoration, gratitude, or bhakti.
I have watched and enjoyed many times the Śrī Venkateśvara Bhakti Channel showing middle-aged male priests doing abhiṣekam to Śrī Devī, Bhūdevī, and the gorgeous Muslim woman Nañcārī loved by Lord Venkateśha. The priests most lovingly poured the five nectars: milk, curds, ghee, honey, and fruit juices on the bodies of the adorable Devīs, applied sandal paste, dressed and decorated them with flowers and ornaments with loving care. Enchanting light Karnāṭic music of Annamayya was playing in the background. How fortunate these paṇḍits are!
I often used to wonder what would the priests do if the icons they were handling suddenly came alive? Would they run away? Or would they enjoy even more? These thoughts haunted me. In my mind's eye, the deities were alive; they were experiencing the feel of flowing fluids over their bodies, reacting to the hot and cold touches, enjoying the flowers and perfumes of sandal pastes, and enjoying the attention immensely, and blessing the people who are giving them so much recognition and happiness. If this was not true, there wouldn't be any point in doing the pūjā, right?
If we are to believe the Upaniṣads which declare with one voice that:
“The body is the temple in which God lives and His life is the Goddess. The Goddess expresses her different powers in different organs. So keep the body and mind clean and fit for the Goddess of life to live.”
There is absolutely no reason why bhakti should be confined to icons of god/desses alone. I think it may have been a mistake to do so. It is the right of every living person to be adored as a God/dess and then to live up to it. The more you assert the right and demand it, the better it will be for all. Because when all of us are recognised and grow to be gods and goddesses, the society grows. Bhakti, adoration, appreciation, gratitude expressed through recognition rituals holds the single most important key to empowering the society. It converts every being in it to a god. The society becomes an assembly of Gods. To empower a disciple, the Guru has to recognise and worship the divinity in the disciple. This is the real function of every Guru.
Everyone craves for recognition. If we satisfy it, it becomes divine resource development programme, not merely a human resource development. In fact, HRD is a part of DRD.
Are there examples of such pūjās in our culture? Yes, indeed. In Kāmakhyā, Assam, there is the tradition of worshipping a five-year-old girl as the Goddess until she attains puberty. She is the presiding Goddess for the period. In Bengal, there are many sects who worship girls (kanyā pūjā) and women (suvasinī pūjā). Even some monks of Ramakrishna Mission do it in private. In South India, we do vratams and honour the ladies with gifts, saying, “The giver is who? Gaurī Devī. The receiver is who? Gaurī Devī.” When people take dīkṣā (empowerment), they are not called by their personal names anymore, but by the dīkṣā names, such as “Swāmy, Bhavānī, brother, padre,” etc. The idea that we are gods is deeply ingrained in our minds. It is hard to find the name of a person that is not of a God or Goddess. When we read gotra nāmas, it sounds as an aṣṭottaram or sahasranāma. In Devipuram we do a pūjā called Triveṇī to all who request it.
Triveṇī pūjā can be done in public. It is very attractive to watch and is thoroughly enjoyed by the worshippers and worshipped alike. We have tried this pūjā in public as well as in private. We have tried it in marriage functions. Including the bride and groom, 2,500 people received pūjās at the same time in a recent marriage in Amalapuram and one in Hyderabad. In every such instance, besides the enjoyment and fun, the persons who received the pūjā and bath with milk, curds, ghee, honey, and fruit juices invariably felt going out of the body to some place of transcendent peace, so enjoyable that they took some time to come out of it. In short, they have experienced some state of samādhi, nirvāṇa, or transcendence.
Now I feel confident that this works in most cases. I want to take this wonderful process to large numbers of people, because it can deliver the most desirable results in a most pleasant way in least possible time. Once a person experiences transcendence, there is no going back, no need to believe, because it is a reality for the person. They will be pulled into spirituality in a strong current of Bhāva Samādhi, which ultimately benefits society.
Devipuram is organising public pūjās every Friday, giving a chance for eight adults or couples to experience transcendence. The feeling at the pūjās is festive, yet pious. Each person or couple receives the following pūjās in sequence. First, all their psychic lotuses are activated using vibrations of mantras. Cosmic powers of Fire, Sun, and Moon are invoked into their genital, heart, and cosmic communications chakras. Powers of all beings living on earth, in oceans, hot regions, air, and space are invoked into chakras one to five. Time and eternal life are invoked into the command and life chakras. All invocations are done with vibrations of mantras and nyāsa. Mahāvākyas are given to write off all sins committed so far and to begin a new spiritual life full of Rasa.
Then a most lovable bath and beauty session begins. While music flows, a head bath with pañcāmṛtas is given, followed by shampoo, facial beauty treatments, fashion dresses, and wearing ornaments brought by participants themselves. Pūjā with Khadgamālā, treating their body as a Śrī Cakra, follows. A beautiful ārati concludes the pūjā. The people who had these pūjās done to them report amazing results. A full charging of all chakras and stability in transcendental experience requires about seven consecutive immersions, committing one week every year for your contact with divinity.
To establish divinity in yourself fully, a few suggestions—call them recommendations if you wish—can be made.
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Just as God lives in you, you live in your home. Just as you make your body and mind fit for God to live, you make your home and things in it fit for you to live. Therefore throw or give away things which you don’t use like old clothes and other articles. This creates more space and order for you to find things you want easily. It saves time. Also, give your home a thorough cleaning, making it a part of the ritual.
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The ritual symbolises purification. Try consciously to remain pure in thought, word, and deed. Remember, purity does not mean you should make yourself miserable in any way.
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Like gods, you belong to everybody and everybody belongs to you. You commit to be happy and to make others happy. Let go a little from your abundance to give to others, fast a little to feed others, and pray a little for better life to all. Set apart one week’s wages (about 2% of earnings) for giving to others.
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Try to minimise speaking and internal chatter. It will help in listening to your own thoughts and discovering what is causing anger and hurt in you. These little acts go a long way to focus on well-being of all. It supports you in every way. You will also realise that the world is your family.
I strongly urge you to make use of the opportunities at Devipuram to begin with and get an initiation into divinity through an unforgettable pūjā experience all your own. The pūjās are available only for adults above eighteen years of age. I invite you to make use of the excellent opportunities presented by Devipuram. Stay at Devipuram for a week, charge up your batteries fully, and return. If you help in this process, there is a possibility that this can become a great movement, a divine mission on earth.
Love,
Amritānanda
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