The Sri Kramam
Meditation can be compared to a flow. In fact ,the word " nadis" which they use are really mispelling of the word "nadi" or river. It is a conduit, a flow of awareness along a direction. For this flow of direction there are two banks. One bank is the male aspect and the other bank is the female aspect. When you are thinking of the power as Mother, then you are thinking of the female genital. When you are thinking of the power as the Father, as Siva, you are thinking of the male genital. When you are thinking of the flow itself, of the river itself, when the two banks merge, the flow becomes thin, there is a thin line of separation between these two. They are in contact, in interaction. The flow is coming out of the union between Siva and Shakti. The orgasm itself is the kundalini shakti. The male is the undisturbed aspect and the female is the disturbing aspect.
In Tantra, the female is considered to be the Guru. She is the one who directs the flow of the puja worship. She is the one who decides what is to be done and at what stage. She controls the entire procedure. Without her approval, not one step can be taken forward. Constantly the awareness is kept on the female aspect or the male aspect or on the union aspect. There are only three modes of worship at the muladhara chakra. The mind tends to only get absorbed in happiness. It cannot focus itself on something it does not like. Even on things that it likes, it cannot stay there, it tries to move away. Therefore you choose for your meditation something which is very pleasurable and lovable. That is why she is called Bhagaradhya.
Preparation of the Nectar.
The Sri Kramam is the preparation of the nectar, invoking the entire cosmic aspects into the nourishing drink that we are preparing here, by the taking of which you become the Devi Herself. This means throughout your entire day whatever you say will come true. Those who take the visesharyam remembering the Guru and offering it first to their heads and then taking it inside become the Devi and this takes effect until the next day. All their previous sins and whatever karmas they have done are completely washed out. That is the function of the visheshargyam sthapana. It plays a very important role.
The Sri Vidya upasana means that you realize the truth of the statement that what you see is yourself. You are seeing yourself, your body, your mind, your thoughts - all these are yours. Not only that, you are also seeing all the articles of worship, the yantra and the devi - all these are also yourself.
To establish the reality and the truth of this in an integral way, imagine that you are hovering like an angel over yourself and you are looking down where you are sitting. This is youur nose. Devi is sitting here. The articles of puja are there here is the Sri Chakra which is the link between the two of you. On the left side and on the right-hand side you are going to keep what is called Samanargya and Visheshargya.There is going to be a mandala for the ordinary pot (samanargya) and one for the visheshargya, the nectar in which all the kalas are invoked.
You have to become a part of the entire structure. This is Her face, you are Her breasts and this is Her foot and this is Her yoni and this is Her navel. You are sitting on Her yoni, the Adhara shakti - Her muladhara chakra. You are yourself the swaddhisthana. The samanargya and visheshargya are the right and left breasts of Devi. This whole structure is Ardhanaishwara, the right breast cooresponds with Siva and that is flat, and the left breast is full, it is the visheshargyam, the Devi. The Devi is the iccha shakti, the Sri chakra and the Samanargya and Visheshargya are in the jnana shakti sthana and you and the muladhara are the kriya shakti sthana. As we mentioned, in the Vajra Pancanyasa, we are placing the three bijas, one in yourself, one in the connecting link of the Sri Chakra and one in the Devi, in the kriya, jnana and iccha shakti sthanas. You are exchanging the iccha and kriya shaktis and the connection is the jnana.It is like a point which is a pin hole camera, where what you see is being reflected. Your right side is Her left side and your left is Her right side. You are making yourself, the puja articles, the nectar and the Devi one integrated structure through this process of ritual.
Samanargya
The next step in the preparation is the purification of the water. We make a mandala like this. A square, a circle, the point of which touches the square. Then you form a hexagon inside that. And then you form a triangle inside that. First you draw the inside triangle. Then you draw the hexagon. You go clockwise. You draw the circle starting at the upper left and going around clockwise. Starting with the isana kona, the northeast corner, you draw the square. When you do it this way you are following the vastu, the rules for architecture. The central triangle represents the ajna chakra. The upper triangle represents the siva trikona, and the triangle with the point down represents the shakti kona. They are interpenetrating and they are in union with each other. This, therefore represents the swaddhisthana chakra, the six-petalled lotus. The circle represents the three circles going around the waist, the chest and the throat chakras. Muladhara is the square, swaddhisthana is the sixpetalled lotus, the circle represents manipura, anahata and visshudi grantis and the central triangle is the ajna. Up to the ajna the differentiation between Siva and Shakti exists. The Samanargya preserves this difference. You say "trikona" and draw the triangle, "satkona" - the six-petalled lotus, "vrta" - the circle, and "caturasra" - the square.When done say "mandala vilikya".
The directions of the puja are self explanatory. "Offer a flower. Put a conch or a pot on top of diagram. Fill it with water. Into the water add one drop of milk, the special herbs, saffron, tumeric, etc. Imagine the diagram is transferred up into the water. Worship the angadevatas with kumkum or sandal paste. Imagine you are also worshipping yours and Devi's bodies as you do this nyasam. " On top of this is a base and a pot with water. Into this water we are invoking the limbs of the Goddess. When you do the angadevata nyasa you say, "Ka...hrdayaya namah" (the heart) and touch the agni kona the northeastern corner of the square;
"Ha...sirase svaha" (the head) and touch the isana kona the northwestern corner of the square; "Sa...sikhayai vasat"(the crown of head) and touch the asura kona the southeastern corner; "Ka...kavachaya hum "(the arms) and touch the vayu kona the southwestern corner of square; "Ha...netratrayaya vausat" (the third eye) and touch the center (madhye); and then "Sa...astraya phat" (circle the head) and touch top side, right side middle, bottom side middle, left side middle and say "Bhubhuvasuvah om". That is how it goes. Then you worship the central part of the triangle saying "Aim hrim srim Ka..Ha..Sa...namah". You touch first the tip of the triangle at the bottom, then the right side corner, then the left, going anticlockwise. This completes the preparation of the samanargya.
Preparation of the Viseshargyam
Now comes the complicated procedure, the invocation of all the kalas into the mother's milk. We have identified the viseshargya with the Mother's left breast. The milk of kindness, of compassion, of knowledge of grace, of protection, of all these good qualities resident in the Mother are present here. Like before, we are drawing the mandala for viseshargya. First you put the bindu, taking the water from the samanargya, draw the mandala with your ring finger. The ring finger represents the Siva, the ring is the yoni. So with the Siva linga you are putting the yoni there. Again dip the finger and draw the central triangle. Surrounding that you draw the satkona like before. Then draw the circle and the square. Here you start from inside and go to the outside.
First worship the mandala that you have drawn on the ground. To the left of the samanargya is your normal pot of water and to the side of the visheshargya you keep the milk. The articles or worship are on your right side.
You worship the mandala from the center. Then you worship the three konas of the central triangle the ajna chakra, looking into the eyes of the Devi and remembering your own eyes. Ka..namah, Ha...namah, Sa...namah. Then you do the angadevata nyasa. You go aroung the sat kona clockwise, starting with the southern kona . Then you repeat the nyasa in the same way that you do it for the samanargya. All the chakras are included in this nyasa. The bindu represents the sahasrara chakra. But in samanargya only up to the ajna chakra is included. This establishes the female supremacy.
Then you place the bijas for each of the chakras. You start with the fire which you are going to invoke in the base on which you are going to place the viseshargya pot which goes on top of the mandalam you have drawn. The pot represents the sun and the liquid, the milk is going to represent the moon. The agni is essentially the earth. Here is the sun and here is the moon. When these three are aligned then there is a sun eqlipse. If you think of the moon here, then there is a moon eqlipse. Why do we say that the earth represents the fire? Because except for the outer crust, out of the 6000 miles about 5995 is fire and five miles is the earth. The entire earth inside is molten lava. That is why we call the earth the fire.
The graha kala, the eqlipse time is supposed to be a punya kala, an auspicious time. It is necessary that you do not move the viseshargya patra or this alignment until the puja is completely done. If you move it, then the power that you have invested in that, the eqlipse is over, so it does not have the same effect. That is why it is said that as long as the puja is not completed, you should not move the visesargya or the samanargya.
Meditation can be compared to a flow. In fact ,the word " nadis" which they use are really mispelling of the word "nadi" or river. It is a conduit, a flow of awareness along a direction. For this flow of direction there are two banks. One bank is the male aspect and the other bank is the female aspect. When you are thinking of the power as Mother, then you are thinking of the female genital. When you are thinking of the power as the Father, as Siva, you are thinking of the male genital. When you are thinking of the flow itself, of the river itself, when the two banks merge, the flow becomes thin, there is a thin line of separation between these two. They are in contact, in interaction. The flow is coming out of the union between Siva and Shakti. The orgasm itself is the kundalini shakti. The male is the undisturbed aspect and the female is the disturbing aspect.
In Tantra, the female is considered to be the Guru. She is the one who directs the flow of the puja worship. She is the one who decides what is to be done and at what stage. She controls the entire procedure. Without her approval, not one step can be taken forward. Constantly the awareness is kept on the female aspect or the male aspect or on the union aspect. There are only three modes of worship at the muladhara chakra. The mind tends to only get absorbed in happiness. It cannot focus itself on something it does not like. Even on things that it likes, it cannot stay there, it tries to move away. Therefore you choose for your meditation something which is very pleasurable and lovable. That is why she is called Bhagaradhya.
Preparation of the Nectar.
The Sri Kramam is the preparation of the nectar, invoking the entire cosmic aspects into the nourishing drink that we are preparing here, by the taking of which you become the Devi Herself. This means throughout your entire day whatever you say will come true. Those who take the visesharyam remembering the Guru and offering it first to their heads and then taking it inside become the Devi and this takes effect until the next day. All their previous sins and whatever karmas they have done are completely washed out. That is the function of the visheshargyam sthapana. It plays a very important role.
The Sri Vidya upasana means that you realize the truth of the statement that what you see is yourself. You are seeing yourself, your body, your mind, your thoughts - all these are yours. Not only that, you are also seeing all the articles of worship, the yantra and the devi - all these are also yourself.
To establish the reality and the truth of this in an integral way, imagine that you are hovering like an angel over yourself and you are looking down where you are sitting. This is youur nose. Devi is sitting here. The articles of puja are there here is the Sri Chakra which is the link between the two of you. On the left side and on the right-hand side you are going to keep what is called Samanargya and Visheshargya.There is going to be a mandala for the ordinary pot (samanargya) and one for the visheshargya, the nectar in which all the kalas are invoked.
You have to become a part of the entire structure. This is Her face, you are Her breasts and this is Her foot and this is Her yoni and this is Her navel. You are sitting on Her yoni, the Adhara shakti - Her muladhara chakra. You are yourself the swaddhisthana. The samanargya and visheshargya are the right and left breasts of Devi. This whole structure is Ardhanaishwara, the right breast cooresponds with Siva and that is flat, and the left breast is full, it is the visheshargyam, the Devi. The Devi is the iccha shakti, the Sri chakra and the Samanargya and Visheshargya are in the jnana shakti sthana and you and the muladhara are the kriya shakti sthana. As we mentioned, in the Vajra Pancanyasa, we are placing the three bijas, one in yourself, one in the connecting link of the Sri Chakra and one in the Devi, in the kriya, jnana and iccha shakti sthanas. You are exchanging the iccha and kriya shaktis and the connection is the jnana.It is like a point which is a pin hole camera, where what you see is being reflected. Your right side is Her left side and your left is Her right side. You are making yourself, the puja articles, the nectar and the Devi one integrated structure through this process of ritual.
Samanargya
The next step in the preparation is the purification of the water. We make a mandala like this. A square, a circle, the point of which touches the square. Then you form a hexagon inside that. And then you form a triangle inside that. First you draw the inside triangle. Then you draw the hexagon. You go clockwise. You draw the circle starting at the upper left and going around clockwise. Starting with the isana kona, the northeast corner, you draw the square. When you do it this way you are following the vastu, the rules for architecture. The central triangle represents the ajna chakra. The upper triangle represents the siva trikona, and the triangle with the point down represents the shakti kona. They are interpenetrating and they are in union with each other. This, therefore represents the swaddhisthana chakra, the six-petalled lotus. The circle represents the three circles going around the waist, the chest and the throat chakras. Muladhara is the square, swaddhisthana is the sixpetalled lotus, the circle represents manipura, anahata and visshudi grantis and the central triangle is the ajna. Up to the ajna the differentiation between Siva and Shakti exists. The Samanargya preserves this difference. You say "trikona" and draw the triangle, "satkona" - the six-petalled lotus, "vrta" - the circle, and "caturasra" - the square.When done say "mandala vilikya".
The directions of the puja are self explanatory. "Offer a flower. Put a conch or a pot on top of diagram. Fill it with water. Into the water add one drop of milk, the special herbs, saffron, tumeric, etc. Imagine the diagram is transferred up into the water. Worship the angadevatas with kumkum or sandal paste. Imagine you are also worshipping yours and Devi's bodies as you do this nyasam. " On top of this is a base and a pot with water. Into this water we are invoking the limbs of the Goddess. When you do the angadevata nyasa you say, "Ka...hrdayaya namah" (the heart) and touch the agni kona the northeastern corner of the square;
"Ha...sirase svaha" (the head) and touch the isana kona the northwestern corner of the square; "Sa...sikhayai vasat"(the crown of head) and touch the asura kona the southeastern corner; "Ka...kavachaya hum "(the arms) and touch the vayu kona the southwestern corner of square; "Ha...netratrayaya vausat" (the third eye) and touch the center (madhye); and then "Sa...astraya phat" (circle the head) and touch top side, right side middle, bottom side middle, left side middle and say "Bhubhuvasuvah om". That is how it goes. Then you worship the central part of the triangle saying "Aim hrim srim Ka..Ha..Sa...namah". You touch first the tip of the triangle at the bottom, then the right side corner, then the left, going anticlockwise. This completes the preparation of the samanargya.
Preparation of the Viseshargyam
Now comes the complicated procedure, the invocation of all the kalas into the mother's milk. We have identified the viseshargya with the Mother's left breast. The milk of kindness, of compassion, of knowledge of grace, of protection, of all these good qualities resident in the Mother are present here. Like before, we are drawing the mandala for viseshargya. First you put the bindu, taking the water from the samanargya, draw the mandala with your ring finger. The ring finger represents the Siva, the ring is the yoni. So with the Siva linga you are putting the yoni there. Again dip the finger and draw the central triangle. Surrounding that you draw the satkona like before. Then draw the circle and the square. Here you start from inside and go to the outside.
First worship the mandala that you have drawn on the ground. To the left of the samanargya is your normal pot of water and to the side of the visheshargya you keep the milk. The articles or worship are on your right side.
You worship the mandala from the center. Then you worship the three konas of the central triangle the ajna chakra, looking into the eyes of the Devi and remembering your own eyes. Ka..namah, Ha...namah, Sa...namah. Then you do the angadevata nyasa. You go aroung the sat kona clockwise, starting with the southern kona . Then you repeat the nyasa in the same way that you do it for the samanargya. All the chakras are included in this nyasa. The bindu represents the sahasrara chakra. But in samanargya only up to the ajna chakra is included. This establishes the female supremacy.
Then you place the bijas for each of the chakras. You start with the fire which you are going to invoke in the base on which you are going to place the viseshargya pot which goes on top of the mandalam you have drawn. The pot represents the sun and the liquid, the milk is going to represent the moon. The agni is essentially the earth. Here is the sun and here is the moon. When these three are aligned then there is a sun eqlipse. If you think of the moon here, then there is a moon eqlipse. Why do we say that the earth represents the fire? Because except for the outer crust, out of the 6000 miles about 5995 is fire and five miles is the earth. The entire earth inside is molten lava. That is why we call the earth the fire.
The graha kala, the eqlipse time is supposed to be a punya kala, an auspicious time. It is necessary that you do not move the viseshargya patra or this alignment until the puja is completely done. If you move it, then the power that you have invested in that, the eqlipse is over, so it does not have the same effect. That is why it is said that as long as the puja is not completed, you should not move the visesargya or the samanargya.
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