Preparing for Chaitra Navratri — Shanishchari Amavasya, the Sandhi Puja, and the Trikon of Vindhyachal

This time only two or three days are left before Chaitra Navratri, he says. On the Saturday falls the Shanishchari Shani Amavasya — a ratri-kaalin, nishiddha-kaalin Amavasya. Wherever Bhagavati Kali is worshipped, or at whichever tantra peeth nishiddha-kaal pujan is done in particular, where there is a vidhan of bali and the like in the Shamshaan and such places, this is the Amavasya that matters to them.

Those people will give the pujan of the Amavasya on the Friday night itself, the speaker says, because the nishiddha-vyapini falls on that day. But on the Saturday the Amavasya stands until roughly a quarter past four in the evening. So the udaya-vyapini Amavasya, the Shanishchari Amavasya, is valid through the whole of that day and night too. For this reason, he says, the Shanishchari Amavasya is distinctive in itself.

You all know, he says, the Shri Durga Archan Paddhati written by Shri Shri Acharya Shivdatt Mishra Shastri ji, and his many other granthas in which he has described this subject with references — naming from which tantra grantha the matter has been taken. The point described there is that according to the day of the week, a Durga Saptashati path of Bhagavati Shri Jagadamba, or any anushthan connected with her, holds a special importance.

One opinion in general, the speaker says, is this: in the order running from Sunday through to Saturday, when we begin from the first day, the Chandi Path done on the Saturday has been held to carry very great importance. But look behind that too, he says, and there is a particular cause for it.

Tuesday and Saturday, he says, are the two special days, and the nishiddha-kaal — the night especially — that belongs to them has been spoken of in connection with veer and krura. Veer ratri and krura ratri. But within that too, if the yoga of a nakshatra and a tithi comes about, it becomes special, and beyond that exceedingly special. So the Shanishchari Amavasya carries its importance in this way.

He lists the combinations. If Saptami falls on a Sunday, its importance becomes very great. If Shlosh falls on a Monday, or Amavasya falls on a Monday, its importance increases greatly. If Amavasya falls on a Tuesday, if Chaturdashi falls on a Tuesday, if Ashtami falls on a Tuesday, there is a special importance. If Ashtami falls on a Wednesday, that carries a very special importance. And if on a Thursday there is Pushya Nakshatra, or the Ekadashi tithi, then it becomes of a greatly divine importance. Whatever anushthan you perform yourself at these special tithis, whatever mantra japa you do, is done in this kind of time.

What has the word anushthan come to mean, he asks — and what does even a one-day anushthan mean, given the whole vidhan that falls under it? We do shodashopachar pujan of our aradhya, of whichever form of Bhagavati or of Bhagavan we are going to worship. After that we do the path of their stuti, Japa, Kavach and the rest. The japa that is to be done has a fixed number — here a hundred and eight malas are being done, or some number of malas are being japa'd. And after that, after the japa and the rest, you will do their Havan, a tenth part; and after the havan, TarpanaA libation offering of water or other substances made to a deity or ancestor, typically performed alongside Havan and Marjan. and marjan. The importance of these vidhans under an anushthan is of this kind.

Everyone should certainly observe that day, he says, and from that day itself the gochar of Shani Dev into the rashi of Bhagavan Brihaspati Dev, Meen rashi, is beginning. That day he changes rashi. So for the two and a half years that his time in that rashi will last, discharge as faithfully as you possibly can the karma-pradhan duty that falls to you, the responsibility that is yours in your life. Do your anushthan with complete discipline. Its fruit will certainly be obtained.

Shani Dev, they say, is one who is dhira — who makes his reckoning with great fineness and subtlety, who observes, and who only after that gives the outcome. Shani Dev is a divine graha of that very category, the speaker says. They give very slowly. It becomes an utter extremity of patience, a testing of it.

So much testing, and such patience to be kept within the test, that you will grow weary — doing anushthan and doing it and doing it again, he says. This is the experience of his own life. It is his own life's experience in the mahadasha of Bhagavan Shani Dev that the fellow sadhak brothers and guru brothers around him would see their anushthans fruit with such intensity, while his own simply were not fruiting at all at one time. This is the experience of his own life, and it will happen with you as well; the rules are not different for you and for us.

But when the time of his going comes, when they are in their final phase, at that time whatever good karma you have done, whatever anushthans you have done, whatever PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. you have done — they begin to give it. And when they begin to give, then it will seem to you: how is this being obtained with such ease?

It depends on the path towards which you will be striving, he says. If you are doing the whole anushthan for the sake of materiality — that there be wealth and daan, abundant sampada, aishwarya, a vehicle, the comfort of a house and so on — then when the time comes, and if you have been performing your anushthan and the rest faithfully and with discipline, without committing any kind of vishwasghat, without devaghat, without any kind of pramad towards the devatas, then know this: the matter will certainly fruit, so that if you set your hand even in soil it will become gold. But understand this much as well: out of ten, seven and a half or eight — that is, eighty percent of the time — it will seem to you every time that nothing is happening, that not one percent is happening.

The ultimate experience of Bhagavati, he says, is this: Jagadamba is not arriving there in her direct form. But whichever lok Yogini is seated at that place is somewhere or other becoming manifest there. The lok shaktis certainly do, in one manner of speaking, interfere in life somewhere or another.

The first stage of that interference, he says, is this. Whatever karma may be formed from our PrarabdhaThe portion of destiny already set in motion by past actions — spiritual practice and good deeds can lessen its severity, but not eliminate it., whatever difficulty may be running in life at that time — in that they are able to assist only when you become successful in their initial examination. Without an examination no one is going to give you anything in this field. So time becomes of great importance for passing this examination.

If, for example, an Amavasya is falling on a Saturday, he says, and any person performs archan of Bhagavati on that day, it has been held to be a hundred times more fruitful. How then does karma get cut quickly? What was to be done in eight years may now happen in seven and a half, in seven. That is the effect of doing your anushthan and your own purashcharan at these special tithis. And if you cannot do havan, do japa. If you cannot do japa, do archan. If you cannot do archan, do abhishek. Do as much of your aradhya's worship as is possible for you — this has a very special effect, and there is speed in the fruit you desire; a way begins to open. This is a true matter, he says.

chaitra-navratri is beginning from the Sunday, he says, and the tithi standing that day will be Pratipada. Tritiya and Chaturthi are falling as one. Navratra, as has been said, means new nights. And it is beginning from Surya vaar — that is, from the first day of the week, from Suryadev who is king of the grahas. So this new year will in itself be very divine.

But look: nature is giving you, along with it, a way to deal with those things. Whether you are able to walk that path, take the benefit of that time and prepare yourself, is your duty and your karma. No one is going to interfere in karma. You will be made an instrument, the knowledge will come to you, the way will be found, you will come to know — but you yourself will have to do it. No one else is going to.

Those whose only child is a single son — who have no other daughter and no other son, only one son — should not keep the upvas of Ashtami, he says. They should keep the Navami one. Its description is found in the Kalika Purana, in the Srimad Devi Bhagavat and such works, in the Devi Bhagavat Mahapuran. When Bhagavan Shri Ramchandra ji Maharaj performed the upasana and sadhana of Bhagavati for the slaying of Ravana, at that time too this subject was placed by Jagadamba. We have said this many times in lives as well, he adds. Keep this subject in mind — and if you have doubt even in this, do svadhyaya of these granthas yourself and your doubt will be removed, or converse about it with some learned person.

Ashtami is falling on the Saturday, he says, and on that Ashtami itself, in the evening from about seven o'clock — the full timing will also be posted — the time that stands between seven and eight will be the sandhi kaal, of fifty minutes, of forty minutes. That is, sandhi pujan will be done between seven and eight on the Saturday evening.

The sandhi puja that will fall on the Saturday becomes exceedingly divine in itself, he says, because on one hand it is a krura day — krura meaning a day of fierceness, a vaar carrying ugrata. And with it the Ashtami tithi together with Navami, that is, the time of the sandhi. The form of Jagadamba that manifests at that time, whose energy pervades the entire brahmand in those forty to forty-two minutes, is that of Bhagavati Chamunda.

Bhagavati Chamunda is in herself the most blazing, the most ojaswi, and one may say the most exceedingly fierce of devis, he says. The beej akshar that has come in the Navarna — Chamundayai — has not come there just so. That form of Jagadamba remains present in direct form within that mantra. That is a further reason why this is exceedingly divine in itself.

At that time on that day, at the time of the sandhi puja, you will do Bali chhedan, he says. Whether you give kushmanda bali, coconut bali, lemon bali, jaiphal bali, clove bali, or cucumber bali. Or kadali phalam, that is banana bali, and so on — whichever substances you use, a bali of a hundred and one of them at that time.

The Chaitra Navami that is falling becomes divine in itself, he says, because that day there is Pushya Nakshatra, it is the day of Sunday, and it is Shukla Paksha. So it becomes exceedingly divine. Bhagavan Shri Krishna has said in the Gita, in the Vibhuti Yoga, that among the nakshatras I am Pushya nakshatra. So Pushya nakshatra is falling at that time, and with a Sunday besides, it will become exceedingly divine. That day, on the Navami, on that Sunday — those who wish to do nitya havan in Navratri may do so, but on that day everyone does the special havan, the havan of the final day.

On the day of Tara Navami, in any case, a separate one-day anushthan is something they have always performed, he says — for about the last two years, it seems to him. So that will be held separately as well. Do it yourself at your home too, without fail. If it is possible, the vidhan of havan and the rest should certainly be done that day. It is an exceedingly divine time. So much time is coming to you in which, if you perform a mantra anushthan, Jagadamba will certainly be your helper.

Your grahas and nakshatras are in their own places in the kundali, he says, but if Jagadamba wishes, then by the grace of Shiva and Shakti the matter of the birth kundali will become something else. Or say it this way: their effect in your life will become auspicious and only auspicious. The kundali will be left lying just as it is. Affliction on one side and the enemy on another will be left lying just as they are. So take the benefit of these divine times; do not let them simply pass.

For those doing Navratri for the first time, or who have forgotten, he says, the first subject that arises is what the rule of the vrat will be. Keep the vrat according to the capacity of the body. Try to remain on phalahar — many devotees do remain on water alone, or on juice — but according to the body's capacity, keep the Navratri vrat remaining on phalahar, or in a phalahari way.

He mentions a video seen just now on Facebook in which someone had got Kanha ji admitted into a school. He is being taught A B C D, and he is being sent to school. That is to say, in the name of bhaav you may tamper with anything at all, paper over anything at all. A very fine bhaav you have towards Bhagavan, he says — this is your bhaav.

Yogesh ji has made a very fine comment on it, he says: that Bhagavan says Vedoham — I myself am the Veda. Akshara Brahma — the imperishable itself is Brahma, that very one is Brahma. And him you are teaching A B C D. This is your bhaav. Money is being spent upon him. So do not fall victim to this counterfeit bhakti of display that is running.

One subject he has always spoken of, he says, is this matter of taking one's devi-devatas around in a dolchi. This body of ours, and the travelling we do, can never be at the level of purity in which people take Kanha ji, or whichever form of their own aradhya, and wander from place to place with him and give him bath. It should never be done in this way. They have their own matter, let them remain in their own place. You remain in your own place. But people, in the primacy of their own feeling, say such things to this extent, to this level, that hearing and seeing them it becomes difficult to ignore. Great anger arises, but what is to be said — at the least let this be avoided, it is a dosha.

When these aparadhs attach, he says, there will be very great difficulty. In whichever train, whichever bus, whichever aeroplane you are travelling, and in whichever place you are keeping them during that journey — wherever that is going, there is no knowing who has come into it carrying a fowl, who has come carrying fish, who is coming with meat and such. Of what level someone's body is, there is no knowing; what wrongdoing someone may be coming from, whose body will touch that seat, who will have sat there.

Never keep such impurity, he says. This unseemliness that you are doing in the name of bhaav is an offence being committed against the devatas, and it becomes unforgivable. And then people suffer it and say: we were such dedicated sadhaks, such dedicated devotees, that we wandered about carrying Bhagavan in a dolchi — and still our harm came about.

This is an aparadh, he says, and then their ganas give the danda. Bhagavan is hardly going to come to punish. But their ganas, whose responsibility this is — that no insult should come to our aradhya — and when you act in this way, it is by those very yoginis and by those very Bhairavas that you are punished. He has spoken of these matters before as well; let them be avoided.

At the time of Navratri, on the first day, the time for Kalash sthapana — though he says all such timings will be discussed separately and also written out — kalash sthapan should be done at the correct time. There is the mandala of the nine grahas, the mandala of the shodash matrikas, the mandala of the sixty-four Yoginis, the mandala of the five Kshetrapals, and the mandala of the ten digpals.

And on that very kalash, he says — because when the mantra of the kalash is read, what stands in the whole mantra is who is established in the ghata of the kalash, and where in its kumbha the place of which devata is. So all of them come into it. Everyone is invoked. In that very kalash in which you are invoking Jagadamba, all the devatas will be invoked, and in that kalash of the devatas, the principal kalash itself, offer akshat and pushpa and the rest by name to the navagraha, to the shodash matrika, and to all the sixty-four yoginis. You do not need to trouble yourself very much. If you do not know the whole vidhi vidhan of a brihad anushthan, how a mandala is drawn, there is no problem — there will be no deficiency in the fruit; you will get the same fruit as the brihad. Yes, but if you have the capacity, the space, and you know how it is done, then certainly make them separately.

But what people do, he says, is that as soon as they read the mantra for the visarjan of the kalash and release akshat, at that very moment they pour water over the akhand jyot and put it out. Whatever ghee and oil is in it, take that out and keep it, by all means. It will serve for the work of applying tilak; you may mix it daily into roli for tilak. And let a little oil remain, so that while the paran is being done it becomes complete of itself. That is right in itself — but extinguishing it by pouring water is not fitting for everyone. The matter of anushthans is different for those who are proceeding by that mat.

How should we do the daily path, he asks — how should the whole Durga Saptashati path be done, what should the diksha-holder do, what of one who has had no diksha of any kind, and what should be done when the Sanskrit pronunciation is not clear? The whole of this is on the channel in detail. If Sanskrit does not come to you, do it in Hindi. The video on how the path is to be done in Hindi has been shared again today. And there is how the path is done in the Mahavidya krama, by which the whole Durga Saptashati path is completed very easily in seven days.

On the eighth day you should do stuti and the rest, do the path of the rahasyas, and on the ninth day do Havan, he says. And if it is of eight days, then complete it in seven days itself and do the havan and the rest on the eighth. This whole subject — on which day which adhyaya's path will be done, how everything will be — has been told in detail.

For the undiksha — one who is not diksha-holder — they never at any time speak in favour of the Navarna Mantra; they always forbid it, he says. There is much opposition to this from people: bhaav, bhaav, it is bhaav, why will it not happen through bhaav, Mother looks at bhaav — a comment will come on this too. Brother, stop tampering in the name of bhaav, he says. If you want to tamper, keep tampering; it is your wish and your life, what will it cost us.

Navarna, Panchadashi — these are such mantras that people who are undiksha should not do japa of them, he says. If its utterance is coming in the middle of some path, that subject is separate. And when you have become diksha-holder, then this mantra should never at any time be spoken with the mouth.

Wherever there is the matter of doing the Kunjika path, he says, the whole mantra that comes in the middle of the path of the Siddh Kunjika Stotram — the mahanava mantra of the Kunjika — should be read in the mind alone. It should not be read out loud, not shouted. Those who read it into a microphone, whoever is reading it, leave them, that is their subject. You are a sadhak; you should have the knowledge that we are not to speak it. We will speak it in the mind, we will not speak it loudly. Keep this subject in mind, especially once your diksha has taken place.

There is this subject too, he says: all the gurus who are giving diksha will not tell these things in the way one would like, or they walk by their own niti and niyam and do not tell so much. That is a separate mat. But if correct information is coming to you from anywhere, which is according to mat, by which one ought to walk, by which our good comes about, then there is no fault in it — that one will act only if guruji says so. You have come to know it; do it. If there is doubt, ask guruji.

If after that the guruji says, out of dvesha, that it is all false, all pakhand, all useless things, none of it true, that these people are all just putting on a nautanki — then only this can be said, he says: balad krishna mohaya, Bhagavati has caught hold of them by force and put them into moha. They may be very great tapasvis, very great tantra sadhaks; they may know divine sadhanas, all of that is in its place. But precisely all that coming to them is why Jagadamba has put them into such delusion that it seems to them everyone besides themselves is false, everyone is a pakhandi. This too is a true matter, he says.

When Jagadamba begins in any manner to advance you, in whichever field you go forward, she will give you wealth, honour, prestige, everything, he says. So always keep one thing in memory, and tie today's saying into a knot: whether along with it she is also giving you the kaleja — that you help the poor and the suffering, that you stand behind those who know less than you and try to bring them forward, that you assist on this path, that without holding dvesha you speak for the welfare even of a person who has held dvesha towards you, and give whatever help you can, whether by money, by your speech, or by helping with your body. This kaleja Jagadamba does not give to every sadhak. Jagadamba does not give kaleja to everyone; remember that.

He had done a whole live before this, he says, in which he told at which levels the examination takes place. First, when our affliction is there, the affliction will be increased further and that will be the test. When we emerge from that, pleasure will be given, and then she will take the test by the maya of pleasure. Such pleasures will be given that it will seem to you: by any means, leave the sadhana. Saam, daam, danda, bheda — give sorrow and make him leave it, or bind him in the maya of pleasure, give him such things that being bound in it he abandons the sadhana. When one crosses even that, only then do the divine and higher-level shaktis arise in the life. So what is all this, he asks — it is their maya itself. Someone quarrels, someone offers temptation.

Your shraddha towards that Jagadamba to whom you have gone is probed, he says, and the blow falls upon it. Those people who insult are somewhere or other deluded. And it is not that they do not receive punishment — because the servant who has arrived there is absorbed in Bhagavati herself; he has arrived as Bhagavati's form. To her the responsibility has been given: whoever comes to my house. You say that you are her servant, that she is your mistress, that she is your Swamini.

In the Swamini's house you are a servant, and you are receiving a salary, he says. You are getting your wages; your remuneration is being provided to you by Jagadamba. You may be a crorepati, an arabpati; it may be that you are playing in gold and silver — she has given it to you according to your capacity and your fitness. But you are their servant, are you not. You call yourself a servant — small servant, big servant, I am this servant, I am that servant, I am the chief servant, I am this and that. You are that servant, not the master. But when in that place you take yourself for the master, then to that Swamini seated there, to whichever temple's Swami and Swamini are seated there, you have become a servant and are now doing the work of usurping the place.

As with the Batuk Bhairav temple, the ancient temple, the one in Delhi — he had told a matter about it in the previous live, he says, about what sorts of things the servants there do. And they began to say: it is my temple, whatever I wish will happen, that is all. When anyone says such a thing — it is my temple, I am the one here, wherever I have come — then understand that the time which should not have come is now beginning for them. The beginning of their fall has already taken place.

But one who has gathered so much wealth — it is hardly the case that tomorrow it will burn to ashes, he says. It is lying in the bank, and the bank will not close. So it will drain away. The order of its diminishing will remain, and then it will begin. The speech itself will tell you that their time of fall has now arrived. Whom was the medium made? The medium was you, the devotee. The devotee is a form of Bhagavan, and making you the medium — that is, making her own self the medium — she begins their destruction, begins their fall and ruin. This too, he says, is a matter of repeated experience here.

She is the Swamini, he is the Swami, he says. You are their servant. The person who has come into that Swamini's house has come to the Swamini's house; he has not come to your house. When you insult him, then who is aggrieved there, who is pained, whose insult takes place, at whom is the finger raised? It is raised at that Swamini. Mother, I had come to your house, and I was insulted in this way; O Bhairav ji, I had come to your house, I had come taking it to be your court, and at your door I am being insulted for no cause — so the devotee, aggrieved, speaks.

When the devotee speaks aggrieved, he says, then see: in happiness the bhaav may well not reach their feet at that level, but when you fall into affliction, when you become aggrieved, when you become sorrowful, then your connection is made directly with their shri charan. This you will see, and it will be your life's experience. When in affliction you call out to the Lord, when in affliction you call out to Jagadamba, then your one-pointedness is many times greater than the one-pointedness of happiness. So someone insulted you and you became one-pointed towards their feet; and with as much concentration as you conveyed it to them, the remaining matter reached too. They saw you, and after that their working began: their yoginis, their servants who are present in subtle form, will then begin the upheaval. Now we do not know what turmoil has arisen in that person's life. They sit thinking this is mine — but where it is mine and where it is yours, they will begin that again — and then they cannot even ask your forgiveness a second time. They will be left striking their heads there; there is no hearing.

The greater the post, the more the closeness to them, so much the greater the responsibility; and where a fault has occurred, there is no forgiveness, he says. It is not obtained. This is a matter of experience, but people think that if they do this then it will be settled. Not so; both subjects exist. The deva administrative order also has its importance, brother. It is hardly without reason that this mandap will stand at such a distance, that sitting upon so many steps has this mahatmya, that darshan has this mahatmya. When all this mahatmya exists, then within it too there is an administrative order — which devotee is to be given what, and what taken. So when you create such disturbance there, history does not take long to be made.

In whosever house you go as a guest, he says, in whosever house you go as an atithi, and the servant of that house insults you, insults the guest — then whose ridicule truly takes place there, whose insult occurs there? The guest will say: we had come to your house, see in what manner your servant insults us. What then will the master do with that servant? What will that Swami do? He will remove his servant from his employment, ruin him, punish him as far as possible. He adds, in this context we say ruin him — in the sense that he will surely do something; coming into anger he may do anything.

So here it is the same, he says. When you go as a guest, as a devotee, as a darshanarthi, taking refuge — then the more the bhaav for that Jagadamba is present in your every pore, the more her name issues from every pore of you, the more surrender with which you are going there, then in that surrender all her shaktis are present in those pores. Whose insult then takes place? It is the insult of her own form issuing from that pore. And when it is her insult, why are you worrying? She is the Swamini, you are the guest, and this is the servant; the servant is insulting, so it is the Swamini's duty — she will give the punishment. She will understand it; we are not to understand it. Keep this in mind.

Take hold of this whole subject, he says. When you perform sadhana and anushthan during Navratri in any way, the surrender you take, the japa and tapa you do — then when you go to a teerth sthan, when you go to those divine kshetras, understand that it is going with you. And in exactly that manner it is to be offered there.

The first subject was of time, he says; upon time, now — in Navratri one should perform as many ratri-kaalin sadhanas as possible. And it does not at all mean by this that you should not sleep in the day. Entirely according to the comfort of the body, two or four hours, five hours, whatever sleep you need, do sleep in the day. The written material, he says, is one that people of Vaishnav mats especially keep forcing in everywhere; but brother, it will not be like that. There too the night has importance: Krishna Janmashtami takes place at night alone, Narasimha Chaturdashi takes place at night alone.

If you are a sadhak, and especially if you are a sadhak of Jagadamba, then you must certainly do simha sadhana, he says — that is, perform sadhana like a lion; perform Veer sadhana. What does veer mean? Veer means that at every small thing, at all these confusions that have been spread about, you should not become frightened. If we do it at night, it is the time of bhoots, the time of prets, they say — where, brother? Where has the dominion been given to bhoot and pret? Bhoots and prets have their place, their dominion is that far off — so are they independent? Is that yoni independent? All those shaktis of the upadeva category are surely not independent: they are under the devata of the shamshaan, under the kshetrapal. And who lives in the shamshaan and among the kshetrapals? They are forms of Bhagavati alone, forms of Bhagavan Shiva alone — so how did they become independent, and how did the time become theirs?

For example, he says, there is the nautanki that has been running among those sadhaks of the Kaul marga, who bring the matter up repeatedly: that whether it be the time of Navratri or any time at all, if you have a wife, if you have a lover, then she is the direct form of the Devi herself. So if your wife or lover is saying that yes, we want the pleasure of the bed at this time, then you should give that pleasure, because the Devi is saying so. What lowness greater than this could there be, he asks. A person who commits such wrongdoing, a person who performs sadhana in Navratri with such a base mentality, whether he does it at night or by day — if he is not punished, then what will he get? It is a plain matter. So stay alert about these subjects, that no insult occur, that no aparadh occur from you, that no mistake occur. Walk with rule and faithfulness, keeping brahmacharya and the rest.

On matters connected with diksha, he says: if you cannot do japa of Navarna and the rest, if there is no diksha — then brother, the first mantra of the Argala Stotra is broadcast on the channel with its complete method. With full Viniyoga and Nyasa — which, he says, he has hardly found to this day in any grantha where the nyasa of those mantras is given.

In the Tantrokta granthas of the Durga Saptashati you will find the nyasa of the seventh and the thirteenth adhyaya, but the nyasa of those mantras — of the Kavach, Argala and Keelak mantras — is not given, he says. So by Bhagavati's grace, such capable sadhaks as have ancient books and granthas of that kind available, which are still unpublished — whatever has been obtained from them, after discussing that we wish the members of our Grihastha Tantra family to perform Bhagavati's upasana and that this mantra fruit for them, it is being given. So it has been given; take the benefit of it, do its japa. With the vidhi vidhan: whether you are diksha-holder or not, whether you are a woman or a man, whether you wear the janeu or not, there is no difficulty. Each point has been written in that PDF as well — that if you do not wear the upavita, you have only to apply the Devi Pranava or the tantrik pranava; the rest should japa uttering it with the pranava.

The method of performing sadhana by the chakra vidhi of the thirty-two namavali of Bhagavati is broadcast on the channel, he says; search for it — write "32 namavali chakra vidhi grihastha tantra" and it will be found on YouTube. Its whole PDF is uploaded as well, so that you need not make the chakra vidhi yourself in order to do the path; in it the thirty-two mantras have each been set out as a separate full paragraph. Sadhaks helped in this — some among you listeners had helped, saying that they would make it fully in accordance with the vidhi so that people could do that sadhana easily and well. And if even after so much you will not do it, will not open your mouth, will not encourage your tongue to utter Bhagavati's name, then what greater misfortune could there be for you.

Many such sadhanas connected with the Shri Durga Saptashati are broadcast on the channel, whose upasana you may do independently, he says; the experiences are present on the channel too, in the related videos, and there are a great many of them. Look at them and take encouragement. Give further momentum to the surrender you have towards your aradhya, and go forward. So choose rightly among the divine times of Navratri and the vidhi vidhan, and apply yourself rightly. And this year, in this Chaitra Navratri, for the first time a Sab Chandi path of Bhagavati is being organised in the triangle of Vindhyachal.

Those people who are going to do the parikrama of the Trikon Parikrama at Vindhyachal in Navratri especially — brother, you are going to do the most special act of your life, he says; nothing can be more distinctive than it. First, Vindhyachal, and all the Shakti Peeths besides, have their special mahatmya; but Vindhyachal has been called a Mahashakti Peeth. It is Bhagavati's direct form, the Mani Dweep, where Maa Jagadamba is seated eternally from the beginning of creation. So the importance of that place is very special. Merely by the daily darshan of Bhagavati, the full fruit of a samput path of the Shri Durga Saptashati is obtained.

By mere darshan, release from every yoni is obtained, he says — if only the darshan of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini be done. Its description, together with that in the durga-kalpadruma-tantra and other granthas of the Shakta mat, will be found in many discourses of siddhas and sadhaks: that by the mere darshan of Jagadamba Vindhyavasini a creature obtains liberation from every kind of yoni, in whichever yoni it may be, and becomes an eternal parshad of Durga. But if you are doing darshan every day and creating disturbance, then no.

What does it mean to do darshan, he asks. When you do darshan, she will descend within you. Her darshan, her philosophy, will descend within you. You yourself will take on that form. Only then will release come from it. And merely to look from above and say, good, we have seen, we will get liberation — then from there she will say: now we will watch you specially, to see what you do. And such a gaze she keeps — see how large the eyes of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini are; hers are the largest eyes of all. She keeps watching with those eyes. And of Jagadamba it is especially her root nasika whose darshan alone is possible; the rest of the form stays covered.

So she will watch what you do now, he says. Once you have gone there, understand that her gaze is now always upon you. Whether you see it or not, you have set your foot in her dham — that is, you have now come within her sight. And if you are going forward with rule, faithfulness and discipline, conducting yourself in accordance with dharma, then she will never let harm come to you. Remember this always.

For those people who are going to do the trikon at the time of Navratri, the fruit is a thousand times greater than the fruit on ordinary days, he says. There is such fruit in mere darshan of Bhagavati. And if the laghu trikon be done, which is inside the temple itself — what does laghu trikon mean? At the three corners of the triangle, in one place Bhagavati Vindhyavasini, and in the others Bhagavati Mahakali and Mahasaraswati are present. So within the temple itself all three have their own places. You walked there too, had darshan of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini; then the balipeeth is right in front, where the place of Bhagavati Kali is, and you had her darshan; then you went over and had darshan of Bhagavati Mahasaraswati; then returning you had darshan of Bhagavati and drank the water of Bhagavati's kund — your trikon is complete.

This too, brother, has its complete fruit, he says: the fruit of a hundred Samput paths of the Saptashati is obtained by doing only this much. Now in life there is who knows how much — for many generations people have gone on committing offences and sins, and the burden of all of them is upon you: of your parents, your brothers and kin, your wife, your lover, your son, your daughter. That has to be cut, does it not. Consider what level of sin that will be. It will take time. It is not that you have gone there sinless and have gone now at that level, so that you will experience it immediately; time will be taken, this is a matter of birth upon birth. But it begins to be experienced.

When you do the mool trikon, he says, then it is the darshan of the four principal temples: that you set out from Vindhyachal and reach Kali Khoh directly. The other small places are all principal places too, but suppose you leave them all — you went straight and had darshan of Bhagavati Mahakali at Kali Khoh, had darshan of Ashtabhuja, and having had darshan of Bhagavati Tara seated in the shamshaan, in the mahashamshan, you came back to the temple of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini and had her darshan there. Then this became the mool trikon. And to do the brihad trikon, you then made the whole journey from Vindhyachal up to the place of Lal Bhairav ji; from there, returning and having darshan of Banwa Mahavir and all the rest in between, you reached the Ashtabhuja hill, and reached the Kali Khoh hill.

Rising up from Kali Khoh, having darshan of Bhagavan Shri Krishna at Girva talab and darshan of Sakshi Gopal ji, you now go on from there to Mukteshwar Mahadev, he says. From near Mukteshwar Mahadev, upon the Vindhya mountain, is the place where from ancient times Bhagavan Shri Hanuman ji is seated in direct form, which is the Bajrang tantra sthan even today; the road to it also runs from near Rin Mukteshwar, Maha Mukteshwar Mahadev. Those who do the brihad trikon go from there to Mahavir ji. A whole day is roughly taken in it: those who have got the practice take at least twelve hours, and those who are new take sixteen, and some take even twenty-four hours. Begun at dawn today, the brihad trikon is completed at dawn tomorrow. And going on that road is not possible for everyone — it is especially those performing tantra anushthan, sadhaks who have obtained Bhagavati's grace, who do the brihad trikon at that level.

From there one will go to the place of Mahavir ji, and on the way there are many other special places of yours, tantratmak places, whose description no ordinary person at all can give, he says. Having darshan of those places, one goes on from there to Nandaja parvat. Merely going to Nandaja parvat leaves one in a certain state on foot; it falls very far off. Going that far, and then from Nandaja parvat coming back this way, one reaches Ashtabhuja again — in the brihad trikon one has to come from Nandaja parvat back to Ashtabhuja. And on reaching Ashtabhuja one goes a little further along that same Mukteshwar Mahadev road. From there, by way of Sitakund, have darshan of Ashtabhuja Mai, then go to Bhairav Kund, having darshan of Bhairav Kund and Machhindra Kund. Then for darshan of Shashthi Devi, of Bhagavati Baglamukhi, of the Anandamayi sthan and the rest, you have to go back again from the Ashtabhuja hill — that is, having climbed up from Sitakund and had darshan of Bhagavati Ashtabhuja, you take the other road, go across from above and have darshan there.

Coming back from there, then by way of Bhairav Kund, Machhindra Kund and Mangala Gauri, reach the shamshaan ghat, he says. At the shamshaan ghat there is Shamshaneshwar Mahadev, the Mahashamshan Bhairav of Shamshaneshwar; performing the pujan of the devatas present there and of Bhagavati Jagadamba Mahamai Tara, one then returns. Having darshan of Sankata Maa, of Sheetla Mata and of Bade Hanuman ji, one comes to Bhagavati Vindhyavasini upon the summit of the Vindhya mountain. And after the darshan of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini, straight in front, behind Mai, in Puriya gali, is Bhagavan Vindhyeshwar Mahadev, who was established by Ravana; and according to the mat concerning Ravana it is said that Ravana established Vindhyeshwar Mahadev taking that to be the middle of the earth — that place has been held there to be the middle of the earth. So Vindhyeshwar Mahadev has a very special mahatmya in himself. There is Shri Gangeshwar Mahadev, and Ramshila and the rest, which are seen when the water of Ganga ji falls.

And besides these there are about sixty to sixty-five such divine places which are wholly tantra peeths, tantra sthans, he says. They are for one alone who is doing purashcharan of the mantras of Jagadamba, or has done it to a level — whose japa, in a manner of speaking, may be taken to have run into crores — who has completed more than a hundred and eight trikon, who has become calm of mind, who is surrendered to his guru and to his guide, in whom there is no bhaav of dvesha, no bhaav of jealousy, of envy and dvesha especially. Kaam and krodh may well pass, he says, but dvesha is very destructive. To such sadhaks, who have become free of dvesha, it comes about of itself that a place standing before their very eyes, which they did not know to be that place, is then made known. This happens in the brihad trikon.

Whether you do the laghu, or the mool, or in the brihad the ordinary brihad that sadhaks generally do — going as far as Rin Mukteshwar Mahadev and after that the Ashtabhuja hill — he says that by leaving out Mukteshwar Mahadev it becomes the mool trikon; and if it is taken in, then after that, if people go for the darshan of Kankal Kali — many people, returning from Nandaja parvat, go by way of Kankal Kali and then to Ashtabhuja; that too is proper. Whichever way one goes, one has to go up and down. The middle road, climbing the mountain from the ghat of Ganga ji, is now no longer possible for everyone. There has been a great deal of demolition; three or four years ago it was possible, but now people have diverted the road a great deal, because it was not a main road — it was a road meant only for sadhaks, and only sadhaks and tantrik people who perform this kind of sadhana on the Vindhya mountain used to go on it, and most people's journey that way took place at night. It still takes place; only the road has changed a little.

So whichever trikon you may do, he says, proceed with this understanding: that when you are doing a trikon in the days of Navratri, one trikon simply means that the fruit of a thousand samput paths of the Shri Durga Saptashati is obtained by you. So consider for yourself how divine that will be. But at that time there is a very great crowd, so it is not possible everywhere to have darshan; the trikon has to be done by shikhar darshan. And at that time all the shaktis of the Vindhya kshetra come to be present in the flags of all the summits; in Chaitra especially, it is held that Bhagavati Vindhyavasini herself is seated upon the golden flag.

If darshan be done of the golden flag, the golden pataka that is fixed upon the summit, of the simha dhwaj set there, then the complete fruit of Bhagavati's darshan is obtained, he says. So in such a time, and in the middle of this trikon, in the middle region, at a special place, at a tantra peeth — the place has not been a hundred percent decided yet; it will be by tomorrow or the day after, as to at which place it is to be done. So at one among those places of Vindhyachal, the Samput Sat Chandi of Shri Bhagavati is being held for the first time. It is exceedingly divine in itself, for all of us too. In whatever way, by whatever means, whenever in life you do a trikon and the rest, take the benefit of it; it will be divine in itself.

He has spoken of this before as well, he says: that which is held to be the greatest trikon of India according to the Shakta parampara is what is called the hriday trikon. Only param shaktas can do it — those who have wholly obtained Bhagavati's exclusive grace; only they can do that trikon on foot. For you and for us, doing it on foot is probably never possible. The root hriday trikon that has been held is: from the place of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini to Kamrup Kamakhya; from Kamrup Kamakhya to Kanyakumari; and from Kanyakumari again to the Vindhyachal peeth. This you may do by train, by bus, or by your own vehicles. So this hriday trikon has been held to be the greatest trikon; its fruit is endless, and its fruit cannot even be described. It is held, he says, that Rajrappa's Chhinnamastika dham — where there are the rishis of Bhagavati's Vajra Vairochaniya mantra and the rest, and by whom vishaya siddhi and kripa siddhi are obtained, which belongs to high-born divine sadhaks, divine sadhaks not like you and me —

And at Vindhyachal, in Kali Khoh, the form of Jagadamba is seated in khechari mudra, he says. By the grace of these two forms, those sadhaks who obtain khechar siddhi are of the category of the siddhas, of the category of the Mahasiddhas, who perform this trikon daily. And it is when you complete a hundred and eight trikon — even the mool trikon — that after that this very thing follows.

Those who are already performing sadhanas, who have already ground themselves down in their sadhanas — their body, their mind, and even their want, according to their financial capacity, ground down and offered as prasad — those who are dedicated sadhaks, he says: in the very first trikon a divine experience will occur. In the very first trikon they will understand what arrangement, what system there is in the whole trikon, and at which places which shakti can bestow grace in what manner. This is not a state of delusion, keep that in mind. He says he is himself a great opponent of this: when people speak of a state of bhram, it is understood merely from the hearing that it is only a product of the mind, that it is a great smartness. So to such things he either simply says, brother, all right — no; the divine grace experiences of these kshetras are, in their actuality, in their directness, in their manifestness, exceedingly divine.

Especially those people who live alone and who have to leave their place and go to different places, he says — for the akhand jyot there is also such a rule, that the akhand jyot is never at any time to be left alone by them. It is the direct form of Jagadamba; one is not to leave her alone and go away from the house, from the place. Someone or other will be at home. So those who are alone should not do it in this way either. And the Siddh Kunjika stotra is siddha in itself — what will you make siddha in it, he asks; that is after the diksha and the rest for it has been obtained.

There is one further subject that we always see, he says: those who are entirely systematic bookish tantriks, who go by each letter of the book according to tantra, according to them. What has been said of shruti and smriti — the subject of tantra, the agam-ukta subject, is a subject of shruti and smriti: of hearing, and of giving in one's own parampara. The written came afterwards, did it not. So there are thousands of things that are not in writing, and even those that are in writing are preserved within one's own parampara. If some one reference from among them was written down by someone and someone published it, then, as we see with many on YouTube, people say: this is described nowhere; from which tantra grantha is it, where is it from, it has no basis, it is a worthless thing. And such people take themselves to be supreme tantriks. It has become the extremity of self-infatuation with such people.

Such people, he says, will pronounce upon each thing in such a way — as, for instance, there is now the rajaswala subject. You will find many videos on YouTube in which people take themselves to be tremendous, supreme, siddha tantriks; and just by this it becomes clear what level their mentality is at, and how much siddhi they will have. We petty people are nothing before them, he says, and we are petty in any case; by Bhagavati's grace we attempt to give such correct guidance as is possible, so that people do it rightly and get the fruit. But such people as these will sink the boat even of a person who was walking with discipline. What do they do? One thing is that they say there is a written principle regarding the rajaswala nowhere. In many places, he says, people have given the proof that it is written: in the Parashar Sutra and the rest of Parashar Muni ji, the father of Vyas Muni, there is a complete description that when a woman is rajaswala, at that time she will not do pujan and path. But people say straight out that it is written nowhere. That is a thing of people's minds — since a woman is the very form of Bhagavati Kamakhya, since a woman is Kamakhya herself, then why should she not do pujan? So they tell her to touch the vigraha as well, tell her to touch the Saptashati as well, and tell her to sit in the puja place and read as well, saying that formerly people could not remain hygienic — meaning that now people are remaining hygienic and at that time people could not. An astonishing subject, he says.

Now the woman who sits in the rajaswala state — whichever saint, siddha or mahatma may be speaking on this subject, brother, it makes no difference to him in what manner your destruction will come about, he says. When you perform path while rajaswala, then the affliction that will come to all the pitrs, the affliction that will come to the lok-dev shaktis; and since you yourself are of the form of agni, and there are also shaktis of the form of vayu there and shaktis of the jal tattvas — the affliction that will come to all of them on account of your touch, the dosha that attaches from it, that you have to bear, your descendants have to bear, your sons and grandsons have to bear. Then these sufferers begin to shout — look at the comments in videos everywhere: we have committed no offence to this day, so why are we suffering, what affliction is this, these are useless things. It is these very people, he says; the births of just such people are those who shout that they have committed no offence at all — these are the offspring of those who do path in the rajaswala state and do not accept the matter. And those who have said she may do path while rajaswala, what difference does it make to them? Nothing at all is going to be lost to them.

Just in the same way, he says, there are some people who have made up an altogether separate state for the rajaswala: that if you are rajaswala, there will be no puja in your house at all. They are creating a state at this level. That is, either stay on this side or stay on that side; do not stay in the root subject. Now his saying is this: the rajaswala is some one mother of that house, some one sister has become so — let it be, that is one person, one woman. Their husband has not become rajaswala, brother. Why should he give up pujan and path — the whole family shutting down all pujan and path, as if Sutak has attached? This is a separate state that is running: if some woman has become rajaswala, all puja and path in the house is stopped.

By that reckoning, he says, if in that house a mother-in-law and two or four daughters-in-law come to be, then Bhagavan should be given leave from there forever — go, Bhagavan, go to your own place and protect us from there, as we say at visarjan: protect us from there, and we shall remember you by japa of your name in our mind, from the heart. Japa naam, japa naam. Because where there are four or five women, a rajaswala will keep occurring every week, so where will the puja come from? So we do japa naam, japa naam — enjoy yourself, Bhagavan, you too. The matter simply ends. The rules he gives: let there be no touch from those who are rajaswala; do your seva-puja without eating grain from her hand, and if you are eating it, then having bathed and become pure and put on clean clothes. After bathing and the rest, let no object of the puja place be touched by her; do not use the water, flowers and so on given by her. If she is cooking the food, then take the naivedya before Bhagavan and offer it from a distance rather than handing it to him. And if you know how to show the mudra — the matsya mudra and the vidhi of amritikaran — and if you know the full vidhi vidhan of pranayama, then the remedy of that dosha comes about as well. He says he speaks of the Shakta; of the Vaishnava and the rest he will not speak — there is a great deal of disturbance there, brother; whatever they will do, they have their own separate system. But these are the works meant for the upasana of Bhagavati.

The question, he reads: during sadhana a small child called once, and today a girl called — what does this mean, what should I understand, guru ji? Do not take it to mean anything, he answers. Ignore it and stay engaged in your sadhana. Whoever has to come before you will come; a great many things happen. They may be surrounding vayaviya things, they may be things of the house. It can be auspicious and it can also be inauspicious; this cannot be said just so. But all right — if it is happening, then simply be glad that it is making a difference to someone.

Whether bhoot and pret come, whether devi and devata come, whether your experience is good or bad — if it has begun to happen, then understand that your sadhana has somewhere or other interfered in paralaukik activities, that you matter, that you are in their sight; that is why this is happening with you. So be free of anxiety. Enjoy it, do not be frightened by it, do not fear, do not run — and ignore anything else. But what does ignore mean? Ignore does not mean that you pay no attention. You will pay attention, but you will not react; you are to stay entirely neutral. One should never react to an experience — that oh, such a thing happened, so now let us tell ten people; or oh, it did not happen today. Nothing is to be done. Observe quietly. This observation itself will take you forward. If you reacted, said something, asked something, called out — then anything at all can happen there.

The question, he reads: what is the remedy for seeing in a dream the death of one's father and one's mother without sindoor? If such a matter has occurred in a dream, then the first task one should do, he says, is to have your tula daan of the mother and father performed as soon as possible. Of the father in particular, have the tula daan performed.

And do an anushthan of the Mahamrityunjay kavach, or of the Hanuman Chalisa, or of the kavach of whoever is your aradhya, for the sake of your father, he says. Or have it done: if some capable learned person of that kind is found, then have even a laghu anushthan of Mahamrityunjay performed — but have it performed. Or have a Rudrabhishek done, so that the alpayu dosha and the rest are destroyed. To another question, from someone who has had an operation of the waist, he answers: do it sitting, by all means; there is no difficulty at all, as much as is ordinary.

Which jaiphal is to be given in bali, he reads. The jaiphal that is without its shell, he says — the one that is like a large supari. You are speaking of harad; rather than giving bali of harad, give bali of jaiphal. Remove the shell on top — do not smash it. A gentleman had sent a video, he says, saying: brother, the jaiphal was for giving bali, but it was not cutting. He filed at it slowly and it would not cut by that, because it was still with its shell — so he took a lodha and pounded it, saying, is this too not bali, the Devi will accept it. And we said, jai ho bhagat ji. Arre — first break the shell on top of it, and the jaiphal will come out.

Now it is not necessary that the jaiphal will cut only if you soak it in water, he says. If you have a sharp knife, set it upon it, press hard with the hand and strike in a single stroke, and it will come into two pieces. Bali can in any case be given by making a trikon and such a mandala. And otherwise, by kindling agni and burning it, bali can be given that way too — agni bali remains the most divine and the most astonishing of all. Everything is dear to Bhagavati, he says, keep that in mind. Such sayings as you receive — that tarpan is dear to Ganpati ji, abhishek to Shiva ji, stuti to Vishnu ji, and archan to Bhagavati — all right, Bhagavati is fond of archana; but keep in mind that abhishek too is exceedingly dear to Jagadamba.

Do abhishek of Jagadamba, he says. The more shringar you do, the more she will adorn your life. Because when you read the Shri Devi Bhagavat Mahapuran, or the Devi Bhagavat, you will find described in it what fruit belongs to each thing that is done in the service of Jagadamba — whether it be the shringar of flowers, or offering her materials of shringar, or the offering of flowers, or the offering of cloth. The more shringar you do, the more divine the fruit, and the more your afflictions and troubles will be cut. So abhishek too has its importance, and shringar has its importance. Do archan — Jagadamba will be exceedingly pleased by that too. Whether you do archan with her twenty-seven or twenty-eight names, with thirty-two names, with a hundred and eight names, or with a thousand and eight names: archana is exceedingly dear to Jagadamba.

Stuti too is dear to her, he says. Do as much of the Shri Durga Saptashati and the Shri Chandi path as you can: the Saptashati is Jagadamba's very heart, and the greatest matter of Mai's pleasure is from the Saptashati itself. Now you will find many great tantriks saying on YouTube that in the beginning we used to do the Saptashati and later we left it, then we did this and did that, this happened and that happened, we accomplished tantric siddhi, then the shamshaan — brother, that may be their own personal matter. Those who are ordinary householder sadhaks should take hold of the Saptashati ji and go on; do it in Hindi itself. Pray to her: Bhagavati, make us worthy of path in Sanskrit. Or make exactly this your sankalp and do the path, if you are a real devotee — that Mother, give us the capacity that we may learn pure pronunciation, and that a worthy diksha in the Shakta parampara may come to us as soon as possible, so that we may obtain the right to it and please you by it; do you yourself give us diksha. Then Mai will certainly make arrangements very soon. Make just this sankalp and do the path in Hindi.

Keep the bhaav in the mind, he says, and Mother will certainly hear, and she will fulfil it as well. So stuti too is dear to her. Ahuti by navagraha samidha, by the wood of bel, upon the kande and uple of cow dung, with ghee, or with guggal and ghee, is most specially dear to Jagadamba. As for ahuti by jaiphal and the like — see, it is a tantrokta vidhi vidhan, and havan of jaiphal and such should not generally be done very much without adesh. But this is exceedingly dear to Jagadamba: the ahuti falls in the fire and Bhagavati Swaha is exceedingly pleased.

So whatever karma you are doing in Navratri, all these karmas are dear to Jagadamba, he says, and one who keeps the Navratra vrat and performs all these anushthans becomes an exclusively dear one of Bhagavati. On the one hand Bhagavati says — Mother says in the Gita — that no one is dear or undear to me. But know here that the very same one says in the Srimad Bhagavat that one who in this manner performs my puja and anushthan, shringar, stuti, havan and the rest, becomes my ananya priya.