The Ten Hand Gestures — The Daśa Mudrās
It is at this point that you show the ten hand mudrās. Each of these gestures is associated with one of the chakras in the Śrī Cakra. There are nine mudrās:
dram (śabda — Can I talk to you?),
drim (sparśa — Can I touch you?),
klim (rūpa — Can I see you nude?),
blum (rasa — Can I kiss you?),
sah (gandha — Can I apply perfumes to your body?)
These are the five sensory modes of perception, plus krom (aṅkuśam — Stop me where you wish to.), hasakhaphrem (Let's forget that we are separate individuals and fly together in space out of the body.), hsaum (May I place my seed in you? The seed is the seed of knowledge.), and aim (represents the yoni). In the Lalitā Sahasranāma it says she is to be worshipped by ten mudrās: Daśamudrā samarādhyā.
The krom (aṅkuśam) is saying, “If I am overstepping the boundaries laid down by you, please stop me.” In Tantra the woman is the teacher. She is the guru, the leader of the whole flow. She has to decide where to draw that line and the sādhaka should never transgress that line. If she says, you worship my feet, then he has no right to worship any other part of her body. That is the golden rule. If you violate the entity you are worshipping, then it is no longer worship. That is the beauty of the śāstra here.
Hasakhaphrem is where you cross your arms and make the yoni mudrā. Crossing your arms, exchanging the right and left means if you are Śiva you are becoming Śakti, and if you are Śakti you are becoming Śiva. Your awareness extends into her and hers into you. You become her and she becomes you. You are both Śiva and Śakti. Imagine that there is a tube between you and you are shuttling back and forth between Śiva and Śakti. That is the experience of the Śiva–Śakti sāmarasya state. Your liṅgam is projecting into her and her liṅgam is projecting into you. It is a two-way union. This is called the Sāmarasya svarūpam. This projection of alternating energy of bliss which is going back and forth. It comes up to the navel center, then it comes up to the heart-to-heart center, then to the neck-to-neck center, then to the eyebrow centers and then the two merge into one. Instead of being an oscillation it becomes a closed circle. This is where the Bhoga becomes Yoga. In the Yoga the Bhoga is still experienced.
By showing these mudrās you are asking her where to draw the limits. Hasakhaphrem is saying, “Let's forget that we are two entities. Let's get out of our body consciousness and move freely in space.”
When you make the yoni mudrā you have three sets of liṅgams and yonis. The four-petal lotus created by the long fingers forming a triangle with the four fingers projecting into them is the main yoni and liṅgams. It represents the Mūlādhāra and Svādhiṣṭhāna chakras, the sṛṣṭi aspects of creation. One set of yoni-liṅgams represents the Maṇipūra/Anāhata chakra where Lakṣmī and Viṣṇu reside, the sthiti aspect. One set of yoni-liṅgams represents the Viśuddhi/Ājñā chakras which are the laya aspects. And beyond that is the Sahasrāra which merges with the cosmos and has no form. So all seven chakras are found in the Yoni Mudrā. That is why it is really called the Sarva Yoni Mudrā. You show all these mudrās and then if she agrees and decides to be your guru, she shows the Trikāṇḍa Mudrā, which is the tenth mudrā. It is made like the yoni mudrā with the little fingers extended outwards.
Pādukām pūjayāmi tarpayāmi namaḥ
(I worship and offer water libations to your Feet)
From this point onwards at the end of each mantra you say śrī pādukām pūjayāmi tarpayāmi namaḥ. If you look at the two feet standing together, you will see that they also form a yoni. When you worship the feet you worship them as you do the yoni. We receive the energy from the feet of our guru, our śakti.
When you are very young, before the age of puberty, you can still have an orgasm. That orgasm is not at the genitals but it is shown as a jerk in the big toe. The śakti flows from the left foot's big toe. We receive the energy from the underside of the big toe. Even before puberty at the age of five onwards children feel this orgasmic sensation.
The Aṅgadevatās
You offer the aṅga-nyāsaṃ to the different parts of Devī's body and your body. You can actually touch those portions or she can do them with you. This is the meaning of seeing the four hands of the pictures and mūrtis of the Deities. Two hands belong to you and two hands belong to her. You are not separate, you are one. The order of touching the points around the Śrī Cakra is the same as you have done for the samanargyam.
Nitya Devatās Pūjā
In the Śrī Cakra Pūjā we also worship the Nitya Devatās around the central triangle, along with all the Sanskrit vowels. The word Nitya in Sanskrit means a unit of time. The nityās are the different aspects of space, the different phases of the moon, the tithis. The word time is Kāla. A part of time is the nityās, the digits of the moon. They are visualized being around the Devī's neck. You start with Amāvasyā, the new moon and go to Pūrṇimā, the full moon. You move around the central triangle in an anticlockwise direction. But if you do the worship to the Devī, you move around her neck in a clockwise direction. In the Śrī Cakra Pūjā the worship is usually confined to the recitation of the mūla mantra of the nitya devatā and sometimes a short pūjā to each of them.
The mūla mantras are all channels of energy and not very translatable. With each mantra you first recite one vowel. These are to help you to memorize the whole thing to be able to do it internally. You tend to forget where you are. The letters provide continuity to the next mantra. You remember the beginning and the last vowel and they link to the next one. They are also pointers to where your awareness is to be located around the Viśuddhi chakra.
The nitya devatās are also identified with the fifteen-syllabled mantra, the Pañcadaśī. Each syllable of the Pañcadaśī mantra is recited on its associated day or nitya. The syllables of the mantra refer to the eternal, formless aspects of the cosmos (Śiva) or the material universe and its māyā (Śakti). It is considered appropriate to do the worship of the Devī on the days associated with the Śakti and not on days associated with Śiva.
The Tithis or Nityās
1st day — K — associated with Śiva — not good for pūjā
2nd day — E — Śakti — good
3rd day — I — Śakti — good
4th day — La — Śakti — good
5th day — Hrīṃ — with Śiva & Śakti — excellent for pūjā
6th day — Ha — with Śiva — not good
7th day — Sa — Śakti — good
8th day — Ka — Śiva — not good
9th day — Ha — Śiva — not good
10th day — La — Śakti — good
11th day — Hrīṃ — with Śiva & Śakti — excellent (“ekādaśī”)
12th day — Sa — Śakti — good
13th day — Ka — Śiva — not good
14th day — La — Śakti — good
15th day — Hrīṃ — with Śiva & Śakti — excellent (Pūrṇimā full moon day)
The same thing relates to the waning of the moon until you reach New Moon or Amāvasyā which is considered very good for pūjā.
In addition to this association of the Nityās to the Pañcadaśī mantra, in a tantric pūjā, each of the Nitya Devatās is associated to a point on the body of the Devī where you are to worship her every day in order to excite her and bring about orgasm. The references to this form of worship is given in the Kāma Sūtras and in ___________??
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