The 64 intimate acts of worship
The 64 intimate offerings are then given. The only mantra given in the offerings is Aim Hrim Srim. This must remain. But you can change the sanskrit words explaining the offerings into any language. First you wash the Devi's feet. Then you remove her ornaments and clothes, because you are going to give her a bath. Here is where the difficulty of the Kaulachara path begins.
All of our three forms of worship are benign. They will harm no one. You can worship an idol. When you give the idol a bath, so many people sit around and watch that. No one feels any sense of shame. But when you put a living person there and give her a bath, or give an oil bath and massage the whole body, then people can take objection to that. Our society is not used to the idea. We have embibed the foreign English culture and taken on their repressed attitudes.
Then you apply perfumed oil all over the body and apply turmeric. Next She goes into the bathroom for Her bath. She sits in a jewelled chair. In the olden days the beauty cremes we used were organic ones milk, curds, honey ghee, etc. You prepare these for Devi's bath and massage. We also use gram flour and water and massage it all over the body. Each of these ingredients have light rays and colors associated with them. You are also bathing Devi with these lights. So it is called a Divine Bath. Then you give Her a hot water bath. With the bath you recite vedic mantras.
These pancamritas are used for different parts of the body and for the different chakras. Milk is used for the muladhara chakra; curd (yogurt) is used for the swaddhisthana chakra; ghee ( butter) is used for the navel chakra, the manipura; honey is used for the anahata chakra; fruit juice is used for the visshudhi or coconut water is offered. You can use coconut water in lew of any of these offerings. The coconut is the symbol of our head. When you break the head, the juice which comes out is the life force. So your out ofthe body experience is the coconut water that you are offering to the Devi. The coconut is a very important offering. Also the bananas are offered. They represent phallic form of Siva and therefore offered to Devi (yoni) to eat (i.e., sex).
The Durga Suktam is recited when you worship the svaddhisthana chakra, the yoni. This is for obtaining all that you want to achieve through action. They say that if you want to get children, you go to an ant hill and pour milk there because the Snake which gives children lives there. Actually, the snake they refer to is the kundalini; she resides in the yoni.
The Sri Suktam is used to worship at the heart center. You worship the breasts of the Devi. Purusha Suktam also is used for worshipping at the heart center, the nipples. The Rudram is chanted for the worship of the Siva Linga, the clitoris or the phallus.
So far in the puja you have been worshipping the Devi. Now at this point the Devi is doing worship to the male. If you are a female it doesn't matter, because the male and female aspects of each individual are what are being worshipped. Wherever the characteristic of happiness is, there you find Siva. In the tongue there is a lingam; the nipples on the breasts are the lingams; the clitoris is the lingam; the sight coming from the eyes is the lingam; the sound of music that enters the ears is female. All the sensory modes are female. All the active modes are male. The toes of your feet are lingams. To all of these places, these lingams you can use the Rudram and worship there.
The Rudram refers to the purification of the eleven characteristics of the mind. The 5 karmendriyas, the 5 jnanendriyas and the 1 mind are the eleven rudras. They are called rudras because they make you cry. The mind remembers the past things that make you cry. Sometimes the knowledge you receive is helpful, sometimes not helpful. You actions bring forth reactions from the world and they make you cry. So when your actions are pure, you choose to accept the divine aspects of nature around you and to ignore the other aspects - then you have truely purified yourself. Purification really means invoking the divine into your life. It is a commitment to beauty, to harmony, to grace, to healing, to nourishment, to empowerment, to protection. It is these things that are concerned with the worship. All of this purification has these connotations to it.
The abhishekam is done both to the person who is receiving the puja and to the one who is doing the puja. It is not a oneway affair. You are experiencing having the puja done to you and doing the puja and both conditions are combined in your imagination.
After you have given the baths, then you wash Devi with the Samanargyam. Then you dry Her with a white towel. Then you don't want a draft to create a chill so you give Her a red shawl to cover her body. You offer Her a red garment just to cover Her breasts. Then you bring Her to the makeup room and seat Her there. You apply different perfumes to Her body in different places. There are eight types. Then you dry Her hair and then you perfume it with dhupam, incense, from behind. You offer all kinds of flowers. You then take Her to the room where you offer Her different kinds of jewelry. Her hair; the kumkum you apply to the hair part; Her third eye is normally closed so you put a jewel on top of it to cover it. She never opens Her third eye because when She does, the whole world gets destroyed; You apply kohl to the eyes. If you look at the Bharata Natyam dancers you will find that the ornaments that She wears all over Her body are exactly those described here in the puja. Also the various symbols that you see in meditation coorespond to what you see here. There are twelve of these symbols that flash in your mind's eye. All this jewelry you adorn Her with.
Then you offer Her red jewelled sandals, which are kept on the top of your head. Her feet are resting on your head all the time. Then offering no.49 says, Svasamana vesabhih - having similarly adorned; avarana devata - the deities of the enclosures of the sri chakra; abhissaha mahacakradhi rohanam - you make Her to climb up to the bindusthanam of the Sri Chakra and sit there. Then offering no.50 says - Kamesvara ankaparyanka upavesanam - on Lord Parameshwara's, Lord Siva's , thigh you make her sit. If you are a male and are doing puja to a woman or to a girl, it is at this point that you ask them to come and sit on your left thigh. If you are both female it doesn't matter. The polarity need not be there. You are both Siva and Shakti.
Then you as Siva and the Devi are given the amritam (viseshargyam) and the water (samanargyam). You give Devi pan and tambulam as a mouth freshener. It is then that Devi gives a little smile and it is for this smile that you have been waiting all this time.
Then you offer the light offering of mangala arati. Then you offer Her the umbrella which is a royal insignia. Then on either side Lakshmi and Saraswati are fanning Her with yaks tail fans. Your mind is offered as a mirror in which to see Her as yourself reflected. A palm leaf fan is offered. Then again you offer sandal paste, flowers, incense, light and a food offering. These offerings coorespond to the different chakras as well. Sandal is offered to the muladhara chakra; flowers are offered to the ajna chakra; they represent the "indriya nigraham", the control of the five senses; incense is offered at the heart center; light is offered at the navel center; naivedyam is offered at the Svaddhisthana chakra because they say that Kali the Mother Goddess likes to have "nada mamsam" as naivedyam. If you understand this properly, the human flesh that is offered to Her is the male lingam. It is the pleasurable naivedyam that is offered to her. It is the intercourse that is offered to her as naivedyam.
In Devi upasana madya, matsya, mamsa, mudra, maithuna - these are the five ingredients that are Her naivedyam.
Madya - means liquor or intoxication. Like you are constantly taking liquor, when you think of the Mother Goddess you are in a state of ecstacy. The word ecstasy means standing out of your body, you are having an outofthe body experience. There is the feeling of lightness, like you are floating on a cloud that you get when you are drunk. The Tantra Sastra states" Drink , drink and drink again until you fall on the ground. Then you get up and drink again. Then you obtain moksha or liberation." What it means is as the kundalini chakra rises from the muladhara chakra, you are having an outof the body experience. But that does not stay for long. You again have to assume your body consciousness. Then you have to drink again to reach that state again. You have to move the energy up the chakras as it tries to come down. This is the music you play inside yourself and you try to maintain that state. That is the way to liberation. This statement is a misleading statement. Tantrics have a way of writing things that is called "Sandhya Bhasha", in coded language. Those who do not have access to a proper guru will follow down the wrong path and get degraded.
So madya - is the constant energizing the the chakras one by one from the lower to the higher. Matsya like a fish that moves in the ocean in any direction of its choice, so in the bliss of God you are moving wherever the flow takes you, flowing with your body, mind, intellect knowing all the time that what you are doing is divine. That is matsya bhava. Some people interpret it to mean that you offer fish to the Devi.
Mamsa - is the knowledge. It comes from the statement "Yo mam ati sa mam atni", meaning what you eat is going to eat you tomorrow. I am eating food. I am going to die. When I die I become food for the worms and the plants. Food which is eating itself is that knowledge called mamsa. It is also human flesh, the lingam offered into the yoni of the Devi.
Mudras are the hand gestures. Dram drim klim blum, etc.
Maithuna is the intercourse. Intercourse is not limited to a certain time when the male and the female are together. It is in a broader context. We are always in intercourse. You are having continuous intercourse with the entire world. Your seeing is union; your hearing is union; your every action becomes union. So whether the actual maithuna happens or not it is not really relevent. But she accepts the union as naivedyam to her.
The 64 intimate offerings are then given. The only mantra given in the offerings is Aim Hrim Srim. This must remain. But you can change the sanskrit words explaining the offerings into any language. First you wash the Devi's feet. Then you remove her ornaments and clothes, because you are going to give her a bath. Here is where the difficulty of the Kaulachara path begins.
All of our three forms of worship are benign. They will harm no one. You can worship an idol. When you give the idol a bath, so many people sit around and watch that. No one feels any sense of shame. But when you put a living person there and give her a bath, or give an oil bath and massage the whole body, then people can take objection to that. Our society is not used to the idea. We have embibed the foreign English culture and taken on their repressed attitudes.
Then you apply perfumed oil all over the body and apply turmeric. Next She goes into the bathroom for Her bath. She sits in a jewelled chair. In the olden days the beauty cremes we used were organic ones milk, curds, honey ghee, etc. You prepare these for Devi's bath and massage. We also use gram flour and water and massage it all over the body. Each of these ingredients have light rays and colors associated with them. You are also bathing Devi with these lights. So it is called a Divine Bath. Then you give Her a hot water bath. With the bath you recite vedic mantras.
These pancamritas are used for different parts of the body and for the different chakras. Milk is used for the muladhara chakra; curd (yogurt) is used for the swaddhisthana chakra; ghee ( butter) is used for the navel chakra, the manipura; honey is used for the anahata chakra; fruit juice is used for the visshudhi or coconut water is offered. You can use coconut water in lew of any of these offerings. The coconut is the symbol of our head. When you break the head, the juice which comes out is the life force. So your out ofthe body experience is the coconut water that you are offering to the Devi. The coconut is a very important offering. Also the bananas are offered. They represent phallic form of Siva and therefore offered to Devi (yoni) to eat (i.e., sex).
The Durga Suktam is recited when you worship the svaddhisthana chakra, the yoni. This is for obtaining all that you want to achieve through action. They say that if you want to get children, you go to an ant hill and pour milk there because the Snake which gives children lives there. Actually, the snake they refer to is the kundalini; she resides in the yoni.
The Sri Suktam is used to worship at the heart center. You worship the breasts of the Devi. Purusha Suktam also is used for worshipping at the heart center, the nipples. The Rudram is chanted for the worship of the Siva Linga, the clitoris or the phallus.
So far in the puja you have been worshipping the Devi. Now at this point the Devi is doing worship to the male. If you are a female it doesn't matter, because the male and female aspects of each individual are what are being worshipped. Wherever the characteristic of happiness is, there you find Siva. In the tongue there is a lingam; the nipples on the breasts are the lingams; the clitoris is the lingam; the sight coming from the eyes is the lingam; the sound of music that enters the ears is female. All the sensory modes are female. All the active modes are male. The toes of your feet are lingams. To all of these places, these lingams you can use the Rudram and worship there.
The Rudram refers to the purification of the eleven characteristics of the mind. The 5 karmendriyas, the 5 jnanendriyas and the 1 mind are the eleven rudras. They are called rudras because they make you cry. The mind remembers the past things that make you cry. Sometimes the knowledge you receive is helpful, sometimes not helpful. You actions bring forth reactions from the world and they make you cry. So when your actions are pure, you choose to accept the divine aspects of nature around you and to ignore the other aspects - then you have truely purified yourself. Purification really means invoking the divine into your life. It is a commitment to beauty, to harmony, to grace, to healing, to nourishment, to empowerment, to protection. It is these things that are concerned with the worship. All of this purification has these connotations to it.
The abhishekam is done both to the person who is receiving the puja and to the one who is doing the puja. It is not a oneway affair. You are experiencing having the puja done to you and doing the puja and both conditions are combined in your imagination.
After you have given the baths, then you wash Devi with the Samanargyam. Then you dry Her with a white towel. Then you don't want a draft to create a chill so you give Her a red shawl to cover her body. You offer Her a red garment just to cover Her breasts. Then you bring Her to the makeup room and seat Her there. You apply different perfumes to Her body in different places. There are eight types. Then you dry Her hair and then you perfume it with dhupam, incense, from behind. You offer all kinds of flowers. You then take Her to the room where you offer Her different kinds of jewelry. Her hair; the kumkum you apply to the hair part; Her third eye is normally closed so you put a jewel on top of it to cover it. She never opens Her third eye because when She does, the whole world gets destroyed; You apply kohl to the eyes. If you look at the Bharata Natyam dancers you will find that the ornaments that She wears all over Her body are exactly those described here in the puja. Also the various symbols that you see in meditation coorespond to what you see here. There are twelve of these symbols that flash in your mind's eye. All this jewelry you adorn Her with.
Then you offer Her red jewelled sandals, which are kept on the top of your head. Her feet are resting on your head all the time. Then offering no.49 says, Svasamana vesabhih - having similarly adorned; avarana devata - the deities of the enclosures of the sri chakra; abhissaha mahacakradhi rohanam - you make Her to climb up to the bindusthanam of the Sri Chakra and sit there. Then offering no.50 says - Kamesvara ankaparyanka upavesanam - on Lord Parameshwara's, Lord Siva's , thigh you make her sit. If you are a male and are doing puja to a woman or to a girl, it is at this point that you ask them to come and sit on your left thigh. If you are both female it doesn't matter. The polarity need not be there. You are both Siva and Shakti.
Then you as Siva and the Devi are given the amritam (viseshargyam) and the water (samanargyam). You give Devi pan and tambulam as a mouth freshener. It is then that Devi gives a little smile and it is for this smile that you have been waiting all this time.
Then you offer the light offering of mangala arati. Then you offer Her the umbrella which is a royal insignia. Then on either side Lakshmi and Saraswati are fanning Her with yaks tail fans. Your mind is offered as a mirror in which to see Her as yourself reflected. A palm leaf fan is offered. Then again you offer sandal paste, flowers, incense, light and a food offering. These offerings coorespond to the different chakras as well. Sandal is offered to the muladhara chakra; flowers are offered to the ajna chakra; they represent the "indriya nigraham", the control of the five senses; incense is offered at the heart center; light is offered at the navel center; naivedyam is offered at the Svaddhisthana chakra because they say that Kali the Mother Goddess likes to have "nada mamsam" as naivedyam. If you understand this properly, the human flesh that is offered to Her is the male lingam. It is the pleasurable naivedyam that is offered to her. It is the intercourse that is offered to her as naivedyam.
In Devi upasana madya, matsya, mamsa, mudra, maithuna - these are the five ingredients that are Her naivedyam.
Madya - means liquor or intoxication. Like you are constantly taking liquor, when you think of the Mother Goddess you are in a state of ecstacy. The word ecstasy means standing out of your body, you are having an outofthe body experience. There is the feeling of lightness, like you are floating on a cloud that you get when you are drunk. The Tantra Sastra states" Drink , drink and drink again until you fall on the ground. Then you get up and drink again. Then you obtain moksha or liberation." What it means is as the kundalini chakra rises from the muladhara chakra, you are having an outof the body experience. But that does not stay for long. You again have to assume your body consciousness. Then you have to drink again to reach that state again. You have to move the energy up the chakras as it tries to come down. This is the music you play inside yourself and you try to maintain that state. That is the way to liberation. This statement is a misleading statement. Tantrics have a way of writing things that is called "Sandhya Bhasha", in coded language. Those who do not have access to a proper guru will follow down the wrong path and get degraded.
So madya - is the constant energizing the the chakras one by one from the lower to the higher. Matsya like a fish that moves in the ocean in any direction of its choice, so in the bliss of God you are moving wherever the flow takes you, flowing with your body, mind, intellect knowing all the time that what you are doing is divine. That is matsya bhava. Some people interpret it to mean that you offer fish to the Devi.
Mamsa - is the knowledge. It comes from the statement "Yo mam ati sa mam atni", meaning what you eat is going to eat you tomorrow. I am eating food. I am going to die. When I die I become food for the worms and the plants. Food which is eating itself is that knowledge called mamsa. It is also human flesh, the lingam offered into the yoni of the Devi.
Mudras are the hand gestures. Dram drim klim blum, etc.
Maithuna is the intercourse. Intercourse is not limited to a certain time when the male and the female are together. It is in a broader context. We are always in intercourse. You are having continuous intercourse with the entire world. Your seeing is union; your hearing is union; your every action becomes union. So whether the actual maithuna happens or not it is not really relevent. But she accepts the union as naivedyam to her.
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