A Hindu Worshipping Pir-Fakir at Home — the Speaker's Doctrine on Who Deserves Pranam, Muslim Sabar Mantras, and Cleansing the Home Shrine

The speaker begins with a question a sadhak friend had sent. When we travel we see many temples along the way and bow to them; but should the pir-paigambar mazars that also appear on the road be bowed to or not? The sadhak's own experience was that an accident happened in his family, and someone told him it happened because he had not bowed to the mazars he passed — had not offered dua-salaam, had not said assalam walekum. The speaker says this problem comes before everyone, because while travelling one comes across a much-worshipped MazarAn unscriptural grave shrine — worshipping such sites, especially on Thursday (Lord Dattatreya's sacred day), is contrary to Sanatana Dharma and can feed low astral and ghostly energies. where people are offering chadars — and more Hindus than Muslims are worshipping there. Such a place becomes a centre of faith, and seeing others one's own faith wavers: if they believe and we do not, will something go wrong for us? His answer, argued through the talk, is no. Closing, he asks listeners to move forward with complete faith in their ishta, in the devi-devatas belonging to Sanatan culture, and to bow there: it is there that one should feel apradh-bodh, a sense of guilt — that we failed to bow to Hanuman ji. Bow from the mind, he says: if you are riding a Hero Honda there is no need to let go of both handlebars for a direct pranam; just pass by taking Bhagwan's name in your mind. As for all these other places, there is no need to give them respect in any way. Nor does not giving respect mean they are to be insulted — remain neutral at all these places; when you can do nothing else, at least remain neutral. Bow to those who are worthy; those who are unworthy, who are against your culture, never need to be given respect.

The speaker sets the question as: according to Hindu dharma, Sanatana DharmaThe 'eternal law' — the traditional name for the Vedic-Puranic-Tantric religious and philosophical tradition now commonly called Hinduism., and our culture, whom should one bow to, who is worthy of pranam, and whom does it become a dosha not to bow to — for an ordinary person as well as for a sadhak? If you are a sadhak, he says, you believe in shakti — in some mass of energy. And a mass of energy is of two kinds: positive and negative. Where is that mass of energy established? In the saakar form of our aradhya, in their shri vigraha, which is available among us through their conduct, their behaviour and the leelas they performed — and it is because of these that we bow to them. So the vigraha worthy of pranam, the shakti worthy of pranam, is only that through whom the welfare of our world has come about and through whom our Sanatan culture has been uplifted. He asks the listener to consider: we bow to Bhagwan Shri Ram, Bhagwan Shri Krishna, Bhagavati Jagdamba, Mahadev — and also to the temples built for their bhakts. There are many lok-veers, folk-famed veers, whose sthans exist. In different regions there are kshetriya devatas who at some time were bhakts of Mahadev — human beings — but through bhakti obtained such shakti, such siddhi, that after death their place became a samadhi sthal; alongside a Mahadev temple their samadhi sthal also stands, where they are regarded as jagrat devs. On some people their sawari even comes; all of this is in practice. To them, he says, one should certainly bow, because through them Sanatan culture in some way arose and was uplifted, faith spread among people and they became devoted to their aradhya. Bhandaras run in their name, people are served in their name, there are hospitals and schemes in their name. So they are worthy of pranam — and what we are really bowing to is their conduct and their thought.

Having said that pranam goes to conduct and thought, the speaker turns it around. If, because of someone, an attempt was made to demolish our Sanatan culture; if, out of someone's tyranny, a sword was held over people by force of arms and they were told to leave their dharma and come into his — is that person worthy, is he to be worshipped? The person who at some time tried to demolish your Sanatan culture; that man, that duratma, who at some time demolished the temples of your aradhya, broke the temple shikhars and had domes of his own religion put up, so that your aradhya had to remain outside for so long — are you unaware of all this? Can such a person be worthy? Can he ever be worthy? Is he to be bowed to? Ask your own atma, he says, and only then bow. If you do bow, you will somewhere be rejected and scorned by the devatas.

You do not even know your own kul shaktis today, the speaker says — you say five generations have passed and nobody knows who the shakti of the kul is. But will your Kul Shakti become separate from you because you do not believe in it? If you do not acknowledge them, will your kul devata cease to be yours? Some people today, he says, worship a Preta or a Brahma Rakshas or some such thing and call it the devata of their kul. That one may have been made two or four generations ago, so it is worshipped and you know of it — but can you deny that the shaktis at the beginning of the kul you come from, some Kuldevi, must have existed, and that they would have been of Sanatan culture? Could it be otherwise? So would it please them, he asks, that the people of their own lineage honour the very pirs and fakirs who inflicted suffering on them? Why go to accept the shaktis of the religion of those who look on you with such contempt, he asks — what purpose, what good thing is in them? Ask your own atma. Have they become greater than Mahadev, than Mahavir Hanuman? His conclusion is absolute: by any means, for any reason, even if your head were to be cut off, let it be cut — but going to the mazars of such people, of such pir-paigambars, and bowing one's head there is never right, however great a saint that person is said to have been, unless you have seen with your own eyes what deeds he actually did.

Coming to the inner matter, the matter of tantra, the speaker says: as for tantriks and sabar mantras, know one fact. Whatever tradition of Sanatan culture it may be — and especially the sadhus of the Nath parampara, who at one time became siddha — people of other religions also became their disciples. It was not the case that if people of another dharma came to them they were refused Diksha or were not taught. This, he says, has in a way been the biggest shortcoming: we embraced everyone, and it was through them that this mixing, this ghaalmel, was done; what came into Sanatan culture through them is not Sanatan — go to the root and you will see. He does not want to take names, because people relate to those names and take the thing positively, whereas he does not regard it as positive at all. So if in a sabar mantra you see the duhai (invocation by oath) of some negative shakti that relates to Muslim power, he will say plainly: do not do that mantra at all — the one in which such a duhai is given, in which these Muslim shaktis are declared great, or in which you are told to walk on their aan-shaan. In our Navnath parampara, in the parampara of our Gurudatt, what is lacking that one should go into all this? Say instead that you do not have the knowledge. Crores upon crores of mantras have been made by our Naths and siddhas; leaving them, you do all these other mantras and use their shaktis — which, he says, will finish your entire root. When you begin using Muslim shaktis and Muslim Sabar Mantras, that shakti — take it, he says, as something that came from the mouth of one who eats what is tainted with the dosha of the cow — is capable of bringing the total destruction of your kul shaktis. Your own devi-devatas will become kunthit (blunted). You will never move forward in life; you will run well for four days; after death you will be fit for nothing, and even while alive you will be fit for nothing. Go along with Sanatan culture, he says, but do not so much as look at such things.

The speaker recalls the principle of energy projection (urja prakshepan) that he says he states again and again. By that principle, these shaktis have, in a way, been set up — charged with negative energy — as the opposite of our divine shaktis. He offers a test of one's own strength: take the tusk of a wild varah, a wild boar, charge it with mantra through Varah tantra, wear it, and go walk into that MazarAn unscriptural grave shrine — worshipping such sites, especially on Thursday (Lord Dattatreya's sacred day), is contrary to Sanatana Dharma and can feed low astral and ghostly energies.. Set it in front of them and they will beat you and chase you away. Why, brother? If those are Sanatani shaktis, if you are using them within Sanatan, then why do they have such loathing for this thing? Why do they run from it? Why do they run from GomutraCow urine, added in a small quantity to a purification vessel alongside Gangajal in remedies for ancestral or ritual impurity.? Our Sanatan is pure. This, he says, is exactly the point where the difficulty begins.

The speaker describes the home situation. Suppose you are a Sanatani and at home you have kept pictures and established a Panchayatana of Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and Bhagavati — and alongside it you have placed a photo of some mulla, maulvi, pir, fakir or mazar. Now, he says, both sides are in difficulty. If you sprinkle GomutraCow urine, added in a small quantity to a purification vessel alongside Gangajal in remedies for ancestral or ritual impurity. there, remember it was you who brought and placed them. In their own place they would be established and honoured, but now you are bringing them in and insulting them — so the Dosha falls on you. Why did you bring them and keep them? And if you have kept them, then you are sidelining your own devi-devatas; that is the plain meaning. If you keep both together and worship them, you cannot sprinkle gomutra on them; if you do sprinkle it, dosha attaches, and its effect on your life is bound to come, whatever else you may do. These two things cannot remain in one place. And if you are serving Bhagwan Varah, serving Bhagavati Varahi, have put on a shukar-dant (boar tusk), or have used these in the bandhan of your house — and in that same place you bring and worship such murtis of mullas, maulvis, pirs and fakirs, pictures of graves and tombs — then, he warns, you are going to have a great deal of trouble.

The speaker asks: the raw milk with which you perform abhishekaA ceremonial bathing of a deity’s image or symbol, usually with water and other prescribed substances. of Mahadev — those who eat the flesh of that same gau mata, how can they become your aradhya? By what reckoning would they be your aradhya, by what reckoning would they work your welfare? When you go deeper into the field of tantra, he says, he is not telling these things openly: they are so vile that if all this is used upon a Sanatani Hindu woman, one cannot imagine to what level these things sink. He may one day explain openly how it all works; for now he withholds it. Stay away from all of it. No Dosha will attach for doing so. Nothing among these things exceeds Mahadev or Bhagavati — they were not even born, he says, as bhakts of Mahadev. Serve only those, respect only those, honour only those, bow only to those who are connected with your Sanatan culture and who did some work, some welfare, for Sanatan dharma in their lives — whoever they may be. Those who conspired for its fall, who worked to change you and plotted against your dharma: if you go and fold your hands there, your own devi-devatas will leave your side. You are inviting your own downfall. So without hesitation, he says, renounce all these things thoroughly.

Having said to renounce these things, the speaker turns to how. If you have given them a place in your home, bid them farewell respectfully. There is to be no insult — no need for it. Why insult? They too are a shakti, after all; in their own place they too are a shakti. Fold your hands and say: brother, you are not for us. Things must be done in the proper way, he says. Do not take a dosha on your head, because you are the one who brought them, so you would be the guilty one too. If you invite someone to your house and then strike him with a shoe, you become the offender. So do not commit the offence of throwing them out the moment you hear this. You will hear this from good sants and sadhus too. Flow them in water in the proper manner, or put them back in their own place; remove all of them properly, on a good day. Then the cleansing. Purify the house: sprinkle GomutraCow urine, added in a small quantity to a purification vessel alongside Gangajal in remedies for ancestral or ritual impurity., GangajalWater from the Ganges, used to purify and re-consecrate ritual items exposed to impurity. and the like, and purify it well. Purify the puja place. Bathe every shri vigraha there is with gangajal, gomutra, panchamritaA five-ingredient offering (commonly milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar) used to bathe an idol before worship. and so on. Sprinkle panchamrit and gangajal well through the house. Do a proper abhishek of all the vigrahas, dress them all in new clothes, and then perform a Havan and so purify the house completely. After that, he says, when you do puja-path it will take effect properly, and positive energies will grow. Otherwise, neither can positive energy form, nor will anything good come from these images — they will simply keep doing you harm.