USCP: Lalita Kramam; The 64 intimate offerings

Lalita Kramam

This is the 2nd part of the puja. Having prepared the nectar with all the jiva kalas and all the elements of the individual and the cosmos into the nectar we are now going to invoke the Lalita Devi 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 out 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 in to ourselves.That is important here.

The mantra of invocation is : Hrccakrastam -  the one who is residing in the heart chakra; antah - inside; susumna padmatavi bhedana kusalam -  the susumna is the central channel of the kundalini; padmatavi -  forest of lotuses; bhedana -  piercing through; kusalam -  who is very adept." The one who is residing he the heart chakra who is very adept in piercing through the lotus stems which are the muladhara, swaddhisthana and all the chakras".

Mohandhakara illlusion and darkness; paripandhini the space surrounding the illusion and darkness; samvidto know intuitively; agnimthe fire which knows intuitively how to dispel the darkness of delusion; siva dipa jyotim the light immanating from the lamp called Siva; cidrupinim cid means chaitanya awareness, the form of awareness; adi para samvidam intuitive knowledge of the Highest; pranarupinim whose nature is life force; paradevatam the transcendental goddess; dhyatva having thought of her like this.

This is what the kalpa sutra 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:

Sri cakra gatta sarva avarana devata svarupinim  - all the deities that are enclosed or pervading the entirety of the sri chakra; sarvatobhadramandala gatta  - there is one mandala 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 Sarada Navratri on top of which  we place the coconut and kalasa where we invoke the Devi.

We invoke all the deities; sarva ayatana devata svarupinim - all those deities; chaturayata devata svarupinim  - around Devi reside Ganesha, Surya, Visnu and Siva all these gods and their attendants are to be included; divya siddha manava augha gurumandala svarupinim  -all the flows of the gurus are to be invoked as well;  samasta desa kala vastugatta jiva chaitanya svarupinim, samasta deva gandharva yaksa kinara apasara sadya siddha manusa stripurusa svarupinim, sri paradevatam ananda bhairavim ananda bhairavena parama sivena saha ravantim ramayantim svatma abhinam parachittim dhyayami trikhanda mudra garbhita kusumanjalau.

Trikhanda mudra garbhita kusumanjalau: you make the trikandha mudra with your hands which is the yoni mudra with the fingers opened out. Then we invoke all the light beings: Saraswati who is symbolized by holding a white flower in two fingers; Laksmi who is symbolized by a yellow flower, and Shakti who is symbolized by a red flower. Then you put all different colored flowers in the middle. Then you say the pancadasi mantra and aim hrim srim, hrim srim souh. Remember hrim srim souh is the mantra for the visshuddhi chakra. Lalitayah - of Lalita; amrta -  the nectar; caitanya murtim -  the awareness which has taken form; kalpayami namah - I imagine the immortal awareness which has taken the form of Lalita. Then you hold the breath. Exhale and say aim hrim srim hasraim - you put the white flower you are holding on the Devi; hasrklim - you leave the red flower; and hasrsouh you leave the yellow flower. Say the following mantra before releasing the rest of the flowers.

Mahapadma vanantasthe  - The one who resides in the great cosmic lotus; karanananda vigrahe - karana means the cause. It also has a tantric meaning: it represents the visesargya. And for those who use the rajasic form of worship, karana 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 bhuta - all the living beings; hite - one who does good; matah -  who is of the nature of the mother; ehyehi  - come, come; paramesvari -  the one who controls the controller, the Goddess.

Avahita bhava - you are invited here; samsthapita bhava -  come and sit on top of Siva and be established here; sannidhapita bhava  - you visualize her in the act of sitting; sannidhi bhava  - she has entered on top of Siva; summukhi bhava -  you are facing me; avakunthita bhava - remove the veil of ignorance so I can see your full form; supritha bhava -  please be pleased; suprasanna bhava -  be of a medium state between calm and excited; varada bhava  - grant my wishes.

Devi - the word comes from "divyate prakashate" which means by Her is lighted up this world, The world is enlightened. Devi sarvajaganmatah yavat pujavasanakam, tavat tvam priti bhavena yantresmin sannidhim kuru. This is the invocation to Devi. "Oh Devi, you who are the one mother of the universe, til the end of the puja, til then will you please with pleasure be present in this yantra" (in the sri chakra, the idol, the suvasini 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: Avahitebyah  - those who are invited; sarvebhyah -  all of them; sarvapujartham  - in view of the entire puja; idam amrtam  - this nectar; samarpayami - I offer this nectar in view of the entire puja to all the beings assembled here.
Even though you are sitting alone doing this puja, you are giving the nectar to the entire cosmos and the beings that are assembled there.

The 64 intimate offerings

A brief explanation of the different traditions in the Sri Vidya must be given here first, the samayachara, dakshinachara, kaulachara and vamachara traditions. We belong to the first three modes of worship. Samayachara means an internal mode of worship and worship with the fire ritual. We do the homas, we do the internal visualizations, whether the external puja articles are present or not we can visualize them and do the entire puja. The samayachara traditions come to us from the Divya Parampara that is through BalajiBalatripurasundari who is our guru.

From the Siddha Parampara, from Saraswati I have been given the Medha Dakshinamurthi. So the Dakshinachara sampradaya has been given to us through the Saraswati Order. I am eligible for that and those who have taken diksha (initiation) from me are also eligible for that. Here you worship the Sri Chakra. It is a bahia puja. You are worshipping something outside of you, usually a vigraham(an idol or yantra). However, the suvasini puja is also done. Suvasini is a woman who represents the Shakti, but the puja is done only to her feet.

In the Kaulachara 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 Siva and Shakti. 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 Durga and Lakshmi suktams, but we also chant the Purusha suktam 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 when ever you worship all the gods you worship Keshava. Ka + isha + va is Keshava. Ka is Brahma, Isha is Siva and their union generates the vam which is the amritam. bijam. That is the nature of Visnu, the yoni. "Sarvadevam Namaskaram" goes to all the three gods, Brahma, Visnu and Siva.

The Kaulachara traditions also come to us from the Siddha Yoga Parampara. From Balaji I have been given Diksha and from Saraswati I have been given the Dakshinamurti tradition. But the Kaulcahra traditions also come to us through the Dattatreya Sampradaya. Dattatreya is the combination of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. He has given his instructions to his disciples: Prahlada, his first disciple, and Parasurama his second disciple. Parasurama had codified his instructions into a Kalpa Sutra. The Parasurama Kalpasutra divides the Sri Vidya Upasana into five parts:
1. The first part is the Ganapati Upasana Viddhi. It starts with the Maha Ganapati mantra Om Srim Hrim Klim Glaum Gam Ganapataye Varavarada Sarvajananme Vasamanaya Svaha. How to worship Ganapati at athe Muladhara chakra is given.
2. Then the Parasurama Kalpa Sutra goes on to describe the Sri Kramam the Lalita Kramam and Navavarana Pujas which is worshipping Lalita at the Svaddhisthana Chakra.
3. Then it goes onto describe the Rajyashyamala Upasana Viddhi. She is called Mantrini. As Rajyashyamala she plays the veena and worshipped at the heart center, the music of life.
4. She is Varahi at the Visshudhi. As Dandini, the one who can manifest, change, multiply she is located at athe Ajna Center.
5. In the fifth part Parasurama has given the single letter mantra Souh. That is called Para. So these five mantras, Ganapati, Lalitha, Rajyashyamala, Varahi and Souh (Para) completes the Dattatreya Upasana Pathati codified by Parasurama.

Parasurama has given mala Mantras which are a series of rays emminating 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 Parasurama Kalpa Sutra.

We follow these procedures. This sanskrit version is a wordbyword translation of the sanskrit text given by Parasurama. But if you see the Kalpa Sutras you will see it in a 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 Umanandanatha who has given a commentary on this. But he has added so many other things as well. And then every other upasaka who has written a commentary has also added on to it. They keep on complicating it.

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

The last achara is called the Vamachara tradition. So far these acharas are based on the worship of the protective, nourishing , healing kind of aspects of the Divine. Then there are the terrible aspects of the Divine which is the laya pradhana. That is the worship in the Vamachara tradition. There you think of God as the terrible aspects. You go to the cremation grounds. There you have vairagya, complete detachment. Your energy goes from the visshudi 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 ajna 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 vidyas, the atom bombs. You don't want to put the atom bombs in the hands of crazy people. So the vamachara path is very dangerous without a proper guru. The aghoris are vamachara. Some vamacharas 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 vamacharas, they like to think of God in the ugly.