Cultivating a Heroic Spirit in Sadhana (Dattatreya Tantra Discussion)

The speaker opens by asking whether the listener has ever read the charitra of the deity they worship, in whatever form — and whether anywhere in that deity's leela they have found an act of cowardice. Every dev shakti, he says, has a veer charitra; strength and capability are part of their nature, and a shakti without them is never worshipped at all. Yet many people, after taking up a deity's upasana, drift day by day into a meek, wretched bhaav. Where they should show fierceness and anger, they fall silent, call themselves saints — and he says that is a disgrace to being a Sanatani. The saying "jahi vidhi rakhe Ram, tahi vidhi rahiye" is not for everyone: people quote it only at the moment they ought to roar, and never where their own interest is at stake — there it becomes "why wait for Ram, I'll get it by my own effort". He asks why people become so selective. If you live only for yourself, he says, what kind of Sanatani are you? When your own stomach is full you have the right — and a debt to the whole of prakriti — to think of other Sanatanis too. If you have the intelligence and capacity to lift people who are falling, and instead you run from them saying "what is it to me", then you are not doing sadhana and anushthan correctly; it is all show, it is pakhand, and you are living for yourself alone. Every rishi and every fierce sadhak who ever lived, whoever their ishta, did veer sadhana. He closes the point by saying this capability is not limited to the Bhairav forms. Does Bhagwan Dattatreya not give it? Does Krishna not — is Krishna not a warrior? Do the Vaishnava shaktis not fight wars — is there any greater veer than Narayan? Does Shiva not give it? All of them give it.

The speaker says he has spoken many times about what happens when the mantras of a kavach are made siddh, and that this is his own life's experience, seen with his own eyes: by japa of Bhagwan Kaal Bhairav's mantras, one enters the very tattva of Kaal Bhairav, and ten people together cannot kill such a person. He sets aside what others say — that such things bring great ugrata — and states plainly that it happens, but the mantra's purashcharana must be done by that vidhi, with complete dedication and surrender. Take it as fact, he says: if you do the siddhi of a shakti of the veer category according to their svaroop, complete the purashcharana, and hold that much surrender within you, then their tattva will be present in you in the time of calamity — without fail. And when calamity comes — when someone tries to kill you face to face, when someone tries to loot your sisters and daughters, when any kind of danger arrives — that same tattva awakens fully, ten times more. That, he says, is kundalini jagran. Ten men may stand in front of you, but not one of the ten will leave with his hands and feet intact; you alone will break them. That capability is given by Bhairav — whether you do the sadhana of Batuk Bhairav, of Kaal Bhairav, or of Mahakal, they are the givers of that samarthya.

The process of nyasa, the speaker says, is done for exactly this reason — so that the deity's tattva is present in the sadhak. He has said it many times: nyasa is not something you simply drop, ignore, let go. Yes, in some subjects nyasa is not needed — for beginning-level things, or where one is doing it only for the name, or in certain graha-related matters; there it is fine. But when you are doing the specialised sadhana of a shakti, the nyasa process has very particular importance. What is done in nyasa? In the different kinds of nyasa you seat the deities' different beej mantras in different limbs and different fingers; in your heart, in the shikha, in the kavach — that is, on both shoulders — you seat the deities everywhere; and in the mouth you seat the rishi of that kavach, of that mantra. Why? Because the mantra is the deity's own svaroop, and when you do the nyasa of that mantra you become mantramaya and thereby devamaya yourself. Your body becomes devamaya. No difference of any kind remains between you and your aradhya: you worship the deity as the deity. Only then, he says, do their tattvas become present in your sukshma sharir and your karana sharir, and from that the physical body advances.

What is needed now, the speaker says, is not the cowardice or timidity within you. Do not be bhiru. He is not saying go and fight without reason — but get into the process of becoming shaktivan, open your eyes and see what is happening; you cannot stay safe from it for long. He points out that people can sit with dedication through a four-hour film, but if asked to sit for a quarter of that — an hour, half an hour, fifteen minutes — to do japa of a kavach, they feel they will die. And the troubles they are already anxious about — no money, pitr troubling, devata troubling — are nothing; for the real calamity that is coming they are not prepared at all, and asking Bhagwan to take avatar then will not help, since that time is far off; until then the samarthya to survive has to be within you. Take it as fact, he says: there was a boil of Sanatan in your ancestors' blood, and they surely obtained the kripa of the dev shaktis; it is on that strength that you sit steady today saying Jai Shri Ram and doing bhajan-pujan. Do not let that blood of your ancestors go bad. Do not wait for the day someone raises a sword to cut you and only then say "Ram, protect us" — that bhaav is not for everyone, everywhere. Ram has given you an equal chance. For those of a high order in whom that bhaav toward their aradhya has awakened, the matter is different — but it has not yet awakened in you and me. Someone who reaches that bhaav has no leisure to blame anyone, praise anyone, or think of two rupees; if that bhaav is not in you, then you are wearing a disguise, deceiving yourself — and encouraging others to do the same, turning negative the moment you see someone else doing sadhana with motivation. Remember, he says: a whole life's tapasya is what makes the devatas have to come at the moment of need. So sow the seed in the children now. To girls and children who have gained some awareness, do not teach only the decorated, shringar stotras. Shringar stuti is necessary, absolutely necessary — but alongside it there must be stutis of veer rasa. Teach them Mahishasura-mardini without fail; teach them Aigiri Nandini; teach them Shiv Tandava, Bhairav Tandava, Hanuman Tandava — the tandava of whoever your aradhya is, since a tandava is available for every deity. Teach them the ashtakams.

Some maharaj, the speaker says — he does not know who — has declared that the Kaal Bhairav Ashtak should not be recited daily at all, only in times of adversity. Why? Which time of happiness are you living in, he asks: how much of a crorepati have you become, is there no illness or pain in your body, how much happiness does everyone in the family have? Will you not recite the ashtak? Recite the ashtakams without any worry. He then widens the point. Of all the veer-pradhan shaktis, certainly choose at least one svaroop and do their seva-puja. And take on the svaroop of your own aradhya: if you worship only Bhagwan Krishna, then worship Krishna's veer svaroop as well. Do not lose yourself so completely in the worship of his Bal Mukund form that on the day heroism is needed you cannot remember a single leela of his — which leelas he performed to end how many enemies, how many danavas he slew, and what his samarthya is. Do not forget it.

Not everyone has the intelligence, the speaker says, to see that Saptashati paath does not make fights break out. Fights do not start like that. They start when you do it without intelligence, when you do the paath wrongly. What does Shiv Tandava mean? In it Shiva is doing tandava — so, they say, do not recite Shiv Tandava or there will be tandava in your house. Wonderful, he says. This is the stotra whose phalashruti states that one who recites it at sandhya has Lakshmi stay with him for a long age and obtains wealth, grain, chariots, sampada, everything — and these people, on their own authority, say don't do it or Shiva will come and do tandava in your home. The same with "bhaja bhaja bhutesham prakata Mahesham Bhairav vesham kashta hare": no, no, that is Bhairav tandava, recite it and Bhairav ji will do tandava — when the verse itself says that by your svaroop all our hardships are removed. Use a little of your own intelligence, he says: at least look at what the stuti is saying. How would they wreak tandava in your house? On whom are they going to wreak it? On your hardships and calamities, on your enemies. Do our devatas not have the awareness that this is their bhakt praising them properly, by rule, with right conduct?

When you obtain dev kripa, the speaker says — and through it obtain wealth, the happiness of a spouse, learning, position — and after that you run riot and misuse it: for what did Bhagwan give you that money? You were a lakhpati; your work would have gone on even with ten lakh. But he gave you one crore, two crore, and it lies about uselessly. It was given so that, as his bhakt, he could give you the capacity to ask after ten people — to go and help those who are living out their prarabdha. What did you do? You never once thought of helping. If you are putting in no extra effort at all, why should Bhagwan have given you so much? Think on this too. And if your answer is that it is only your own prarabdha that brought it, then why did Bhagwan perform so much leela, why did he show and say that one should serve the suffering and the poor? He describes the alternative he sees: giving only as graha-nakshatra daan — Shani's Sade Sati is running, so donate seven black blankets — and after that never in life giving anything to any poor person even by mistake. When Shani's tandava comes, blankets get donated; when all is well, who asks about blankets? And those blankets of five hundred rupees each — don't give a good one, let the poor man get a skin infection wearing it and die; what is it to us, we gave.

The speaker asks listeners to keep one more thing in mind about the things in their own lives. For example: many people had followed a video on how to make and establish a Peeth yantra, and had it made by hand by a Hindu goldsmith after checking the nakshatra, and then did its pujan. That is a very big effort of yours, he says. Those things are never to be removed. You are not investing only money in them — a great deal of your japa and tapa is being invested in them; you offer your daily japa-tapa into them. They are the things that will be of use to you in the future. The same for anything of that kind. At the Dattatreya yaag last year a danda went to everyone. That is no ordinary thing: once it has been abhimantrit with mantras of that kind, it is fully capable of protecting the house for a long age. Until we ourselves fall into a calamity, he says, we think no calamity ever came. The truth is that calamities came many times, but we had who-knows-which punya, the effect of who-knows-which japa, so they could not affect us and their ill effect never reached us. The day our punya begins to thin — when we become full of pride that no one can touch us — that is when it starts to come apart. For it never to come apart, stay ever surrendered, free of pride. And whatever tantrokta object you have — one you awakened yourself through an anushthan, or one given through him or through any guru — learn to respect it; you and he are not able to see which calamity it is absorbing into itself.

The speaker repeats a point he had posted for the group: the Bhairav ji mala everyone received after the Kaal Bhairav anushthan has 109 beads. If one bead breaks, no new bead is to be put in; instead, whatever beads remain after the break are strung together and worn. Carry on this way until nine beads have broken — 109 less ten is 99 — and as long as it has not gone below 99, the mala is complete for you. Wear it round the neck without worry, do Mahabhairav mantra japa on it, and use it for the protection of your body; there is no difficulty. And nine beads breaking is not easy: it happens only under a very fierce prayoga, or if the thread has worn through with rubbing. If the thread breaks, restring it, do Mahabhairav japa and wear it again — no problem. If you go into a sutak of death or birth, no matter; have it restrung. If it lay at home, have it restrung. If a woman — mother or sister — is wearing it, rajodarshan attaches no dosh to it; wash it and wear it again. The thread does not have to be changed every time. When a very fierce prayoga is done on you, or a graha's mahadasha or antardasha is due to bring you suffering, the suffering will certainly come — but if one or two beads broke, seventy to eighty percent of that suffering has already been removed there, and only ten or twenty percent of the root remains for you to bear. The leg was to break; instead the toe is sprained and a bead is gone. The hand was to break; instead there is a small cut. A big case is settled in a small one. Any mani or ratna that has been made by proper vidhi, abhimantrit, and awakened through your full anushthan has this capacity to take things on itself. You can bring this about yourself, he says. He keeps repeating: do 11,000 to 40,000 japa of the kavach. Then take whichever mala you judge right for you — it must be genuine; bone malas are being sold these days, so be alert. Have it strung by a Hindu mala-maker at a proper time after checking the nakshatra, say Pushya. Do its praan pratishtha — the vidhi is on the channel. Then recite the mool paath of the kavach you japped once on each bead, 108 times in all. Then see its effect: go anywhere, and no lowly shakti has the standing to touch you unless you commit some aparadh — and even the punishment for an aparadh will come reduced; they will not be able to possess you.

Before playing a sadhak's account of how Bhagavati gave him darshan during his Dattatreya anushthan, the speaker says that if you look closely you will find very similar things across all who receive darshan of this kind — nearly everyone's experience is the same. It is either in the form of a girl, or a young woman, or an old woman — and most of all in the form of an old woman. The young form is a very rare matter. It occurs when a person filled with some very special desire does an anushthan, Bhagavati is greatly pleased with it, and the mind is very pure. It is mostly seen by sadhaks of veer bhaav who desire particular siddhis; otherwise it is either the girl or the old woman. The vriddha svaroop has been held the best of all, because it is the one that completes the later half; it is the full svaroop. Take it as the most fierce form, the complete form, with all shaktis under her control. If she gives darshan in that form, it means you are a sadhak who is somewhere attaining a high state. He adds that listening to such accounts lets many of us correct mistakes we are unknowingly making on the spiritual path — something may click that this was the error keeping us from dev kripa, and our life is set right.

Bhagwan Dattatreya's Jayanti, the speaker says, falls on the 14th that year, and since it is Purnima the night-time anushthan should chiefly be done by everyone on that very day. Those who cannot do it at night — no problem: on the 15th, the next day, they can do the Dattatreya-related anushthan in the daytime.

Answering a listener, the speaker says a Shri Batuk Bhairav vigraha can be installed on the day of Ashtami — that had passed — or on Chaturdashi or Purnima. It may be seated on a singhasan, or on a red or yellow asan; even on a singhasan, certainly place a red or yellow cloth. And first, Batuk Bhairav ji's pratham pujan must certainly be done. Remember this, he says: any vigraha, however full of vidhi it comes to you; any yantra, any mala, however much vidhi it carries; any kavach that comes to you — its first pujan should be done by your own hand. He compares it to a married man's daughter: however much she is adorned, however many lakhs the make-up cost, until you put the bichhiya on her the sanskar is not complete. In just the same way, until you do the pratham pujan of your vigraha, mala or yantra, their full effect and full kripa will not come upon you. For the pratham pujan: place it in a clean, good pujan plate and bathe it at least in cow's milk, then in Gangajal. Then a fragrant attar you can bear — not so strong that it gives you an allergy — or rose water, or agar water (agaru-chandan water); do abhishek with that, show dhoop, deep and kapoor, pray to whoever the kavach, mala or vigraha belongs to, and then wear what is to be worn. A vigraha should be bathed especially well in panchagavya or panchamrit, wiped well, then given a full lepan of chandan and made fragrant with attar; do a fine tilak, put on new cloth, seat it in its place, adorn it with fragrant flowers, offer dhoop, deep and naivedya, do aarti, and do archan with the ashtottara shatanamavali. Only then is the pratham pujan complete. If possible a bali may be offered — a coconut, or a lemon — keeping in mind who you are: if you are a daughter-in-law you will not break the coconut yourself but have your husband break it, and have him cut the lemon; if pregnant, do not cut a coconut or lemon at all unless there is an emergency — though after the fourth month there is no pujan to be done anyway.

To a listener asking about Devi sadhana, the speaker says: certainly do Bhagavati's sadhana. You may take up any svaroop of Bhagavati you wish — only keep this in mind: can that svaroop be worshipped at home or not? The svaroops that people describe as ugra and that are seated in the shamshan — whose dhyana mantra itself names the peeth, that the shamshan is their peeth — none of those can be worshipped directly in a house. So choose the svaroop carefully, and then begin the pujan with archan by the ashtottara shatanamavali. Bhagavati loves archan, he says; do the archan of any svaroop first.

Answering a listener, the speaker draws a line between ordinary mudras and special ones. For a special mudra, if you are using it without a guru having told you to, then somewhere in that the same dosh that belongs to stealing attaches — the dosh of theft applies there as well. For this reason, he says, no vidhi of any kind should be used without the guru's adesh, and mudras and the like especially not.

To a listener asking whether both may be worshipped, the speaker says: absolutely, worship both — bring no doubt of any kind into the mind. Many great people, great souls, say there is no need at all to worship Bhairav ji. Vaishnavas forbid even the worship of Hanuman ji — you will find such videos; the famous saints of ISKCON go so far as to say Hanuman ji is not to be worshipped, and Bhairav ji is a far more distant matter. Keep away from such wicked people who say this, he says. Now consider: Krishna, who is Parameshwar himself — why did he send Bhima, saying go, do tapa for the pleasure of Kaal Bhairav and bring him to the Hastinapur region? Near Hastinapur in Delhi is the sthan of Kilkari Bhairav ji, the Bhairav of the fort — read that katha. If Krishna himself was with the five Pandavas, and appeared the moment Draupadi merely remembered him, then why did he direct Bhima to the upasana, sadhana and siddhi of Bhairav ji? Why did he direct the worship of Hanuman ji, the worship of Bhagwan Shiva, the worship of Bhagavati Baglamukhi — and, in the Shrimad Devi Bhagavat Mahapuran, the worship of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini? If the Pandavas had no need of all these shaktis, he would simply have said, worship me. There was some reason for these shaktis. That is why he always says: philosophy stays in its place — every svaroop of tantra has a philosophy, keep it there — and the sadhana side stays in its own place. Those who mix the two are the ones who make a mess.