Some FAQs on Kamakhya and Ambubachi Parva

The speaker opens with the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, where Mahadeva is telling NaradaA celestial sage and recurring listener/questioner figure across Puranic literature. the greatness of the Shakti Peeth of Kamarupa PradeshThe historical region in Assam encompassing the Kamakhya site.. Mahadeva says that the gods together with the GandharvasCelestial musicians and attendants in Vedic and Puranic cosmology., Brahma and the other devatas, all the best gandharvas, rishis and munis, and every Siddha seated on this earth, come every day with their shaktis to Kamarupa and do the daily worship of Jagadamba"Mother of the World" — an epithet of the Devi. Adishakti. Bhagavati, he says, stays in Kamarupa in her complete form and is always present there. In that same region, the speaker continues, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva did tapasya in the Kamakhya area. It is the place where the best of munis, Vashistha, did PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. and obtained the siddhi of his mantra, and became like a second creator. The other devatas, rishis and siddhas, all those who obtained the power to move through the sky, went to Kamarupa and did japa of the mahamantra there, and it was by the effect of that siddhi that they became so powerful. This, he says, is what Mahadeva says on the subject, and it is the reason he is taking up Kamarupa, the tirtha of Jagadamba there and the form in which Bhagavati resides.

The speaker tells the origin of the peeth. When Bhagavan Narayana divided the body of Ma Bhagavati Sati into 108 parts with his Sudarshana ChakraLord Vishnu/Narayana's discus weapon, invoked in scripture as the protector of devotees who observe vows like Ekadashi with strict devotion., the area of Bhagavati's Yoni-mandalaThe fragment of Sati's body — understood as her yoni. came to rest on top of bhasmanchala hill, and there Jagadamba"Mother of the World" — an epithet of the Devi. resides in the form of Kamakhya. It is said, he adds, that this form of Jagadamba was transformed there into a stone, and Jagadamba dwells within it. Mahadeva remained manifest there in the form of Bhasmanchala hill and in the form of Umananda BhairavaShiva’s presence at the Kamakhya site, paired with the Devi as her Bhairav., and he is present at that place even today.

The speaker describes the glory of Jagadamba"Mother of the World" — an epithet of the Devi. at Kamakhya: once a year the pind that is seated there becomes rajaswala. Just as in a woman's body, according to the moon nadi, the monthly period comes once a month and she becomes rajaswala or ritumati, in exactly the same way blood seeps from the stone fragment established there. So awakened, he says, is this Shakti Peeth. It is also held, he says, to be the festival of the earth becoming rajaswala. This is the Ambubachi festival. It comes every year at roughly the same time, between 22 June and 26 June, which falls in the month of Ashadha. Sometimes, he adds, an extremely divine muhurta forms when the Ashadha Gupt Navratri is running and the festival falls in the middle of it; in 2023, he says, the festival period would fall within the Ashadha Gupt Navratri.

The speaker describes what happens at the place during the Ambubachi period. It is said, he reports, that all the principal rishis and siddhas, and all the powerful devatas, rishis and munis who have bodiless divine bodies, present themselves at the court of Bhagavati Kamarupa Kamakhya and stay seated there for these four days, doing her seva, puja and PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. for the siddhi of their mantras. There are also many siddhas who move about in the ordinary world. For the sake of obtaining further mantra-siddhis of the highest order, and also, if some offence has been committed against anyone, for release from it, they come there in this festival period, bathe in the Brahmaputra river and do a four-day purashcharana and anushthan. As for ordinary people, all of us, he says, everyone does go and do purashcharana and anushthan there at this time; that has its own separate greatness. At this time, he says, sadhana in particular is done.

The speaker states a rule of the place. In Kamarupa PradeshThe historical region in Assam encompassing the Kamakhya site., for a ShaktaBelonging to the stream that takes the Goddess as the supreme principle., or for any person who serves Bhagavati, whether woman or man, there is no distinction of varna, no distinction of gender, and so on. He gives the concrete cases. It cannot happen there that some girl is of a lower varna and some sadhak is of a higher varna, and if she gives him prasad he cannot eat it. Likewise in the Kanya Pujan and the matrika pujan that are done there, caste and varna are not looked at. If anyone looks at caste or varna there, he says, that person is struck by the Devi's curse; so it is said, and such a description is also found in the shastras.

Speaking of the Devi image a ShaktaBelonging to the stream that takes the Goddess as the supreme principle. has installed at home, the speaker takes up which form is seated at Kamakhya. The Devi Purana MahabhagavataAn Upapurana of the Shakta tradition; the text this teaching cites for naming Kalika as the resident form., he says, gives exactly this description: among the ten Mahavidyass the principal Mahavidya, Ma Bhagavati Kalika, is the one seated there in the Kamakhya form. In other texts of tantra, he adds, the description is also found that she is the combined form of Ma Bhagavati Kali and Tara; and somewhere the description is of Ma Shodashi. So, he says, one should understand it this way: whichever of the ten Mahavidyas one worships, or whichever form of the Devi one worships, in the Ambubachi festival period one should hold the observance he describes in one's own home for that image.

The speaker says a ShaktaBelonging to the stream that takes the Goddess as the supreme principle. doing sadhana at home should do the following during the Ambubachi period, 22 to 26 June each year, for whichever Devi image is installed in the house. On the first day, the 22nd, Bhagavati is given a bath: bathed with turmeric and kumkum, then bathed with panchamritaA five-ingredient offering (commonly milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar) used to bathe an idol before worship.. After that she should be completely covered with a clean red cotton cloth so that only her face is visible and the rest of the body is well covered. No heavy ornaments should be put on her at that time. Then one does the puja. If a Navratri festival is running at the same time, he says, then on the very first day, after bathing Bhagavati, one puts the red cloth on her so that the image does not have to be disturbed in between. In Navratri the cloth would normally be removed on Navami, but because Ambubachi falls in between, it must also be removed in between, that is, on the 26th. On the 26th the cloth is removed and Jagadamba"Mother of the World" — an epithet of the Devi. is given abhishekaA ceremonial bathing of a deity’s image or symbol, usually with water and other prescribed substances. again. After the abhisheka she is adorned well, and only then ornamented with jewellery. He adds that if there is a sumangali woman in the house and this adornment is done by her hands, that is extremely good. After the panchamrita bath Bhagavati should again be dressed in red cloth, and on that day, if possible, the process of Havan should certainly be done. In this way, he says, a householder or a sadhak should serve Bhagavati wherever they are during Ambubachi.

In the middle of the home vidhan, the speaker adds a point to keep in mind. The adornment of the Devi during these four days of Ambubachi in one's home is not to be photographed or made into a video and put on status, on reels, on anything; nor should it be sent to anyone. His reasoning: you would not send a photo of a woman of your own house at such a time. This is only a bhavana, he says; Bhagavati is all-capable, and each person will think according to whatever intellect he has. But one's own feeling is to be kept like this: even if one does share photos at other times, the photos of the shringar of this period should not be shared or shown to anyone, because of worldly attitudes. She is to be kept hidden, like the kulavadhu of the house.

The speaker says that in these four days of Ambubachi, whatever mantras a sadhak does PurashcharanaA ritualistic repetition of a mantra to prescribed rules — required in Tantra Sadhana. and anushthan of, whatever increased japa and Havan he does, whatever attempt he makes at reciting a Kavach and gaining the siddhi of the kavach, Bhagavati makes all of it amogha, infallible. For all the sadhaks in the whole Kaula Sampradaya community and the ShaktaBelonging to the stream that takes the Goddess as the supreme principle. community, he says, this is the greatest festival period. It is said to carry thousands of times the merit of even Navratri and the like.

The speaker turns to visiting the shrine. If one is married, or if one's guru has ordered one to go to the Kamarupa Kamakhya area, one goes. Going to the area, he says, is not forbidden. What is forbidden is touching the pind in which Bhagavati is present in that form; one should not touch it. In any case, he says, the original darshan is mostly not happening now, and if the original darshan does happen, one should not take it with that bhavana at that time. He says he has already explained all this in a live video; believing it or not is people's own wish. Staying in that area, one can still do tapasya and the rest. He tells listeners to ask the gurus of their Guru Parampara or their Kulguru, and to set aside today's people who call themselves very knowledgeable and say nothing happens. Those who have gurus of a family lineage, he says, forbid it. What those gurus say is this: go, going is not forbidden to the unmarried; but after reaching that region, at the time of darshan of the original peeth and the original pind that is seated there, if you go inside you should not turn your eyes toward it. Look at the feet, or look at the adorning articles, and do not take darshan of the pind itself. Take shikhar darshan, do the puja there, do pradakshina and all the rest; but the mool darshan and puja are for after marriage and so on, or when there is a guru's order and one's avastha has become such that one has risen above all these things. He closes by asking listeners to complete this parva kaal well at home with the family too, and receive Bhagavati's supreme grace.