A Fifteen-Day Havan at the Threshold — The Kul Shakti Prayog for Dev Shraap and Pitr Shraap

The speaker says this prayog is for obtaining the grace of the adhishtatri shakti of one's own kula, and that it is fully a havanatmak prayog: the whole of it is done through the Havan fire. He says every person should do it who is somewhere afflicted by the shraap of the kul shakti, afflicted by the shraap of the pitr shakti, or upon whom some kind of dev danda is falling. He spells out what brings this on. Some mistake may have been made in puja-path. At some temple an offence may have been committed knowingly or unknowingly. A Shri Vigreh may have been broken. Some object of a temple may have been broken. Or in confusion a person may at some time have committed some kind of theft in a temple. By such acts, he says, the shraap of the deva attaches, the shraap of the devatas, and the shaktis of the kula become completely displeased. He adds that he is placing a very simple method before listeners so that everyone who wants to move ahead on the path of sadhana may benefit.

The speaker describes the condition that a dev shraap and a pitr shraap produce. The mind, he says, becomes so disturbed and confused that with every fit means available to you, you can still do nothing. You may have property worth crores, yet you will not be able to sit and eat properly. A car worth twenty lakh may stand in front of your house, yet the capacity to put petrol in it and move it will not be in you. This state, he says, arises from a dev shraap, from a pitr shraap, from the devas and the pitrs and the shaktis of the kula being displeased. He says the rite is for exactly that time: when you feel that you are trying to do a great deal and want to, but are so confused that you cannot make out what to do. You keep asking someone again and again: what is my trouble, tell me, what is the root cause of my difficulty. And he says you will not get the answer, and if you do get it you will not accept it, and no one will be able to make you understand what it is. This confusion, he says, is the sign that it is dev dosha. Whether it comes through a vaicharik state, or because you have in some way insulted the devatas and that has produced this vaicharik state in you, he says you will still arrive at this same condition.

The speaker says that first of all there will be two possibilities before a person. Either he knows about his kuldevi, who she is, or he does not know at all who the shakti of his kula is. In both conditions, he says, the prayog is to be done in the same way. He says the prayog is not only for the kuldevi. It is also for whichever protector devas of the kula there are, those who stand in the pad of Bhairav. He asks listeners to take this as one hundred percent certain: whether it is in their knowledge or not, with the kuldevi there are kul Bhairav, protecting devas. Whatever the pad may be, he says, a Veer, a Mahavir, in the form of Hanuman ji or in the form of Bhairav ji. Bhairav, he explains, is a pad that a protective deva obtains. It may have been some earlier siddha of the kula who received that pad by the Devi's grace, but such a protector exists. Over time, he says, people forget, or the knowledge is simply not there because no one passed it on.

When is the prayog begun? The speaker says it may at any time be started on the day of Purnima and done until the day of Amavasya, that is fifteen days. Or it may be done in a Navratri, in any Navratri, from the first day up to the Dashami tithi. At what hour? At sunrise in the morning, he says, or at sunset in the evening. But if you do it at sunset, he says, take it as certain that you must then not eat salt and the like that day. So it is better to do it in the morning. If you are doing it as Navratri upasana, then in Navratri you can also do it in the evening. On the length he says the work should be done for at least twenty-seven days; if you do it for twenty-seven days, that is extremely good. Otherwise, as he has said, Purnima to Amavasya at the least, fifteen days, or Navratri Pratipada to Dashami, in the morning. He also gives the daily time as ten to fifteen minutes, not more.

The speaker goes through what the prayog needs. First, a large earthen vessel in which the havan can be done. If you have a havan kund that will do, but it must be of copper, not of aluminium or iron. A vedi cannot be made for this, he says, so a kund is required: either an earthen kund or a copper one, of medium size, neither very small nor very large. Second, wheat flour. Either bring wheat yourself, wash it and have it ground, or bring flour from a place where pure wheat for puja-path is sold. For what he here calls an eleven-day prayog he says to keep at least two and a half to three kilos of wheat. Third, good gud from a puja shop where salt and the like are not sold, so that there is no dosha in the gud. And ghee. These three, he says, are the samagri. Two lamps are used, both chaumukh, and new lamps every day: if you do Purnima to Amavasya, thirty lamps will be used, and for ten days of Navratri about twenty. Bring both mustard oil and sesame oil and keep them. The wicks are to be made of kalava; make them in advance for the chaumukh lamps. Also bring the orange Mahabiri sindoor, which in many places is called bakhra sindoor, the orange one: the genuine, good-quality sindoor. Later in the talk he adds a little black TilSesame, black til in particular, central to pitr karma and to many ahutis. to the rot, cow-dung upale or mango wood for the fire, GangajalWater from the Ganges, used to purify and re-consecrate ritual items exposed to impurity., three or four kush and a mango leaf, AkshatUnbroken raw rice grains, held in hand along with water and flowers while taking a Sankalpa. or flowers under the lamps, and, if possible, a small silver lamp with a red mauli wick for the last day.

The speaker says this prayog can be done by the eldest son of the house, or the one who is the head of the house can do it. In a special situation, he says, the daughter of the house can also do it, and the daughter-in-law can also do it. But he asks that one try to have the son of the house do it, the eldest son, or any son at all, because then it is much better. He repeats that in a special situation the daughter and the daughter-in-law may do it, and asks listeners to keep in mind who is to be given priority.

The speaker takes the first day as Purnima, or Navratri Pratipada. First, he says, clean the house well a day before, and there must be a firm sankalp in a completely pure mind. However great the trouble, false court cases, great bodily suffering, it is a ten to fifteen minute prayog, and even in great suffering it is to be done, whether the kuldevi is known or not. It is done at the main door of the house. If you live in a rented house, he says, then at whatever main door your rent covers, where your boundary begins. First wipe the whole door properly with a cloth soaked in Gangajal; even if it was washed earlier, wipe it again at the time of puja. Bring three or four kush, available at a puja shop, and a mango leaf. Cut off the front part of the leaf and tie at least three kush to its back part. Dip that leaf in Gangajal and hang it exactly in the middle of the main door. After hanging it, make a tika on it with the orange Mahabiri sindoor mixed with ghee. Then make a tika in five places on the chaukhat of the main door in the kuldevi's name. The chaukhat, he says, is the most important thing; where the kuldevi dwells he has told in earlier videos. Then, with your face towards the outside of the house, that is as you would be when stepping out, light a chaumukh lamp of mustard oil on your right side and a chaumukh lamp of sesame oil on your left side of the chaukhat. Put a little akshat or flowers under each lamp; a lamp is not placed bare, it is given an asana. The mustard-oil lamp on the right burns in the name of Bhairav ji, the protector Bhairav of your kula, and the lamp on the left burns in the name of the kuldevi. He repeats that the facing is outward, as if leaving the house, and asks listeners to hear this again carefully.

After the lamps, the speaker says, you kindle fire in the earthen vessel or havan kund you have kept, with cow-dung upale or with mango wood. But before that, after bathing, something has to be made. Take the wheat flour you brought, the gud and the ghee, mix the three, and add a little black til, only a little. Knead enough dough that one good rot comes of it, and make a good rot cooked in ghee. Then break the rot, crumble it, and from the crumbs make small round pieces like laddus for the ahutis. Twenty-seven ahutis are to be offered, so twenty-seven separate pieces are made. Besides those, three more pieces are needed, kept separately: thirty pieces in all. He adds that they need not be round; you can just break the rot and keep thirty pieces aside. Light the fire. Your face stays towards the outside of the house. It is to be done quickly, not drawn out, and the mantras are said in the mind. The first ahuti is in the name of Ganpati ji: take a piece in the hand and put it in the fire. The second is in the name of the kul guru, the guru of the kula wherever he may be, wherever the lineage runs. He gives the order rule: if you know your kul guru, the first ahuti is to the kul guru and the second to Ganpati ji; if you do not know him, the first is to Ganpati ji and the second to the kul guru. The third ahuti is in the name of Hanuman ji. Those are the three. The remaining twenty-seven, if you know your kuldevi's name, go in her name with namah added after it. If the kuldevi's name is Bhavani or Durga, there is no need to add Om: say Durgaya namah and offer. You may say swaha, there is no problem. If you do not know her name, say kuldibbe namah and keep offering, kuldibbe namah swaha. Namah must be added, he insists. The havan convention that when swaha is used namah is not, he says, will not run here; do it only in the way he is telling. When the thirtieth ahuti has been offered, take water in the hand, circle it three times round the kund and pour it there, and let the fire burn as long as it burns. When it has turned to ash, remove it, and keep collecting that ash in one place.

The speaker says one more thing is to be kept in mind for the end of the prayog. When you give the final ahuti, if it is possible for you, if you can, buy a small silver lamp, even a small one will do. Make a wick for it from the red mauli thread, put ghee in it, and after giving the last ahuti light that lamp from the same fire. Carry it to your puja sthan and place it there in the name of the kuldevi. Up to the last day, he says, you have only to keep doing this daily work continuously; nothing more.

The speaker says that if you do this much, your kuldevi will one hundred percent, within this span, give darshan through a dream, by one means or another in a dream. You will certainly get this much guidance: that yes, the Devi is there. Whether she is pleased or not, that too you will come to understand. And guidance for the way ahead will also be received. If this does not happen from one round of the prayog, he says, wait fifteen days and then do it again from Purnima. Do not accept defeat after one time, saying it is over, it did not work. Your prarabdha may be such; if you committed great mistakes, great offences, then the punishment too will be of that kind. There are many offences, he says, that people do not speak of. So do it again and again. Not much expense is coming in this, he says, and not much of yours is going, but a great deal will be gained.

The speaker raises a question he expects from people: if an abhicharik prayog is going on, if some tantra-mantra prayog or this-or-that thing is in the house, how will we do this? There would be a problem, the shaktis would be taken by someone else, the bhog would be taken by someone else. Be at ease, he answers. No one has the standing to take away a puja done at the chaukhat so easily. Where you offer in the kuldevi's name, it is the ansh shakti of Bhagavati Parvati herself who will receive it. The fruit may not reach you because of your own karma, that is a separate matter; but your puja there cannot go wrong. Puja at the chaukhat, and puja at the chauk, that is at the chauraha, goes only to the right thing, he says; a wrong thing cannot take it quickly. So he tells listeners to do this prayog free of worry, and says extremely great benefit will come from doing it.