The Pañca Upacāra Pūjā
After the Navāvaraṇa Pūjā is finished, the Lalitā Sahasranāma is to be recited and then we offer the Pañca Upacāras (the Five Offerings) to Devī.
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The first offering is gandham — sandalwood paste.
The Sanskrit is: “Lalitāyai satsangaṁ gandhaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.”
Satsaṅgam 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. -
The second offering is of flowers.
What are the flowers that are offered?
Lalitāyai indriya nigrahaṁ puṣpaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.
Indriya nigrahaṁ means control of the five senses. They are the flowers that we offer. -
The third offering is dhūpam, incense.
Lalitāyai kāma krodha lobha moha mada mātsarya puṇya pāpa visarjanaṁ dhūpaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.
The incense is leaving the passions for lust, greed, etc., and the notions of puṇya (virtue) and pāpa (sin) behind, letting them be burnt up as the incense stick is burnt up. -
The next offering is dīpam — the light.
What is the light we are offering?
Lalitāyai cit-kalā darśanaṁ dīpaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.
Cit means awareness. Kalā 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 Devī. -
Naivedyam is food.
Lalitāyai vasudhādi śivāvāsanaṁ śiva-śakti sāmarasyaṁ naivedyaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.
To Lalitā, vasudhādi — starting from the earth, śivāvāsanaṁ — in all the elements, in all the cakras, Śiva is the seer and Śakti is the known, the modified and unmodified awarenesses; their union (sāmarasyaṁ) is to be offered as a food offering. The union between the seer and the seen is the food offering. -
Karpūra — camphor.
Lalitāyai manolaya svarūpa ānanda karpūra nīrājanaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.
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 Devī. -
Tāmbūlam — pān.
Lalitāyai upaniṣad-vākya surabhilaṁ tāmbūlaṁ kalpayāmi namaḥ.
The Upaniṣads are the parts of the Vedas that deal with knowledge. Vāk means the sentences. Surabhilaṁ is perfumed. The perfumed speech at the end of the Vedas relating to knowledge — that is offered as the mouth-freshening pān to Devī. -
The last offering is offering ourselves to Devī:
Śivo’ham, Śivāham.
I am Śiva. You are Śiva.
Kāma Kalā Dhyānam
We meditate on the face of Devī as Sarasvatī, Her breasts as Goddess Lakṣmī, and Her genitals as Goddess Durgā, Kālī, or Lalitā. In this meditation, you visualize yourself as Devī, and Devī in everything. All that you see is yourself. Take some time to abide in this open oneness with Devī.
Bali Dānam
In this last part of the pūjā, you give a food offering to the Kṣetrapālaka — the Deities that protect the field, the location where the pūjā is being held. You are also giving to the evil-mongering spirits or forces that exist all around us so that they do not trouble the devotees who are doing the pūjā.
You draw the diagram on the floor in front of the Devī using the sāmānargyaṁ water — the triangle surrounded by the circle and a square. While drawing you recite:
Aim vyāpaka maṇḍalāya namaḥ.
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 Devī on the plate, and pour water on top of it. Then you say the following mantra:
Om hrīṁ sarva-vighna-kṛdbhyaḥ sarva-bhūtebhyo huṁ svāhā.
Sarva-vighna-kṛdbhyaḥ — all those who are creating obstacles;
Sarva-bhūtebhyaḥ — all the elements which are creating the trouble;
Huṁ svāhā — I say huṁ and offer them to the fire.
The word Huṁ has a special meaning. It is called a kūrcha bīja. 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 huṁ.
When you say Huṁ Phaṭ Svāhā, and do it long enough, the phaṭ 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 yogīs 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 Śiva. This is the secret of the Huṁ Phaṭ Svāhā mantra.
Svāhā is what you offer to the fire. Phaṭ is the explosive sound. When you offer the body to the fire, you are dead. So in a sense, Phaṭ and Svāhā are the same thing. When you say one, you do not have to say the other.
Then you clap three times — for those relating to the body, those relating to the elements, and those relating to the astral entities. Adhyātmika, Adhibhautika, and Adhidaivika are the three disturbing elements you try to eliminate.
To Finish the Pūjā
To offer anything to God — a pūjā, a karma — how do we offer? We offer with the seed and water. Akṣatas, the rice grains, represent the seed. These, along with water, you pour over the Meru Śrī Cakra.
Etat pūjāphalam — the fruit of this pūjā;
sarvaṁ śrī paradevatārpaṇam astu — along with water may it be offered to the transcendental Goddess;
parameśvarārpaṇam astu — to the Father God, Śiva;
guru-devatārpaṇam astu — to the Guru who is the living God, we offer;
svātmārpaṇam astu — I offer to myself.
At the end of the pūjā you pick up the vessel containing the viśeṣārghyam, put it on top of your head and then show it three times to Devī. After this you distribute the nectar to the devotees. Do not disturb it during the pūjā.
Paraśurāma Kalpa Sūtra
The Kalpa Sūtra is a digest of Śrī Vidyā, a system of Divine Mother’s worship compiled by Paraśurāma from several systems which prevailed in his day. This is one of the many forms of Śrī Vidyā now in vogue. It is the shortest and best arranged one of them all.
A passage from Tripurārahasya Upaniṣad quotes:
In the Upāsanā Kāṇḍa of the Veda, the Upāsanā or the contemplative worship is treated in all its details. These details were compiled by Śiva in six classes of works known as Āgama, Rahasya, Saṁhitā, Yāmala, Ārṇava, and Tantra, each class being devoted to a distinct Devatā or form of the Supreme.
Bhārgava Rāma, son of Jamadagni, saw them too vast and asked his revered master, Blessed Dattātreya, who combined the Trinity of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva in Himself, to abridge the system. Accordingly, seeing that the Upāsanā of Tripurā was the highest of all forms of worship and that its effect included the effects of all other forms of worship, Datta composed Datta Saṁhitā comprising eighteen thousand verses, in which the worship of Tripurā was laid down in all its details in a succinct form.
From him Bhārgava Rāma learnt the Saṁhitā. But, finding that it was still too vast in extent and that its meaning was still too deep for the average devotee to understand, Rāma abridged the system still further and presented it in an intelligible form. This abridgment contained six thousand sūtras in fifty Khaṇḍas or sections.
Rāma’s pupil again, Sumedha of the Hārita family, who studied this Sūtra from his master, found the work almost as vast as Datta Saṁhitā, and so made an abridgment of the Saṁhitā and the Sūtra in the shape of another work of Sūtras, taking the form of a dialogue between Datta and Rāma. It is this abridgment that has come down to us as the Paraśurāma Kalpa Sūtra comprising ten Khaṇḍas. Though 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 Sūtra too deep in its meaning for ordinary students to understand, Umanandanātha, a disciple of the blessed Bhāskararāya, composed in 1775 the work “Nityotsava”, laying down clearly and methodically the system of worship taught in the Sūtra. I have taken the Lalitā Upāsanā from the Kalpa Sūtra and tried to explain the meanings in scientific idiom suited to the 20th century.
