Sadhana at Prayag During the Kumbh: The Full Procedure

The speaker opens with a defence of vocational difference. Anyone born in human form has some purpose to find, and if it moves towards welfare it is a good act — only that person can know its merits, its faults and its collateral effects on family and society. He takes the soldier as his example: serving the motherland may require piercing the hearts of enemies and killing many in the manner of heroes, and this is duty, not murder, incurring no fault; such a person attaining a hero's death is not made to wander after it but reaches the realm of their chosen deity. He cites Kurukshetra, where all who fell attained liberation, as Krishna had said beforehand. He extends the principle to teaching, to law and to administration — a person in the police or the administration who keeps order is the reason a practitioner can perform sadhana undisturbed, so society is mutually complementary and nobody is to be envied for their post, their car or their security detail. He adds that wearing a tilak, and wearing a dhoti outside working hours, is in fact the listener's own duty as a Sanatani — but that if they do not do it, they should at least not pass envious remarks on those who do.

Several listeners had asked what happens to a home Mandala when they must travel to the Kumbh for two or three days mid-way — whether the sequence breaks. The speaker tells them not to worry: no fault attaches. The method is that before leaving, whatever number of days of sadhana has been completed is fully surrendered to one's chosen deity; only then does one set out. The daily rules are not abandoned on leaving the house — BrahmacharyaStrict celibacy required through an extended ritual observance. and the dietary discipline continue through the journey. At Prayag the practitioner follows whichever of the procedures discussed suits them, and on returning home after two or three days simply resumes. He adds a consolation about the counts: where a hundred malas were being performed at home, even a single mala performed standing in the Sangam at Triveni carries great fruit.

The speaker gives the reason behind every count that follows. In the month of Magh, and particularly in the region of Prayag and of the Ganga, all the otherworldly and supernatural divine powers — whether of one's lineage, of that region, or of this cosmos — are present, and their presence is maintained for the whole month, and for the month and a quarter of the Kumbh. Because they are present, an anushthana performed in that divine region at that time, or even japa performed alone, yields infinite merit: a single mala, or ten minutes given to it, is described as enough. On that basis japa and austerity performed at that place in this period are called inexhaustible in merit, and the sins of countless births are said to be destroyed by the very first bath.

The speaker sets out the comparison as a scriptural statement, asking listeners to follow it in sequence. Bathing in the Ganga a thousand times in the month of Kartik; bathing a hundred times in the month of Magh; and bathing a crore of times in the Narmada during Vaishakh, which is the month whose Narmada bathing carries great importance — the fruit of all three together is what a single bath at the Kumbh confers, obtained immediately. He calls this a statement of scripture rather than his own claim, and uses it to frame the whole session: if that much merit follows from one bath, the listener should consider what follows from a stay of three days or a full Mandala.

Having stated the merit, the speaker asks his listeners to hold the converse in mind at the same time. If that much merit can be obtained by bathing there once, then committing any kind of sin at that place carries a proportionate weight, and those who do so will bear a consequence of a corresponding order. He names the specific case: people who chew PaanThe betel leaf offered in pujan, often paired with supari. or gutka and spit there, and those who spit on the empty stretch between the rivers at Triveni where the water has receded. His argument is that this is precisely why a large class of people suffers continually while asking where they went wrong — the fault is not confined to something as gross as urinating in the Ganga; spitting on her banks incurs great sin.

The speaker recounts the account briefly. When Dhanvantari appeared with the pot of nectar and gods and demons fought over it, Jayanta, the son of Indra, fled by the sky route, and in the course of repeated fighting with the demons nectar fell in twelve places, of which four are on the earth. Four great powers guarded the pot at that time: first Suryanarayana, second Bhagavan Chandradeva, third Bhagavan Brihaspati, and fourth Bhagavan Narayana — which is why all four carry great importance during this period. The four earthly sites are Haridwar, Prayag, Ujjain and Nasik. He notes the cycle as well: a full Kumbh falls every twelve years and a half Kumbh every six at Haridwar and Prayag, with the Maha Kumbh said to fall when the twelve-year Kumbh has completed twelve times — adding candidly that he has found no proof of that last calculation himself and is only repeating what is said.

Of the four earthly sites, the Mahatmya treats Prayag at the greatest length, and the speaker gives three reasons. First, the presence there of Bhagavati Ganga, Bhagavati Yamuna and Saraswati, together with Tirtharaja Prayag, described as king of the seven cities. Second, the first yajna performed anywhere in the cosmos was performed by Brahma in this very region — which is where the name Prayag comes from, dating the place to the beginning of creation. Third, it was in this region that Brahma installed Veni Madhav, held to be the first of the twelve Madhavas and the first station of Bhagavan Vishnu; and it is by Veni Madhav that the protection of the whole place is effected, making him its Sthana Devata and Nagara Devata. The speaker returns to this repeatedly: Veni Madhav is the guardian of the Magh Mela and of the Kumbh, and it is his responsibility to protect every practitioner and every person who comes.

The speaker reads through a compilation of the Kumbh's Mahatmya, which he credits to the Uttar Pradesh government and says has also been published in various newspapers, promising to share it to the group so listeners can strengthen their resolve. The statements he cites: Prayag is where Brahma himself comes, where all the gods come and all the sages assemble, and is held the purest of all pilgrimage places; at the time of the Kumbh all powers arrive there; bathing at the Triveni Sangam destroys all a person's sins and yields heaven and liberation; bathing at Prayag alone brings the attainment of every merit, with Trikala bathing — morning, midday and evening — carrying more; and bathing at Prayag during the Kumbh frees a person from all sins and from the cycle of birth and death. He adds the comparison with the Sun among planets and the Moon among constellations: as they are foremost, so is Prayagraj among pilgrimage places.

The speaker draws out the provision for those unable to travel. The compiled Mahatmya states that a person who bathes even mentally at the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna is freed from every kind of sin and merges into the eternal Brahman. He therefore urges listeners at home to perform that mental bathing at the Triveni without fail. To make the sentiment stronger, he prescribes consecrating water beforehand using the stotras and hundred-and-eight names of Bhagavati Ganga, of Yamuna and of Saraswati — ordinary water or GangajalWater from the Ganges, used to purify and re-consecrate ritual items exposed to impurity. — and mixing it into the main bathing water, bathing while remembering Ganga and the Triveni. Done that way, he says, the mental bath is complete and the merit of the Kumbh is obtained at home.

The speaker draws a distinction he treats as important. Sin committed at an ordinary place is destroyed at the places of merit — the pilgrimage regions of the deities, the Shakti Peeths, the Jyotirlinga regions. But sin committed at a place of merit itself is destroyed only at the Kumbh Kona, the site where the nectar fell. So a person who has knowingly or unknowingly committed a fault in a sacred region — a subject he says he has covered at length before in connection with the Shiva Mahapurana — has their sin destroyed only there, and only when the bathing is done together with atonement. He is explicit about the condition: it is not enough to bathe and then think privately that every sin is gone and one may now sin again; done in that spirit it will not be destroyed.

The speaker states the defining configuration from the Mahatmya: when in Magh, Guru is in the sign of Mesha, the Sun and the Moon are in the sign of Makara, and along with this the yoga of Amavasya obtains, then the Kumbh of Prayag occurs. He notes that all of this is coming together in the year being discussed. He couples it with two further statements: that a person who performs japa at Prayag for a month with full procedure attains the Siddhis; and that the fruit obtained from a thousand Ashvamedha yajnas, a hundred Vajapeya yajnas and a lakh of circumambulations of the earth is obtained from a Kumbh bath at Prayag alone — remarking that performing any yajna at all is beyond most people today, so it is as well that the whole of that fruit is available through bathing. He closes by recalling that it is Surya, Chandra, Brihaspati and Bhagavan Narayana who guarded the pot of nectar, which is why their importance is so great at this time.

Before any procedure, the speaker asks the practitioner to be clear how many days they are coming for. His minimum criterion for sadhana at the Kumbh, or at any pilgrimage region, is a stay of three nights. He frames it as the condition for someone who wants to be free of sense-desire, perform sadhana in earnest, and receive the full grace of that pilgrimage region. He allows the concession — where circumstances permit only one night, that will pass, and the "it will pass" case always passes — but says that if it can be managed, three nights should be kept. So the arrangement made before leaving home should provide for three nights in that divine region if mantra accomplishment and awakening are the object.

Once the date of departure is fixed, the PrayashchittaRitual atonement performed to offset the karmic burden of a weighty act, such as a Shatkarma that results in an enemy's death. procedure should begin three days before it — the speaker is specific that only then can the grace be properly received. Across those three days the practitioner performs bathing, offers ArghaThe base and water-channel surrounding a Shivling, through which abhishekam offerings drain away. to Bhagavan Surya, and recites the kind of stotras through which sin is destroyed, of which he calls the SahasranamaA recitation of a deity's thousand names — a devotional text genre used across many deities, not one single fixed composition. the finest: at least 27 recitations of one's chosen deity's Sahasranama across the three days, nine a day. Sleeping on the ground during those days is excellent if the body permits, and the tonsure procedure may be observed by those whose regional custom provides for it, though he declines to press the point for present-day listeners. Each of the three days should include worship for the household deities and the lineage's ancestors, for which he calls Panchabali the finest: feeding a cow before one eats oneself, and feeding a dog, a crow, ants, and a human being. At dusk, one recitation of Shiva's Sahasranama should also be performed, excellently in a Shiva temple with a lamp offering. Service of one's parents to whatever extent is possible is included in the same three days. The SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. to be taken is that whatever fault has arisen knowingly or unknowingly — of a deity, of a mantra, or a person's curse — be swiftly removed, and that the pilgrimage be completed successfully with its full merit obtained.

The speaker asks that clothing for the bathing be thought about and prepared for in advance, since it will be cold and the choice must be made accordingly. Women in particular will bathe wearing their clothes, so the question of how much the body will afterwards cooperate — whether japa can be performed there in wet clothes at all — has to be considered. He says the body is not to be forced. The garment brought should be one from which the water has a chance to leave quickly; cotton is better. Bathing in a thick garment and then attempting japa, he warns, can make a person ill, so the practitioner should be ready for this beforehand.

Donation of gold has its own glory at a pilgrimage region, and the speaker names gold donation and the donation of a cow as acts performed for atonement and for release from every kind of fault. Where gold is beyond the practitioner's means, silver is donated instead — a piece within a thousand or two thousand rupees, or a solid silver article or sheet. On the recipient he gives options: find a suitable person, ideally a Tirtha Purohit, and failing that a properly qualified BrahminOne of the priestly varna, fed or given dakshina at the close of many anushthans. who is conducting rites there, requesting them to make the atoning SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. on one's behalf, which enumerates faults from the drinking of liquor to the touching of women. He notes that not everyone will accept such a donation — only those qualified, who perform the three-juncture observances and hold their Guru's instruction, accept that kind of gift. Failing all of that, it may be offered to Ganga herself with a Sankalpa. He attaches a condition to the whole thing: once the atonement and the donation are done and the practitioner has been released from sin by the grace of Prayag, Narayana and Triveni, purity of thought is to be maintained permanently and that divinity extended into the lineage — returning to the same filth of thought and conduct afterwards leaves no benefit in having gone to the Kumbh at all. Separately, AkshatUnbroken raw rice grains, held in hand along with water and flowers while taking a Sankalpa. from one's own home should be carried, gathered a day before leaving; flowers cannot travel unless one lives nearby.

The speaker flags this as explicitly not a common instruction. Families who keep a Thaan or established seat, and for whom there is an existing procedure of taking the ancestors to the site — carrying a coconut, presenting it to them, wrapping it in red or white cloth, taking it, having it bathed, and bringing it back — should certainly perform this at the Kumbh, and should not come alone to do it. The same applies to households where deities of the Upadeva category are installed and are given a bath in the Ganga. For everyone else, the instruction is simply to make a request and prayer at home and leave the question of who comes to the deities and to the powers of one's own lineage; they will come themselves. He directs that one's own purification be completed before leaving, and that those wearing the YajnopavitaThe sacred thread ceremony marking initiation into Vedic rites (Janeu) — if lapsed across generations, expiation (Prayashchitta) for each known generation is required before it can be resumed. recite the Ganapati AtharvashirshaA Vedic Upanishadic hymn drawn from the Atharvaveda (here, to Ganapati) — self-proven (Siddha), but its Vedic mantras demand correct pronunciation. or the Goddess's Atharvashirsha as much as possible across the three days — 108 recitations being excellent, though even ten are said to bring release from sin.

On the last day, after the day's worship and once preparations are made, the practitioner addresses the ancestors of their lineage and the powers of the household. The speaker gives the substance: thanking them, saying that by their grace and blessing such merit has become manifest in this life that the good fortune of going to the Maha Kumbh is being obtained; that one will see Ganga, the Triveni and Prayag, touch them and dwell in that region; and requesting that if they will assist and travel alongside, extending their own meritorious grace, it would be excellent — so the invitation is made expressly that they too come to that divine region. He asks that this be expressed properly and from the heart, spoken aloud. Immediately before leaving, incense and lamps are lit as time permits and the household worship completed, and only after that prayer does the practitioner set out.

The speaker states the purpose must be clear before departure and attaches a specific rule to it: do not come wearing anything made of leather. He names a leather belt, a leather purse, leather shoes and sandals, and asks that whatever alternative exists be worn instead. He acknowledges the stricter position — a properly qualified practitioner with especially demanding sadhana to perform should not wear footwear at all — but expressly declines to encourage this, because it is the cold season, illness would follow and a second problem would attach itself. He does not think that risk needs taking; only the avoidance of leather is insisted on.

Whether the practitioner arrives by station, by flight or by car, the pardon is asked before their foot is set on that ground: that they are placing their feet on this divine land, and ask to be pardoned and delivered. The salutation is made with the heart fully surrendered, and only in that manner is the foot placed on the meritorious ground. Immediately on arriving, Bhagavan Adi Ganesha is remembered together with Veni Madhav, addressed as the city's deity and guardian of the region, with the request that the journey be made entirely successful and whatever desire the practitioner has come with be fulfilled. The speaker is explicit that this happens on getting down, and that the practitioner should not think about having travelled twenty-four hours, not having bathed, or the body being unclean — none of that is to be considered at that moment.

Before going to the Triveni to bathe at the Sangam, two or three things are done first at the place where the practitioner is staying, from the standpoint of purity. They should certainly bathe there and become clean; and if they wear the YajnopavitaThe sacred thread ceremony marking initiation into Vedic rites (Janeu) — if lapsed across generations, expiation (Prayashchitta) for each known generation is required before it can be resumed., the sacred thread should be changed at that point, because the practitioner will have come by way of many places with contact and non-contact of every kind. Only after bathing and changing it there, wearing clean clothes, does the practitioner set out for the Triveni and the Sangam.

The speaker is precise about the sequence and blunt about the alternative — do not jump straight into the Triveni, since the police will chase you off or a scramble will start. On reaching the bank, whether entering from the Ganga or the Yamuna side, the practitioner first takes their water in the hand and applies it to the forehead. One does not simply place a foot and walk in. Only after the water has touched the forehead is the right foot entered slowly into the water of the Sangam. Entry is made in complete calm while reciting one's mantra, without leaping about or creating any disturbance. He anticipates the surroundings: others will be causing commotion, swimming, deliberately splashing, thrashing about and playing — that is their own affair and they will bear it. He states it as scriptural authority that the practitioner is to do none of this, since fault arises from it. Two specific restraints follow: AchamanaThe ritual sipping of water for self-purification before worship, one of the opening Shatkarma/Pavitrikaran rites. may be performed, but gargling must not be, and he promises a separate recording on what else must not be done on entering the Ganga.

The speaker treats the instant of submersion as the whole point. At the first dip, the sins of birth after birth are destroyed and the practitioner becomes pure; after the second and third they are a wholly purified being, having abandoned every wrong act there, and it is as a purified soul that they must emerge. The mind's placement is what makes it work: for a worshipper of Bhagavan Narayana, the whole mind must be fully established at his lotus feet, and it is holding that meditation that one goes in and comes out. The most excellent moment is when the head is entirely submerged — whatever two or four seconds the practitioner can keep the head under with the breath held, meditating on their chosen deity, is the instant described as burning and destroying every kind of sin. Three dips at minimum; five or seven if wished, judging by the cold and the body. Against this he sets the distractions: Naga Sadhus creating commotion nearby, someone shoving or spinning the practitioner aside, a policeman scolding or abusing them — none of it is to be engaged with, and one must not go to argue at that moment. He adds that the state of the water is not to be judged either, and that grievances about the water not being fit for AchamanaThe ritual sipping of water for self-purification before worship, one of the opening Shatkarma/Pavitrikaran rites. have no place in the mind then.

Because the crowds make it impossible to visit every divine station at Prayag, the speaker says ArghaThe base and water-channel surrounding a Shivling, through which abhishekam offerings drain away. is offered to all of them from where one stands, and their grace follows from the offering alone. The method is to join both hands into an Anjali and let the water fall from the fingertips, the fore part of the hand. The order he gives: first Suryanarayana, with the Gayatri where the practitioner knows the full Vedic procedure, and otherwise at least three times using his name, saying 'Suryaya Namah'. Second, separately, the lineage's ancestors, addressed as 'Kula Pitraya Namah', or offered in Narayana's name with the request that it reach them, which he says the Goddess conveys. Third Bhagavan Vinayaka. Then Bhairava — first Kula Bhairav, then Bhav Bhairav, who is the Bhairava of the Prayag region and of both Alopshankari and Kalyani Devi. Then Anjaneya Swami. Then the Shakti Peeths present there, of which three are counted: Bhagavati Alopshankari, where the Goddess's hand fell, then Lalita Devi, then Kalyani Devi. Then the pilgrimage places of one's own chosen deity — Vindhyavasini for her servants, Kashi Vishwanath, Prayag itself. Then the Dwadash Madhav, or simply Veni Madhav by name. And finally Nagraj Vasuki, who in the age of Kali dwells at that very place on the bank of the Sangam. He asks that this be done quickly, one name after another, with the names practised in advance.

After offering ArghaThe base and water-channel surrounding a Shivling, through which abhishekam offerings drain away., the practitioner begins japa of their own mantra, standing there in the wet clothes, doing as much as they can manage — five repetitions, fifty, one mala or ten malas — and only then coming out. No mala need be turned; the count is estimated from experience, on the basis that a given number of minutes makes a mala. The AkshatUnbroken raw rice grains, held in hand along with water and flowers while taking a Sankalpa. carried from home is left in the Ganga along with flowers, with the words that this is the Akshat of one's house and is being offered to her. He notes separately that only a little of the Akshat is taken to the bank on any one occasion, not the whole of it, and that the gold or silver donation is made afterwards, once the clothes have been changed.

The speaker gives this as an absolute prohibition and one of the strongest warnings in the session. The clothes worn while bathing must never, even by mistake, be wrung out in the Ganga or the Yamuna, and their water must not be squeezed into it. If this is done, he says, the whole of the coming and going and bathing, and everything the practitioner has performed, becomes worthless — it turns to dust there and a separate fault attaches. He adds that this mistake should not be copied however eminent the person performing it may be. The correct method is to come out, change, and wring the water out on the dry sand at the ghat, at a distance, taking care that the water does not go back into the Ganga.

For someone coming for a single day who will not even stay a night, the speaker asks that they preserve enough energy in the body to do this much: after completing the bathing described, to find somewhere to sit where they will not feel the cold, make proper arrangements for it, and perform 108 malas of japa of Bhagavan Shiva's Panchakshari Mantra according to their entitlement. He calls it a matter yielding crores of merit and says a very special grace will follow. For a stay of three nights his minimum is a Laghu PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of ten thousand japa — meaning at least a hundred, or properly 108, malas performed at that place. He tells listeners not to watch the world around them, where everyone is wandering, being photographed, taking selfies and making reels; that is their affair, and the practitioner should do what they came for.

The speaker distinguishes those with prior groundwork from beginners. It is said that a mantra becomes accomplished after the very first bath, and the account he attributes to learned and elderly experienced practitioners is specific about who this applies to: someone who has previously completed a PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of a mantra, having performed a Sava Lakh and its Havan, whether a year ago or ten years ago, and who continues its daily service even to the extent of a single mala. If such a person bathes in the Ganga, particularly at the Kumbh, while continuing to remember that mantra, then at the first bath itself that mantra awakens and becomes accomplished, and experiences begin. He grounds it in what he has already established: all the deities, learned sages and divine powers are present there at that time, so the grace of that mantra is bound to come.

Once the japa is completed, the speaker says, it should be mentally surrendered, and afterwards the practitioner should take the darshan of whichever of the local pilgrimage stations, Shakti Peeths and divine places are accessible to them — trying in particular for Nagraj Vasuki, Veni Madhav and at least Alopshankari Devi among the Shakti Pithas. Where that is not possible, offering ArghaThe base and water-channel surrounding a Shivling, through which abhishekam offerings drain away. to all of them after bathing is enough. On when a three-night stayer should sit for sadhana, he answers that they are free for twenty-four hours and may do it whenever they like, wherever they are lodged, with the full effect obtained. But at least ten thousand japa, a hundred malas, must be completed. He allows for length: with a long mantra such as the Jayanti Mangala, that count will not be reached, and in that case as much as possible should be done across the three days. On Havan he is explicit — there is no need to specially desire it there; bathing and japa are sufficient for the accomplishment of the mantra, and if the arrangement cannot be made there is no difficulty. The japa is what must happen.

After the japa comes the arrangement for donation. The speaker asks that donation be made there by one's own hand to the right person — whoever the practitioner feels it is proper to give to — or, according to capacity, in some other field: feeding someone with a hundred rupees, a thousand, or a lakh, which he leaves to the practitioner. He then extends the same principle to people who could not come. Supposing a family member or a much-loved relative is living abroad to earn a living, donation may be made there on their behalf, taking a SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. in their name and remembering them — addressing the Goddess that this dear one is abroad for such a reason, and asking that grace be extended to them as well. Five or ten malas of japa may also be performed for them, and the fruit of one's bathing surrendered to them, so that they too receive some portion of the merit; a sixth share, he says, does reach them. This may be done for parents, children, brothers or friends. He calls it an act of Paramartha performed in a divine period, and reminds listeners that Navratri and Mahashivratri return every year but the Maha Kumbh will take at least twelve years to come round again.

For a practitioner wanting genuine mantra accomplishment, the speaker asks for at least a Sava Lakh of japa performed in the pilgrimage region, whether across three days, in one day, or over ten. He works the arithmetic for the Ekakshari of Bhagavan Datta, which practised reciters perform very rapidly at up to five hundred malas: five hundred malas comfortably yields fifty thousand japa in a day, so three days gives a lakh and a half, more than a Sava Lakh, and the count can be pushed as far as three lakh. How much is completed in three nights depends on capacity and practice. His view is that at a Sava Lakh the matter becomes highly divine for that practitioner, and that with bathing performed in this manner and with this degree of surrender, under rules he characterises as not at all complicated, the mantra is bound to become accomplished.

On food, the speaker directs practitioners to the Anna Bhandars and food halls, where the food will be entirely pure and sattvic, saying he is assured of this. His condition is on payment: after eating there, some DakshinaThe offering made to a guru or officiant that completes a rite; a ritual is held incomplete without it. should certainly be offered where possible. A householder is not to eat free — that is for Sadhus and Sannyasis, who may eat in that manner. He repeats the point later in connection with camps: whoever goes to the Kumbh and eats the Prasadi grain of a food kitchen, or takes the Naivedya distributed there as Prasad, should certainly leave money there, whether ten rupees, a hundred or a lakh, because they are a householder.

For those staying ten or fifteen days the speaker calls it a lottery, saying their life is successful and their attainment of the divine realm is confirmed — with the caveat that no offence must arise, and that self-confidence must not turn into over-confidence. But he warns against the specific failure of using the extra days for sightseeing: performing a hundred malas and spending the rest exploring the fair. He tells them there will be many fairs in a lifetime, but this Kumbh Mela is for their own welfare. His argument is that deities have come there and Siddhas are moving about in ordinary human form, and nobody knows which Siddha or deity will extend grace or at what moment. He puts it as a scene: the deity is walking alongside, deciding whom to favour, and the practitioner has said they will do no more today because their hundred malas are done and they are going for chaat — at which the deity remarks that they came to give Siddhi and this person is sitting eating, and moves on. Because that moment is not fixed or announced, the whole of the time in that region should go on japa.

The instruction extends beyond mantra reciters to those working with a Kavach or a Stotra. The speaker's example is the Sankat Nashan Stotra: a practitioner who has come for it should not perform 108 recitations and then wander about like Ganapati's mouse, but should resolve on a thousand recitations daily so that it becomes their divine weapon. Someone taking a SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. for a Bagalamukhi Kavach anushthana should take it to the point where Bagalamukhi becomes irresistible for them. Someone performing the Datta Mala Mantra should manage five hundred a day, sitting five separate times. On bathing frequency he asks for judgement: once is acceptable given the cold, but a practitioner with a capable body and the habit may bathe three times — while cautioning against so much that difficulty arises, since these are people of the age of Kali and not everyone has the practice of yoga, so nothing should be forced. Time in the Ganga should be only as long as the body can bear. He adds that it makes no difference whether one is lodged in a tent, an ashram, a hotel, a villa or a dome.

The speaker treats this as the highest available case. A person on whom such grace falls that they sit for forty or forty-five days and complete a Mandala sadhana in the Kumbh region becomes the recipient of the most divine grace, and their level rises greatly. He connects it to the previous session's target: if someone performs the PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of 32,000 of the Goddess's 32 NamavaliA written list of a deity's names — such as Durga's 108 names written out separately for ease of offering individual Havan oblations to each. at Prayag, sitting for forty days, he does not think that person would afterwards come looking to meet him — such grace would fall on them directly. Since the powers moving there at peak time are so many, it is not possible that grace would not come; it is bound to. He is emphatic that those receiving this good fortune should not sit measuring their level, but should watch instead that they do not become driven off (Uchchatan) from there and start wanting to flee — a caution he directs particularly at those planning a long sadhana and at residents of the Prayag region themselves, who he notes sometimes ask whether bathing in the Ganga once and at home the rest will suffice.

Having promised that grace is certain, the speaker immediately adds the counterweight: after it comes, the practitioner must balance and absorb it, and he asks people to prepare for that in advance. The failure mode he names is creating an uproar afterwards in the manner of prominent YouTubers — declaring that nobody can do anything to them, that they will handle anyone. He identifies this as the inability to hold and digest what was received. His grounds are ordinary: even five or ten days of sadhana, Havan, japa and PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. performed within rule and discipline raises a person's energy to a very high level and boosts their confidence considerably, so that it seems to them there is nothing they cannot do. If they cannot digest it, that same thing will carry them away.

Turning first to those performing the worship, anushthana or PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of Bhagavan Datta in the Kumbh region, the speaker asks for a Sava Lakh at the very least across three days, and says that if the practitioner can stay long enough for four lakh japa of Bhagavan Datta's Ekakshari they should. His reasoning is that what was going to be performed at home is instead being performed at that place, which makes it extremely divine and extremely full of grace. Bhagavan Datta, he says, extends his direct grace even in ordinary circumstances wherever he is remembered — so the listener should consider how much grace will follow when it is done there. He adds that he is not discussing any fanciful matter here; the plain reality is that when the practitioner performs the japa, a great many experiences will occur at that very time.

The speaker says this is a matter better experienced than discussed. Even on ordinary days outside the Kumbh — he mentions the current month of Paush — when by the Goddess's wish someone happens to reach those regions, such divine experiences occur there; so for someone going during the Maha Kumbh, divine experiences are simply bound to happen. What he asks is that the practitioner keep their entire focus on their mantra and their sadhana, and not on watching to see which deity has manifested and whether it has happened or not — he names the expectation directly, that a deity will appear in front of them the moment they take the first dip, and tells them not to do that. He adds a practical caution: bathe at a safe place, not at some unknown ghat beside a dome, since the people who have paid for that area may object that the practitioner has entered their territory and trouble will follow. Go to a pure and safe area to bathe, keep the focus on the mantra, and whatever grace is to be given will happen.

The speaker sets counts deity by deity. For Bhagavan Datta: four lakh of the Ekakshari if that is the practice, and if the Mala Mantra then at least a thousand mala-mantra in that region, since less would hardly be worth doing. For Ganesha he asks specifically for the Sankat Nashan Stotra, saying twelve thousand makes it highly divine and that this means carrying a thousand a day — below which, he says, the matter will not come together and there will be no enjoyment in it. His reason is that although even an instant there carries great merit, doing it only for an instant will not satisfy the practitioner's own heart; whereas once it is done to that measure, that divine grace stays with them lifelong, until the attainment of the divine realm, because it becomes unbroken. He adds that where a practitioner already has an anushthana running in that same region, and performs their sadhana during and after that meritorious period, a very great back-support stands behind them. For Bhairava — those performing the Ashtottara Satanama, or initiated in his mantra — this will be an extremely divine period, and Bhairava's awakening happens fastest of all; the nature and form of Bhagavan Datta and Bhagavan Bhairava are such that anything done at the Kumbh gives very rapid results.

The speaker describes the sequence a practitioner may meet. Standing in the Ganga or sitting at their lodging, after one mala, ten, twenty, twenty-five or thirty, the body becomes still and torpor comes on, the mind sinking gradually into the mantra alone. Because the deity's elements are present there and so much japa has been performed, they begin to give their effect — and alongside that the testing begins. He is careful to say the test has no fixed definition: what happened to one person will not necessarily happen to another, and anything at all may occur. The practitioner may see themselves drowning in the river and become frightened, and start shouting instead of continuing the mantra; this is what must not happen. Causeless fear may arise, or a sense that someone is standing behind. He asks that none of this cause alarm, and warns against the interpretation people reach for — that someone has performed tantra on them, or that Aghoris do such things there. His single remedy, which he asks every visitor to hold as a root mantra, is that the guardian of the Magh Mela and the Maha Kumbh is Veni Madhav himself. Whenever it seems some mishap is possible, or one is lost, or confusion is arising, or somebody is doing something, Veni Madhav should be remembered immediately from the heart with 'Veni Madhavaya Namah' — it being his responsibility to protect every practitioner and person who has come, and his powers will protect, by discus or mace or Kaumodaki as they choose.

The speaker makes a direct request of women considering going by themselves: please do not. His reasoning is practical rather than doctrinal — however much assistance and arrangement there may be, the region is new to them and some difficulty can arise; one cannot look inside a person and know who they are or what they are. His instruction is to go with a guardian to all such places and not to go alone. He repeats the same condition elsewhere in his work, including the requirement that a woman coming to have a collective Havan arranged should come accompanied by parents or an elder brother. In the same passage he asks that where any such circumstance arises — fear, becoming lost, any difficulty — Veni Madhav be remembered so that protection is immediately provided.

For Bhairava, and particularly Batuk Bhairava's Ashtottara Satanama, the speaker gives forty thousand as the figure at which it is accomplished, but says four thousand should be completed if possible across the whole Kumbh: a hundred a day through a Mandala reaches four thousand comfortably in forty days, and he states this yields fruit equivalent to four crore. Afterwards the practitioner may begin applying it wherever they have difficulty, and Bhairava will see to it. On Havan he removes the anxiety: where the arrangement cannot be made at Prayag, the Havan procedure may simply be completed on reaching home, and he promises a separate discussion of it. He then opens the same principle to other deities — someone wanting to perform Hanuman's sadhana should do so, someone wanting Bhagavan Narayana's should perform his Kavach or the PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of whatever Guru mantra they have received — with the rule that it should be as much as possible. For a long stay it should not be less than a Sava Lakh; ten thousand is the floor, and even a one-day visitor must somehow complete ten thousand. A hundred malas, properly 108, must happen; below 108 malas, he says, there is no hearing — clarifying immediately that he means this as a matter between himself and the listener.

The speaker addresses, in deliberately coarse terms, the people who talk a prospective pilgrim out of going — those who ask what will be achieved by a hundred malas, or who recount a story in which someone destined for the Kumbh could not go, gave money instead to a person in distress before them, and had God appear. His answer is that the story is a fine one but will not work practically here, and that the listener should reply by offering the reverse: let the other person provide the help, since they have the money, and if a genuine occasion for helping someone arises the pilgrim will tell them and they can take that merit, while the pilgrim goes and earns merit their own way. He tells listeners to check whether the person discouraging them is going themselves, since they will not, and will only make the listener negative. On the specific objection that one's mind is impure so there is no point, he asks how that person knows and who they are to decide it, and answers it directly: knowing that one is to bathe at the Triveni sets a clear target of not letting a wrong thought dominate afterwards, which is itself an attempt at self-mastery. He asks that this not be abandoned on anyone's word — neighbour, friend, family member, or a self-declared holy man.

The speaker treats this as non-negotiable. After the final worship and the final bath, whether the stay has been of one day, three, five, ten or a full Mandala, the practitioner must certainly have the darshan of Veni Madhav. Whatever else may or may not happen, this should be done: one goes to his place remembering him, and it is not necessary to reach right inside or to touch — the darshan alone must occur. Where there is a great crowd, or where the train is late or being missed, the practitioner should still reach the place and take at least a Shikhar Darshan of the spire before leaving. Beyond that, Nagraj Vasuki should be seen if possible, and Alopshankari among the Shakti Peeths — he names these three or four places as the ones to reach without fail. Where time allows a fuller round, all the others should be visited too.

The speaker specifies the timing rather than leaving it to the end of the stay. The donation made for atonement — the gold donation or whatever else — is to be performed after the first bath, on the first day the practitioner bathes. His reason is sequential: the donation should come first so that the practitioner proceeds with their sadhana already released from sin. Where the visit is for a single day there is no choice and it must happen that day; where it is for two or three days, the effort should still be made for the donation to occur on the first.

The speaker extends the rule to everything used: the clothes worn while bathing, the clothes worn while performing sadhana, the Asana used, the Mala used, the mala or Kavach worn on the body — and also whatever Prasad and Kavach reach participants from the Kumbh. All of it is to be kept with rule and care and given to nobody else. If a garment tears it is still kept, not discarded; the practitioner uses these things lifelong, and may sleep with a torn one placed at the head of the bed. They may be passed on to one's own descendants or spiritual heirs to use. He names the specific practice he wants avoided — bartering old clothes to a utensil-seller — and says these must never go that way, and addresses it to mothers, sisters and brothers alike. His reason is that so much bathing, japa and austerity was performed in them that their energy is never destroyed, and for as long as they remain in the house even their touch carries significance.

As the return begins, the practitioner walks while praying to Bhagavati Ganga, to Triveni and to Prayagraj. The speaker gives the substance: addressing Prayagraj, the Mahaprabhu who is Narayana himself, Bhagavati Jagadamba and Veni Madhav, and saying that whatever meritorious acts were performed in this region are surrendered at their feet — all of one's merit, the crores and infinite multiples of it described in the Mahatmya, the whole merit of the Kumbh, offered for their acceptance. The request that follows is deliberately open: that they do for the practitioner whatever brings about their welfare, and that the good fortune of serving at their feet always be obtained. He is explicit about the alternative to avoid — do not carry the merit home like a load, thinking one has earned so much and will take it back unsurrendered. Whatever fruit is obtained is surrendered to them, and what follows is left to them, since nothing remains in one's own hands in any case.

The speaker states the principle plainly — going with correct procedure is as important as returning with correct procedure — and then gives the reason, which he calls the real substance of the whole session for anyone who has listened patiently. Fitness is obtained by performing merit, and when a fit person performs mantra and anushthana at such a festival period, even a single day of it, the divine capacity that forms in their body means that the divine powers present at that place become bound to them by some sentiment and certainly attempt to travel with them. Those powers may be of any kind at all: a Yaksha, a Preta or Pishach, a Siddha, a deity or goddess, a local deity, a local Yogini — anything. He directs the caution particularly at unmarried women and at married women. The first act on setting out for home, and the Shikha binding that follows, exist to manage this.

The second act of the departure, after the surrender of merit, is the binding of the ShikhaThe tuft of hair at the crown, knotted before certain rites.. On the last day, after the final worship, the practitioner ties three knots while remembering Veni Madhav as the city's deity and Bhagavati Triveni. The prayer made while tying them is specific: that whatever divine power travels with them, and whatever divine soul or supernatural power or Siddhi is pleased by the service performed and comes along, should be one that works only for the welfare of the practitioner and their family; that Bhagavati Ganga extend her grace so that only auspiciousness travels with them from that place; and that nothing inauspicious accompany them, only auspicious, meritorious and divine things and divine powers, which should enter their household and bring it continual advancement. The whole prayer is made at the moment of tying the knots. He acknowledges the obvious problem for those who keep no Shikha, telling them to consider how they will keep one, and says the Shikha is important for exactly this reason. He presents the whole thing as experiential knowledge passed down by elderly practitioners whose divine effect has been observed, and says believing it or not is the listener's own choice — this material is for those who are going to do it.

The speaker anticipates a specific outcome for practitioners who complete even three, seven or eleven days there, or a full Mandala. Because all the powers are present, someone who has no knowledge of their own lineage deities may receive their darshan through a dream, be given their introduction, and come to know clearly what the form is, what the practitioner's own connection is, and by which mantra the worship should be performed. He says this can happen with great clarity. His instruction on what to do with it is restrictive: the practitioner's duty is only to obtain confirmation from the elders of the family. If it turns out not to be verifiable, no harm is done. He puts the risk of a negative power giving a bad effect there at 0.1%, and says it can only reach the practitioner through bad company: someone travelling with them who does that kind of work, gone there for improper purposes while the practitioner performs japa in purity, and intent on spoiling them. He cites people known from old YouTube channels who caused considerable trouble, behaved improperly towards women, and performed every kind of Vashikaran, saying that if newcomers or women go with such people and something untoward occurs it would be no surprise — and that such people are still doing it today.

The speaker tells practitioners to learn to walk alone on the path of sadhana and not to move as a flock — not to look for a group at the Kumbh, or to think that grace follows from a hundred people taking a dip together. His aphorism is that a person is alone at three places: the summit, the cremation ground, and the throne. One reaches a summit alone, goes to a cremation ground alone, and must sit on a throne alone; and the throne of sadhana is likewise obtained alone, by whoever is fit for it. He glosses the exception — a wife may sit alongside, since two bodies with one life are one — and notes that in a coalition nobody obtains a throne, a throne being a monarchy and not a democracy. He is careful to allow the good case: where ten people go together with the same dedication, all knowing what the others are practising, that becomes a genuine morale-raising arrangement, and he names a listener whose whole village of fifteen or twenty young men took up practice and had their YajnopavitaThe sacred thread ceremony marking initiation into Vedic rites (Janeu) — if lapsed across generations, expiation (Prayashchitta) for each known generation is required before it can be resumed. rites performed after hearing the channel, one of them going from bathing once a month in winter to reaching an old village temple at dawn and performing no fewer than a hundred malas daily, with the group competing at who can do it better and no envy between them. What he objects to is a group going for sightseeing or commotion, and specifically a group containing a reels-maker, whose presence will turn the others' minds within a couple of days.

The speaker begins with the journey itself: on the way back, particular care should be taken over food and drink — nothing improper is to be eaten or drunk — and over where one stays and sleeps. On arrival, he states that receiving a returning pilgrim is the family's responsibility, and that what is being worshipped at that moment is not really the person. His stated reason is that the aura of someone who has performed sadhana for so many days carries many times the ordinary energy. He is pointed about the failure case, describing a wife performing a mocking Aarti of a husband returning alone from pilgrimage and saying he had gone off to do his play-acting — and imagines the deities travelling with him wondering where they have come, having watched him perform a forty-five-day Mandala and thought they would go to his house and do good there. Where the pilgrim is insulted at the threshold, whether by parents, siblings, spouse or anyone else, he says that family has invited its own misfortune. The pilgrim's own welfare, he notes, will happen regardless — a person does not perform a Mandala and return from a pilgrimage region for nothing.

The instruction is given twice in the session and stated as absolute: in no circumstance or state should the returning practitioner give a curse or a boon. The speaker frames it in terms of accumulation — the practitioner is not to exhaust their own savings by giving blessings and boons to anyone. They should remain entirely calm and do nothing of the kind, neither saying that something good should come about for someone nor that something bad should. What they should rely on instead is that the divine powers present with them, and the pure powers present in their aura, will themselves extend the grace.

The speaker sets out what the door worship consists of. When the member of the household who went on pilgrimage arrives, the very first act is to wash their feet with HaldiTurmeric, used in offering and in the mala and rites of the yellow-clad forms of the Goddess. water — a Prakshalan of the feet — and then to wipe them. After that ArghaThe base and water-channel surrounding a Shivling, through which abhishekam offerings drain away. should be offered and Madhuparka performed. He explains Madhuparka in the plainest terms he can, conceding that in the present day people will not do much of it: at minimum, a little honey should be given with a spoon. Only then does the pilgrim enter the house. Where the door and the Chaukhat have been worshipped beforehand and a lamp is burning there, he says, the moment the pilgrim enters, those things that came with them immediately accept and take their place in the household, and the merit disperses through it and becomes beneficial to everyone.

The speaker gives the order precisely and asks that the practitioner not think about having just travelled. On entering, they go first to their place of worship, to whatever divine station they keep at home, and salute the deities of that place and their chosen deity with a full prostration, mentally surrendering everything: that the pilgrimage undertaken has been completed without obstruction, that this Kumbh pilgrimage is surrendered entirely, and asking that it be accepted. Only after that do they go and bathe, change the YajnopavitaThe sacred thread ceremony marking initiation into Vedic rites (Janeu) — if lapsed across generations, expiation (Prayashchitta) for each known generation is required before it can be resumed. if they wear one, and perform a short worship — incense, lamp, camphor and a little japa, surrendered — before taking food.

The speaker asks practitioners to keep in mind that within the year following the Kumbh, the powers that became joined to them during it — whether by the grace of the mantra, divine powers, or pure energies — will manifest in their life at some point, and the practitioner will have to understand when. Where signals begin through dreams or at any other time, he treats that as a separate subject to be discussed after the Kumbh. Two continuing obligations are given: the mantra performed at the Kumbh should continue with five or ten malas of daily japa, and when Chaitra Navratri arrives a fresh PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of that mantra should be completed. He then says plainly whom the whole session is for: it is for practitioners, not for the impotent, not for the crores who want to run away — it is for those who genuinely wish to perform sadhana, even a small one of ten thousand, so long as they perform it.

Closing the whole cycle from leaving home to returning and resuming daily worship, the speaker repeats the rule about blessings: in every circumstance and state, avoid giving a curse or a boon. Nothing good is to be pronounced over anyone out of pleasure — not in the sense of saying that this or that should come about — and no curse is to be given either, that someone's ill should befall them. In every state the practitioner is to remain surrendered to their chosen deity, leaving matters to the Goddess's will and her grace, and not begin dispensing blessings on their own account. And where more than this has happened — where divine experiences have begun, visions are occurring, changes are appearing in the practitioner's life — his instruction is to remain humble and keep the matter as secret as possible rather than displaying it, because otherwise they will not be able to advance further.

A listener asked about the practice of inviting the household ancestors into a coconut and carrying them along — sometimes leaving the coconut there after the bath, sometimes bringing it home again — and what the correct vidhan for it is. The speaker answers that he has already said this: one is to do whatever runs as one's own lineage's vidhan. It can be different for every family. There is, he says, no fixed thing at all about how it is to be done. He follows this with the note that performing the Durga Battis NamavaliA written list of a deity's names — such as Durga's 108 names written out separately for ease of offering individual Havan oblations to each. by the Chakra method is the best way to do it.

Answering listeners on the tools of practice, the speaker says japa may be performed on a Kalagni mala by everyone, and names Bhagavan Shiva, Bhairava ji and Hanuman ji in particular as the deities whose japa may be done on it. Asked whether the Panchakshari Mantra can be performed without a RudrakshaA sacred seed strung into rosaries and worn during shiva worship. mala, he answers that it certainly can. In the same exchange he encourages a listener to simply attempt the experience — twelve thousand japa, he says, and everything will happen — and confirms that a Dashamsha Havan can be arranged for anyone who wishes to have one performed.

Asked whether Mahabhairav may be performed at the Maha Kumbh, the speaker answers that it certainly may, but immediately redirects. His preference is that practitioners perform japa at the Kumbh of the mantras that increase their TapobalSpiritual power accumulated through austerity and sustained practice — the counterweight that must exceed accumulated black-magic or negative energy for an affliction to fully lift.. His reason for treating Mahabhairav differently is what that power is for: Mahabhairav is a practical, action-oriented power, awakened and applied particularly for the subduing of enemies and for protection. The accomplishment of his mantra can be undertaken from the material published on the channel, but the speaker would rather the practitioner take recourse to the Ashtottara Satanama instead, so that merit increases. The same principle appears in his answer to a listener asking which of several practices to choose: perform one of them so that complete grace is obtained, rather than wandering between several.

A listener asked whether the Goddess's grace comes to someone who sleeps in a bed. The speaker answers directly: why would she not — if one cannot sleep on the ground because of back pain, there is no difficulty at all, sleep in the bed. His principle is that sadhana is to be performed according to the capacity of the body. On yantras, he says a Yantra or Mandala may be taken along, but that doing very much with it there will not be possible; those who have their own yantras should take the one main yantra among them, go with proper procedure, and may have it bathed as well. Whatever service and worship they wish may then be performed at the place they are staying, if they have the arrangement for it.

Answering a listener whose stored grain keeps getting infested, the speaker asks first for the ordinary explanation to be ruled out: see whether there is some other cause, since moisture left in the grain also causes insects — though if dry grain is infesting then there must be a source somewhere from which they are coming, and that is why it is happening. Only if it still seems to the listener to be a Preta or Pishach matter does he give a remedy: have Kshetrapal Nikari performed continuously on five Tuesdays and five Sundays, in the house, by a male member of the household. Alongside that, perform the procedure of giving a Dhuna with ApamargAchyranthes aspera — a plant whose wood is burned in fumigation (Dhooni) rites to cleanse severe negative or black-magic afflictions from a home. wood in the house, using the mantra of Bhairava ji or Hanuman ji. If the cause really was of that kind, he says, the benefit will be immediate.

Asked about going to the Kumbh region with a one-year-old child, the speaker says the listener will face great difficulty, and that in his view they should not take that much risk with so small a child. His grounds are practical: the crowd will be in crores; the cold will have increased, with temperatures down to five or six degrees; and it is not fixed where one will stay, how one will go or how one will come back. His advice is not to take the risk, but to perform the procedures at home — there is so much vidhi vidhan available to do there — and obtain the grace and benefit that way.

A run of short answers to listeners. To one afraid of going into the water, the speaker says simply not to be afraid and to go while remembering Varuna Deva Devata. To another, that a hollow ShivlingThe aniconic form of Lord Shiva worshipped at home and in temples. should be immersed, and a Narmadeshwar Shiva Lingam brought in its place, obtained after inspection from an authentic source. Asked whether a forty-five-day PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. of a mantra can be done on the ground at Prayag, he says by all means do it. For japa without a mala, he tells the listener to perform Jayanti Mangala Kali by capacity for an hour and a quarter — deciding by the clock, an hour or an hour and a quarter, and doing it that way. To a listener asking what to petition for, he says to use one's own judgement and take up one thing first — either the god's worship or the Goddess's. On temple visits, he notes that the Mote Ganesh ji beyond the Dashashwamedh temple certainly should be visited, but that with the ghats being fenced across, reaching everywhere will not be possible during the Kumbh; darshan of every place cannot be managed.

Answering a listener who asked about performing japa at night on the ghat, the speaker gives two practical objections — the cold, and the crowds that begin gathering before dawn for bathing, plus mosquitoes, recalling that an attempt to sit and read the Parvati Gita had recently gone badly for exactly that reason. He therefore tells listeners not to sit out at night, and reassures them that this costs nothing: whatever tent, hotel or lodging they are staying in falls within the Kumbh region anyway. He defines the extent — from the station of Bhagavati Alopshankari across to the Nagvasuki temple and the station of Veni Madhav is all within the Kumbh region. Performing practice in any place within it carries the full fruit, and he asks them not to think that staying near Veni Madhav, Lalita or Alopshankari means their merit is diminished; it is all the region of the Sangam. He adds that a person who cannot reach Prayag but visits another pilgrimage region, or bathes on the bank of the Ganga elsewhere or in another river, obtains the merit of Magh and of the pilgrimage region fully.

Answering listeners on the household AartiA ritual of waving a lit lamp or flame before a deity's image, performed here at the close of Deepdan once the lamps begin to burn down. performed late at night, the speaker states that where an Aarti has to be done at night it is done without ringing the bell. He is explicit that the bell must not be rung at night. He distinguishes the case: the position for a temple, and for other kinds of places, is a separate matter — this rule is for an Aarti performed at home in the night hours. He gives his own example, of an Aarti falling at around a quarter to one, and says that in such an Aarti there will be no bell and no Shankha.

A listener asked which special anushthana they should perform at Prayag in three days, and what instruction the speaker would give. His answer is short and general: perform the anushthana that you have already performed a very large number of times in your life. Around the same answer he confirms to another listener that they may certainly perform sadhana, and that those arriving after the fourth of February are covered by what he set out at the start — that one comes, goes and continues the japa. He also observes about the people who mock the whole thing: those who do not perform such acts themselves will not want others to perform them either, which is why they make a subject of ridicule out of it, saying these are Babas who will go and sit at a Dhuni.

Asked which rules apply after receiving and wearing a mala from the Kumbh Prasad, the speaker treats it under the general rule for any mala. It is worn after bathing and may then be worn permanently. Where a RudrakshaA sacred seed strung into rosaries and worn during shiva worship. risks breaking through being pressed while sleeping — he specifies a Rudraksha strung on thread — it should be removed at night and worn again in the morning after bathing. He gives two conditions specific to circumstance. Women should take particular note that during menstruation only the Kamakhya mala is kept on and everything else is removed and placed somewhere safe, being worn again after the period ends and a bath is taken. And where a person goes into a birth or death Sutak, the thread is changed and the mala passed through the touch of fire; where the Sutak falls in the household itself, the thread is changed after it ends, an abhishekaA ceremonial bathing of a deity’s image or symbol, usually with water and other prescribed substances. performed, and the fire-touch given.

Answering a listener who had written asking whether an Asana and an Achamani must be carried, or whether one may sit on the sand, the speaker deals first with the lamp. It will probably go out in the water, or one would be left with only the mala in the water; and in any case the administration there will start on the practitioner for lighting one, since at present they will not let lamps be lit at all. So a lamp should not be taken — the worship and recitation involving it should be done at the place where the practitioner is staying. On the other items: an Achamani will indeed be needed if the practice is done on the bank, and an Asana will be needed there too. But if the japa is being performed sitting inside the Ganga, then nothing whatever is required.

Answering a listener who had understood the target as 32,000 Chakras, the speaker corrects it. The requirement is that the total recitations reach 32,000, not that 32,000 Chakras be performed. He then gives the conversion: one Chakra contains 33 recitations in total. On that basis the practitioner is told to work out for themselves how many Chakras 32,000 recitations amounts to.

A listener wrote that the Yamuna flows only a short distance from their home and asked whether that would fall within the Sangam region. The speaker answers plainly that it will not come within the Sangam region. But he does not leave it there: since it is Bhagavati Yamuna, bathing and worship should certainly be performed there as well, and in the month of Magh its full fruit will now be received.

A listener wrote that they had not intended to go to the Kumbh and are in Mumbai, but after hearing about the month of the Kumbh would like to go. The speaker thanks them and says that if his words caused a desire to arise in someone's heart and people who were not going now reach the Kumbh, then his own name too will be recorded in the register of Prayagraj as the one whose speaking made a person go. That, he says, is what a meritorious act is, and this is how merit increases: when we go into a region of dharma, perform acts of dharma, and cause an increase in the merit of others, our own increases as well. He asks listeners to do the same — to awaken Hindus, to encourage them that in a divine and festival period lamp-donation and travel to divine regions are worth doing, and that rather than going to Goa or Shimla they should go a little to a pilgrimage region. His condition on that is that one should not go to a tirtha to sightsee, but for darshan, worship and sadhana. If in one's life even a single person's welfare is brought about that way, he says, one's human birth is certainly successful — and in the present day even one is a great deal.

A listener asked whether a person of the Vrischika (Scorpio) rashi may perform the sadhana of Ma Tara. The speaker answers that sadhana has nothing to do with rashi, and that this is especially so for the sadhana of the Mahavidyass. He draws the distinction himself: the subsidiary shaktis, the Upa-shaktis and Anga-shaktis that come within the great powers, are where these considerations are examined, particularly for the sake of a specific Vidya. For the Mahavidyas, rashi is not consulted at all.

Addressing listeners who wrote that a Sutak runs until the 15th or 20th, or that they have exams, or are travelling, the speaker says none of it is a problem: out of the forty-five days, whatever they can get — the last fifteen days, eleven, nine, seven or three — they should seize. If a full month and a quarter is possible that is excellent; failing that, the Gupt Navratri of Magh, or the Navratri of Shiva that follows. Even five or seven days in between should be used. His refrain is that the whole month and a quarter belongs to them and none of it should be allowed to pass empty, and that having something is better than doing nothing. The longer the sadhana the better, and beyond his own itemised instructions the practitioner may decide by their own judgement what they ought to perform. He explains that he has deliberately not discussed Havan in this session, because the circumstances for it will not form for everyone there and it would only distress them. Among the one-day options he names Mauni Amavasya and the full Parvati Gita anushthana with the Ganga Sahasranama. On experiences he cautions that when something is genuinely obtained, the practitioner must fall silent, stay calm, keep patience and tell nobody. He also addresses a common worry: where visions and instructions occurred at the Kumbh and stop after returning home, the sadhana is simply to be repeated — the base is now clear and a large stage has been crossed, and the grace returns at once when a Purashcharana is performed at home, which may be of eleven or twenty-one days rather than forty. He adds that a practitioner unable to participate financially in anything should not feel diminished by it — five rupees, ten, a lakh or nothing at all, with a SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. performed at home instead, since it is not the case that something only happens if money is given.

The speaker closes with a caution directed at new practitioners. In the Kumbh region there will be people offering inducements, and someone may say they will arrange an instant Siddhi and take the practitioner off to one Baba or another. He is not principally warning about money — that, he says, is for the listener's own judgement — but about what may be given or done to them: if something improper is administered and something is placed upon them, the practitioner should not then write to him concealing that part and saying only that they went to the Kumbh on his word and this happened. He states plainly that he has enough sense to know that effects do not arise without something having been done. His instruction is not to apply that kind of cleverness, but to perform only the service of Ganga and Triveni and the mantra sadhana, with surrender and simplicity, so that only merit accrues and no fault attaches. No Baba, he says, can give anyone an instant Siddhi; they will give some worthless thing and the person will be troubled by it for life. Avoid these things, believe only in one's own sadhana and one's own chosen deity, and perform the sadhana oneself.