The Panca Upacara Puja
After the Navavarana Puja is finished the Lalita Sahasranama is to be recited and then we offer the Panca Upacaras (the Five Offerings) to Devi.
1. The first offering is gandham - sandalwood paste. The sanskrit is "Lalitayai satsangam gandham kalpayami namah." Satsangam means association with the truth. What you are saying is - Let the sweet perfume smell of our association with the truth be as sandalwood offered in my mind to your lotus feet.
2. The second offering is of flowers. What are the flowers that are offered? Lalitayai indriya nigraham puspam kalpayami namah. Indriya nigraham means control of the five senses. They are the flowers that we offer.
3. The third offering is dhupam, incense. Lalitayai kama krodha lobha moha mada matsarya punya papa visarjanam dhupam kalpayami namah. The incense is leaving the passions for lust, greed, etc. and the notions of punya virtue and papa sin behind, letting them be burnt up as the incense stick is burnt up.
4. The next offering is dipam - the light. What is the light we are offering? Lalitayai chit kala darsanam dipam kalpayami namah. Chit means awareness kala is the lights in the awareness in the mind's eye; when you close your eyes and you are seeing the lights within, it is those lights which you offer to the Devi.
5. Naivedyam is food. Lalitayai vasudhadi sivavasanam siva sakti samarasyam naivedyam kalpayami namah. To Lalita, vasudhadi - starting from the earth, sivavasanam - in all the elements, in all the chakras, Siva is the seer and Shakti is the known, the modified and unmodified awarenesses, their union (samarasyam) is to be offered as a food offering. The union between theseer and the seen is the food offering.
6. Karpura - camphor. Lalitayai manolaya svarupa ananda karpura nirajanam kalpayami namah. Manolaya is the elimination of the mind; that is the state of bliss. Like the camphor that burns and eliminates itself, so we offer the elimination of all thoughts from the mind to the Devi.
7. Tambulam - pan. Lalitayai upanisad vakya surabhilam tambulam kalpayami namah. The upanisads are the parts of the Vedas that deal with knowledge. Vak means the sentences. Surabhilam is perfumed. The perfumed speech at the end of the Vedas relating to knowledge, that is offered as the mouth freshing pan to Devi.
8. The last offering is offering ourselves to Devi Sivoham Sivaham. I am Siva. You are Siva.
Kama Kala Dhyanam
We meditate on the face of Devi as Saraswati, Her breasts as Goddess Laksmi, and Her genitals as Goddess Durga, Kali or Lalita. In this meditation, you visualize yourself as Devi, and Devi in everything. All that you see is yourself. Take some time to abide in this open oneness with Devi.
Bali Danam
In this last part of the puja, you give a food offering to the Ksetrapalaka the Deities that protect the field, the location where the puja is being held. You are also giving to the evilmongering spirits or forces that exist all around us so that they do not trouble the devotees who are doing the puja.
You draw the diagram on the floor in front of the Devi using the samanargyam water the triangle surrounded by the circle and a square. While drawing you recite "Aim vyapaka mandalaya namah". On top of the diagram you place a small plate or vessel, preferably of copper. You put a sampling of each of the food offerings given to the Devi on the plate, and pour water on top of it. Then you say the following mantra:
Om hrim sarva vighna kridbhyah sarvabhutebhyo hum svaha. Sarva vighna kridbhya - all those who are creating obstacles; sarvabhutebhyo - all the elements which are creating the trouble; hum svaha - I say hum and offer them to the fire. The word Hum has a special meaning. It is called a kurcha bija. When you hold your breath and push it down as if you were going to
eliminate your bowels, then you feel after a little while the rush of blood coming up to the face. The face will flush with the blood. That is the hum.
When you say Hum Phat svaha, and do it long enough, the phat is the sound of explosion when the blood rushes to your head and you lose your body, you pass out. You are dead. This is the way the yogis die. They just hold their breath, push it down and then the blood rushes up. The head is fully energized in a superconscious state and it blows up like a coconut and the waters flow out to Siva. This is the secret of the Hum Phat Swaha mantra. Swaha is what you offer to the fire. Phat is the explosive sound. When you offer the body to the fire, you are dead. So in a sense, Phat and Swaha are the same thing. When you say one, you don't have to say the other. Then you clap three times - for those relating to the body, those relating the elements and those relating to the astral entities. Adiatmika, adibhutika and adidaivika are the three disturbing elements you try to eliminate.
To Finish the Puja
To offer anything to God, a puja, a karma, how do we offer? We offer with the seed and water. Akshatas, the rice grains represent the seed. These, along with water you pour over the Meru Sri Chakra. Etat pujaphalam - The fruit of this puja; sarvam sri paradevatarpanam astu - along with water may it be offered to the transcendental Goddess; paramesvaraparnam astu - to the father God, Siva; Guru devatarpanam astu - to the Guru who is the living God, we offer; svatmarpanam astu - I offer to myself.
At the end of the puja you pick up the vessel containing the viseshargyam,put it on top of your head and then show it three times to Devi. After this you distribute the nectar to the devotees. Do not disturb it during the puja. Parasurama kalpa sutra
The Kalpa Sutra is a digest of Sri Vidya, a system of Divine Mother's worship compiled by Parasurama from several systems which prevailed in his day. This is one of the many forms of Sri Vidya now in vogue. It is the shortest and best arranged one of them all.
A passage from Tripurarahasya Upanishat quotes.
In the Upasana Kanda of the Veda, the Upasana or the contemplative worship is treated in all its details. These details were compiled by Siva in six classes of works known as Agama, Rahasya, Samhita, Yamala, Arnava and Tantra, each class being devoted to a distinct Devata or form of the Supreme.
Bhargava Rama, son of Jamadagni, saw them too vast ad asked his revered master, Blessed Dattatreya who combined the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva in Himself, to abridge the system. Accordingly, seeing that the Upasana of Tripura was the highest of all forms of worship and that its effect included the effects of all other forms of worship, composed DattaSamhita comprising eighteen thousand verses, in which the worship of Tripura was laid down in all its details in a succinct form.
From him Bhargava Rama learnt the Samhita. But, finding that it was still too vast in extent and that its meaning was still too deep for the average devotee to understand, Rama abridged the system still further and presented it in an intelligible form. This abridgment contained six thousand sutras in fifty Khandas or sections.
Rama's pupil, again, Sumedha of the Harita family who studied this sutra from his master, found the work almost as vast as DattaSamhita, and so made an abridgment of the Samhita and the Sutra, in the shape of another work of Sutras, taking the form of a dialogue between Datta nd Rama. It is this abridgment that has come down to us as the Parasurama Kalpa Sutra comprising ten Khandas. Thhough the work is not apparently in the form of a dialogue, still, it may be inferred from the concluding passage of the work that it is a dialogue between the master and his pupil.
Finding this Sutra too deep in its meaning for ordinary students to understand, Umanandanatha, a disciple of the blessed Bhaskararaya, composed in 1775 the work "Nityotsava" laying down clearly and methodically the system of worship taught in the Sutra. I have taken the Lalita Upasana from the Kalpa Sutra and tried to expalin the meanings in scientific idiom suited to the 20th century.
After the Navavarana Puja is finished the Lalita Sahasranama is to be recited and then we offer the Panca Upacaras (the Five Offerings) to Devi.
1. The first offering is gandham - sandalwood paste. The sanskrit is "Lalitayai satsangam gandham kalpayami namah." Satsangam means association with the truth. What you are saying is - Let the sweet perfume smell of our association with the truth be as sandalwood offered in my mind to your lotus feet.
2. The second offering is of flowers. What are the flowers that are offered? Lalitayai indriya nigraham puspam kalpayami namah. Indriya nigraham means control of the five senses. They are the flowers that we offer.
3. The third offering is dhupam, incense. Lalitayai kama krodha lobha moha mada matsarya punya papa visarjanam dhupam kalpayami namah. The incense is leaving the passions for lust, greed, etc. and the notions of punya virtue and papa sin behind, letting them be burnt up as the incense stick is burnt up.
4. The next offering is dipam - the light. What is the light we are offering? Lalitayai chit kala darsanam dipam kalpayami namah. Chit means awareness kala is the lights in the awareness in the mind's eye; when you close your eyes and you are seeing the lights within, it is those lights which you offer to the Devi.
5. Naivedyam is food. Lalitayai vasudhadi sivavasanam siva sakti samarasyam naivedyam kalpayami namah. To Lalita, vasudhadi - starting from the earth, sivavasanam - in all the elements, in all the chakras, Siva is the seer and Shakti is the known, the modified and unmodified awarenesses, their union (samarasyam) is to be offered as a food offering. The union between theseer and the seen is the food offering.
6. Karpura - camphor. Lalitayai manolaya svarupa ananda karpura nirajanam kalpayami namah. Manolaya is the elimination of the mind; that is the state of bliss. Like the camphor that burns and eliminates itself, so we offer the elimination of all thoughts from the mind to the Devi.
7. Tambulam - pan. Lalitayai upanisad vakya surabhilam tambulam kalpayami namah. The upanisads are the parts of the Vedas that deal with knowledge. Vak means the sentences. Surabhilam is perfumed. The perfumed speech at the end of the Vedas relating to knowledge, that is offered as the mouth freshing pan to Devi.
8. The last offering is offering ourselves to Devi Sivoham Sivaham. I am Siva. You are Siva.
Kama Kala Dhyanam
We meditate on the face of Devi as Saraswati, Her breasts as Goddess Laksmi, and Her genitals as Goddess Durga, Kali or Lalita. In this meditation, you visualize yourself as Devi, and Devi in everything. All that you see is yourself. Take some time to abide in this open oneness with Devi.
Bali Danam
In this last part of the puja, you give a food offering to the Ksetrapalaka the Deities that protect the field, the location where the puja is being held. You are also giving to the evilmongering spirits or forces that exist all around us so that they do not trouble the devotees who are doing the puja.
You draw the diagram on the floor in front of the Devi using the samanargyam water the triangle surrounded by the circle and a square. While drawing you recite "Aim vyapaka mandalaya namah". On top of the diagram you place a small plate or vessel, preferably of copper. You put a sampling of each of the food offerings given to the Devi on the plate, and pour water on top of it. Then you say the following mantra:
Om hrim sarva vighna kridbhyah sarvabhutebhyo hum svaha. Sarva vighna kridbhya - all those who are creating obstacles; sarvabhutebhyo - all the elements which are creating the trouble; hum svaha - I say hum and offer them to the fire. The word Hum has a special meaning. It is called a kurcha bija. When you hold your breath and push it down as if you were going to
eliminate your bowels, then you feel after a little while the rush of blood coming up to the face. The face will flush with the blood. That is the hum.
When you say Hum Phat svaha, and do it long enough, the phat is the sound of explosion when the blood rushes to your head and you lose your body, you pass out. You are dead. This is the way the yogis die. They just hold their breath, push it down and then the blood rushes up. The head is fully energized in a superconscious state and it blows up like a coconut and the waters flow out to Siva. This is the secret of the Hum Phat Swaha mantra. Swaha is what you offer to the fire. Phat is the explosive sound. When you offer the body to the fire, you are dead. So in a sense, Phat and Swaha are the same thing. When you say one, you don't have to say the other. Then you clap three times - for those relating to the body, those relating the elements and those relating to the astral entities. Adiatmika, adibhutika and adidaivika are the three disturbing elements you try to eliminate.
To Finish the Puja
To offer anything to God, a puja, a karma, how do we offer? We offer with the seed and water. Akshatas, the rice grains represent the seed. These, along with water you pour over the Meru Sri Chakra. Etat pujaphalam - The fruit of this puja; sarvam sri paradevatarpanam astu - along with water may it be offered to the transcendental Goddess; paramesvaraparnam astu - to the father God, Siva; Guru devatarpanam astu - to the Guru who is the living God, we offer; svatmarpanam astu - I offer to myself.
At the end of the puja you pick up the vessel containing the viseshargyam,put it on top of your head and then show it three times to Devi. After this you distribute the nectar to the devotees. Do not disturb it during the puja. Parasurama kalpa sutra
The Kalpa Sutra is a digest of Sri Vidya, a system of Divine Mother's worship compiled by Parasurama from several systems which prevailed in his day. This is one of the many forms of Sri Vidya now in vogue. It is the shortest and best arranged one of them all.
A passage from Tripurarahasya Upanishat quotes.
In the Upasana Kanda of the Veda, the Upasana or the contemplative worship is treated in all its details. These details were compiled by Siva in six classes of works known as Agama, Rahasya, Samhita, Yamala, Arnava and Tantra, each class being devoted to a distinct Devata or form of the Supreme.
Bhargava Rama, son of Jamadagni, saw them too vast ad asked his revered master, Blessed Dattatreya who combined the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva in Himself, to abridge the system. Accordingly, seeing that the Upasana of Tripura was the highest of all forms of worship and that its effect included the effects of all other forms of worship, composed DattaSamhita comprising eighteen thousand verses, in which the worship of Tripura was laid down in all its details in a succinct form.
From him Bhargava Rama learnt the Samhita. But, finding that it was still too vast in extent and that its meaning was still too deep for the average devotee to understand, Rama abridged the system still further and presented it in an intelligible form. This abridgment contained six thousand sutras in fifty Khandas or sections.
Rama's pupil, again, Sumedha of the Harita family who studied this sutra from his master, found the work almost as vast as DattaSamhita, and so made an abridgment of the Samhita and the Sutra, in the shape of another work of Sutras, taking the form of a dialogue between Datta nd Rama. It is this abridgment that has come down to us as the Parasurama Kalpa Sutra comprising ten Khandas. Thhough the work is not apparently in the form of a dialogue, still, it may be inferred from the concluding passage of the work that it is a dialogue between the master and his pupil.
Finding this Sutra too deep in its meaning for ordinary students to understand, Umanandanatha, a disciple of the blessed Bhaskararaya, composed in 1775 the work "Nityotsava" laying down clearly and methodically the system of worship taught in the Sutra. I have taken the Lalita Upasana from the Kalpa Sutra and tried to expalin the meanings in scientific idiom suited to the 20th century.
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