USCP (1998): Lalitā Kramam; The 64 Intimate Offerings

Lalitā Kramam

This is the 2nd part of the pūjā. Having prepared the nectar with all the jīva kalās and all the elements of the individual and the cosmos into the nectar, we are now going to invoke the Lalitā Devī with all her attendants, with all the celestial beings, with all the life forces in the world into whatever it is that we are worshipping. Initially she resides in our hearts. We invoke the cosmos that is already in our hearts into whatever it is we worship, for the sake of worship, and at the end of the worship we take it back into ourselves. That is important here.

The mantra of invocation is:

Hṛccakrastham — the one who is residing in the heart chakra;
antaḥ — inside;
suṣumnā padmatavī bhedana kuśalam — the suṣumnā is the central channel of the kuṇḍalinī; padmatavī — forest of lotuses; bhedana — piercing through; kuśalam — who is very adept.
“The one who is residing in the heart chakra who is very adept in piercing through the lotus stems which are the mūlādhāra, svādhiṣṭhāna, and all the chakras.”

Mohāndhakāra — illusion and darkness; paripandhini — the space surrounding the illusion and darkness; samvid — to know intuitively; agnim — the fire which knows intuitively how to dispel the darkness of delusion; śiva dīpa jyotim — the light emanating from the lamp called Śiva; cidrūpiṇīm — cid means caitanya awareness, the form of awareness; ādi para samvidam — intuitive knowledge of the Highest; prāṇarūpiṇīm — whose nature is life force; paradevatām — the transcendental goddess; dhyātvā — having thought of her like this.

This is what the kalpa sūtra says, just this much. Sometimes I add that I would like to invite the entire cosmos to come. Somehow when I think of that Transcendent Being the cosmos does not enter my head. So, to appreciate the fullness and grandeur of this being that we are invoking, consider the following statements:

Śrī cakra gatta sarva āvaraṇa devatā svarūpiṇīm — all the deities that are enclosed or pervading the entirety of the Śrī Cakra;
sarvatobhadra-maṇḍala gatta — there is one maṇḍala that is composed of 16 squares by 16 squares, or 64 squares. In that all the gods and goddesses in the universe are invoked. That is called sarvatobhadra. This is drawn during Śāradā Navarātri, on top of which we place the coconut and kalaśa where we invoke the Devī.

We invoke all the deities:

sarva āyatana devatā svarūpiṇīm — all those deities;
caturāyata devatā svarūpiṇīm — around Devī reside Gaṇeśa, Sūrya, Viṣṇu, and Śiva — all these gods and their attendants are to be included;
divya siddha mānava augha gurumaṇḍala svarūpiṇīm — all the flows of the gurus are to be invoked as well;
samasta deśa kāla vastu-gatta jīva caitanya svarūpiṇīm, samasta deva gandharva yakṣa kinara apasara sādhyā siddha manuṣa strīpuruṣa svarūpiṇīm, śrī paradevatām ānanda bhairavīm ānanda bhairavena parama śivena saha ravantīm ramayantīm svātma abhinaṁ paracittim dhyāyāmi trikhanda mudrā garbhita kusumāñjalau.

Trikhanda mudrā garbhita kusumāñjalau: you make the trikandha mudrā with your hands, which is the yoni mudrā with the fingers opened out. Then we invoke all the light beings: Sarasvatī, who is symbolized by holding a white flower in two fingers; Lakṣmī, who is symbolized by a yellow flower; and Śakti, who is symbolized by a red flower. Then you put all different colored flowers in the middle. Then you say the pañcadaśī mantra and aim hrīm śrīm, hrīm śrīm sauḥ. Remember hrīm śrīm sauḥ is the mantra for the viśśuddhi chakra.

Lalitāyaḥ — of Lalitā;
amṛta — the nectar;
caitanya mūrtim — the awareness which has taken form;
kalpayāmi namaḥ — I imagine the immortal awareness which has taken the form of Lalitā.

Then you hold the breath. Exhale and say aim hrīm śrīm hasraim — you put the white flower you are holding on the Devī; hasrklim — you leave the red flower; and hasrsauḥ — you leave the yellow flower. Say the following mantra before releasing the rest of the flowers:

Mahāpadma vanāntasthe — The one who resides in the great cosmic lotus;
kāraṇānanda vigrahe — kāraṇa means the cause. It also has a tantric meaning: it represents the viśeṣārgyam. And for those who use the rājasic form of worship, kāraṇa means the wine, or intoxication of the Divine Being. That is the state that She is always in. She is bliss itself which has taken the form of intoxication;
sarva bhūta — all the living beings;
hite — one who does good;
mātaḥ — who is of the nature of the mother;
ehyehi — come, come;
parameśvarī — the one who controls the controller, the Goddess.

Āvāhita bhava — you are invited here;
saṁsthāpita bhava — come and sit on top of Śiva and be established here;
sannidhāpita bhava — you visualize her in the act of sitting;
sannidhi bhava — she has entered on top of Śiva;
sammukhi bhava — you are facing me;
avakuṇṭhita bhava — remove the veil of ignorance so I can see your full form;
suprīta bhava — please be pleased;
suprasanna bhava — be of a medium state between calm and excited;
varada bhava — grant my wishes.

Devī — the word comes from “divyate prakāśate” which means by Her is lighted up this world. The world is enlightened.

Devī sarvajaganmātaḥ yāvat pūjāvasānakam, tāvat tvaṁ prīti bhāvena yantresmin sannidhiṁ kuru.

This is the invocation to Devī: “Oh Devī, you who are the one mother of the universe, till the end of the pūjā, till then will you please with pleasure be present in this yantra” (in the Śrī Cakra, the idol, the suvāsinī or woman in front of you — or yourself).

Now, having invoked all the cosmos and all the beings, we must pacify them and give them something to make them happy. The best thing to pacify them is the nectar we have prepared already. We try to nourish the whole world with the nectar which has all the celestial lights included in it.

Then you add this sentence:

Āvāhitebhyaḥ — those who are invited;
sarvebhyaḥ — all of them;
sarvapūjārtham — in view of the entire pūjā;
idam amṛtam — this nectar;
samarpayāmi — I offer this nectar in view of the entire pūjā to all the beings assembled here.

Even though you are sitting alone doing this pūjā, you are giving the nectar to the entire cosmos and the beings that are assembled there.

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The 64 Intimate Offerings

A brief explanation of the different traditions in the Śrī Vidyā must be given here first: the samayācāra, dakṣiṇācāra, kaulācāra, and vāmācāra traditions. We belong to the first three modes of worship.

Samayācāra means an internal mode of worship and worship with the fire ritual. We do the homas, we do the internal visualizations. Whether the external pūjā articles are present or not, we can visualize them and do the entire pūjā. The samayācāra traditions come to us from the Divya Paramparā — that is through Balaji Balatripurasundari, who is our guru.

From the Siddha Paramparā, from Sarasvatī I have been given the Medhā Dakṣiṇāmūrthi. So the dakṣiṇācāra sampradāya has been given to us through the Sarasvatī Order. I am eligible for that, and those who have taken dīkṣā (initiation) from me are also eligible for that. Here you worship the Śrī Cakra. It is a bāhya pūjā. You are worshipping something outside of you, usually a vigraham (an idol or yantra). However, the suvāsinī pūjā is also done. Suvāsinī is a woman who represents the Śakti, but the pūjā is done only to her feet.

In the kaulācāra tradition the idol is replaced by a living woman or a man or a couple. You can also think of Her as the union of Śiva and Śakti. You can worship Her as a woman, as a man, or as both. There is no restriction. When we give Her a bath we not only chant the Durgā and Lakṣmī sūktams, but we also chant the Puruṣa sūktam and the Rudram. The word “she” contains the word “he”. So you do not have to worry that you are only worshipping the mother goddess and you are ignoring the father god. You are worshipping both.

There is a Sanskrit saying that says whenever you worship all the gods you worship Keśava. Ka + iśa + va is Keśava. Ka is Brahmā, Iśa is Śiva, and their union generates the vam, which is the amṛtam bījam. That is the nature of Viṣṇu, the yoni. “Sarvadevaṁ Namaskāram” goes to all the three gods: Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva.

The kaulācāra traditions also come to us from the Siddha Yoga Paramparā. From Balaji I have been given dīkṣā, and from Sarasvatī I have been given the Dakṣiṇāmūrti tradition. But the kaulācāra traditions also come to us through the Dattātreya Sampradāya. Dattātreya is the combination of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Rudra. He has given his instructions to his disciples: Prahlāda, his first disciple, and Paraśurāma his second disciple. Paraśurāma had codified his instructions into a Kalpa Sūtra.

The Paraśurāma Kalpasūtra divides the Śrī Vidyā Upāsanā into five parts:

1. The first part is the Gaṇapati Upāsanā Viddhi. It starts with the Mahā Gaṇapati mantra: Om Śrīm Hrīm Klīm Glauṁ Gaṁ Gaṇapataye Varavarada Sarvajanāṇme Vāsamānaya Svāhā. How to worship Gaṇapati at the mūlādhāra chakra is given.

2. Then the Paraśurāma Kalpa Sūtra goes on to describe the Śrī Kramam, the Lalitā Kramam, and Navāvaraṇa pūjās, which is worshipping Lalitā at the svādhiṣṭhāna chakra.

3. Then it goes on to describe the Rājyāśyāmalā Upāsanā Viddhi. She is called Mantrīṇī. As Rājyāśyāmalā she plays the vīṇā and is worshipped at the heart center, the music of life.

4. She is Vārāhī at the viśśuddhi. As Daṇḍinī, the one who can manifest, change, multiply, she is located at the ājñā center.

5. In the fifth part Paraśurāma has given the single-letter mantra Sauḥ. That is called Parā. So these five mantras — Gaṇapati, Lalitā, Rājyāśyāmalā, Vārāhī, and Sauḥ (Parā) — complete the Dattātreya Upāsanā Pāṭhati codified by Paraśurāma.

Paraśurāma has given mālā mantras, which are a series of rays emanating from the feet of the Divine Mother which can be recited every day. We are told which mantra is located in which center. Then he talks about how to do the homas, the fire rituals, to attain what you want in life. These are the subjects covered in the Paraśurāma Kalpa Sūtra.

We follow these procedures. This Sanskrit version is a word-by-word translation of the Sanskrit text given by Paraśurāma. But if you see the Kalpa Sūtras you will see it in an encoded form. They never write the mantras in a direct form. Every mantra has to be deciphered before you can understand it. That has been done here.

In this deciphering process there is an Umānandanātha who has given a commentary on this. But he has added so many other things as well. And then every other upāsaka who has written a commentary has also added on to it. They keep on complicating it.

In the kaulācāra tradition, the notion of self is completely absent. You see everyone as yourself. You invoke the Goddess into your wife, or suvāsinī, or anyone. You become the goddess in the virajā homa and you are worshipping the goddess. There can be no sense of shame in that process. That is why Dattātreya is known as Digambara (naked). Dattātreya Digambara is one of the great mantras of Dattātreya. Shirdi Sai Baba, Satya Sai Baba, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Ganapati Sacchidananda — all these teachers come from the Dattātreya tradition.

The last ācāra is called the vāmācāra tradition. So far these ācāras are based on the worship of the protective, nourishing, healing, kind aspects of the Divine. Then there are the terrible aspects of the Divine, which is the laya pradhāna. That is the worship in the vāmācāra tradition. There you think of God as the terrible aspects. You go to the cremation grounds. There you have vairāgya, complete detachment. Your energy goes from the viśśuddhi chakra and goes up. It never comes down. You are always working with the command center.

It is difficult to arrive at those centers without passing through the lower centers. Until you have experienced the heart center, to come to the ājñā center is very dangerous because you will experience an inordinate amount of fears and you cannot get rid of them. You cannot be given the astra vidyās, the atom bombs. You don't want to put the atom bombs in the hands of crazy people. So the vāmācāra path is very dangerous without a proper guru.

The aghoris are vāmācāra. Some vāmācāras do use their energies for healing. One we know in Benares uses his healing energy to cure the lepers and the untouchables. Normally we like to think of God in the beautiful. But with the vāmācāras, they like to think of God in the ugly.