Kuldevi Saptami: Worshipping the Family Shakti You May Not Know

The speaker opens by widening the term. Kuldevi does not mean only the Kuldevi: it means every power that is present within the lineage. On some tithi or other in the month of Shravan, a provision has always existed — and a custom has always run — in the house of every person of Sanatana Dharma, for the worship of the powers connected to their Kul Shakti. He identifies who those powers usually are: alongside Mahadeva, it is the Goddess's principal Yoginis who have most often been present in the form of the Kuldevi, and worship is performed through them.

The speaker gives the reason the month itself carries weight. In Shravan, powers of every kind — Mahashakti and Upashakti, deities and sub-deities, and Bhoot, Pret and Pishach alike — all present themselves in the proximity of Bhagavan Shiva and pass their time in his service. He frames it against Mahashivratri: there the service is of a single night, whereas in Shravan the whole month is given to it, and every power's effort is directed that way.

The speaker sets out the reasoning behind a piece of advice the listener will hear from many practitioners: do not perform Griha Bandhan and similar rites during Shravan. He is careful that this is opinion rather than prohibition — it can be done, it is not actually forbidden, but a great many hold that it should not be, and the logic runs like this. Whether you bind an auspicious power or an inauspicious one, whether you are securing protection or not, you are taking hold of some power through some other power. If that power happens to be present there at the time, then in a manner of speaking its own rule is broken. Those who know the subject well put it as keeping the movement of powers to a minimum during this period: any application at all sets powers moving, and their sequence of remaining fixed in one place is broken. Whether a fault is being incurred by this directly is not something he claims to know — he presents it as the experiential matter that elders discuss and pass on.

The speaker gives the alternatives without hedging. Shravan Purnima itself is acceptable, there is no difficulty in it. After Purnima comes the month of Bhadrapada, and Bhadrapada too has a power of its own; that month may be used. He then states the arrangement he prefers as a general rule: when you are accomplishing the Siddhi of a mantra or a Kavach, let the Siddhi be completed within the month of Shravan, and let the applications that follow from it — whether for protection, for Griha Bandhan, or for anything else — be performed in Bhadrapada and thereafter. That, he says, is the proper order. One exception is stated plainly. Where there is an emergency and a genuinely severe difficulty, the question does not arise: in a time of calamity there is no need to stand on propriety, because for a human being the protection of life becomes the more necessary thing. There the matter is different.

The speaker addresses a question he says he is asked constantly: households that report having only a Kuldevi and no Kul Devta, or only a Kul Devta and no Kuldevi. His practical answer is to worship whichever of them you actually know about, as custom has it. But on the underlying reality he is unambiguous: it can never be the case that there is no paired power alongside. He takes the hardest case himself — the households where the worshipped power is a Kumari, an unmarried Shakti, as happens in many homes. Even there, it is not that she has no paired power. There will be some power greater than her; but that greater power may not hold the authority to be present directly and receive your worship, or may simply not manifest in that manner.

The speaker asks the listener to trace their own lineage back. Suppose you have four brothers; your father will have had two, three or five; your grandfather two or four; his father the same again. Follow that outward and the lineage has spread very wide. Seen from the root, the most fundamental Kul Shakti of that whole spread is scarcely worshipped anywhere today. The present arrangement, he says, is such that very few households know who their Kul Shakti was in the first place, who was being worshipped before — and he puts the figure at roughly ninety percent of homes. He notes a stage he says people can verify with their own elders: ask an elder and they will confirm that worship is offered on Saptami, but ask the name of the deity it is offered to and the answer will be that it goes in the name of Baba. Which Baba, they do not know. People no longer know even the name of whose worship is being performed there.

The speaker asks the listener to hear this passage in full rather than leaving halfway and then objecting. The sequence he describes: afflicted by Abhichar and worn down by it, a person gives some power a place in their house. The power's side of it was simple — give me worship and I will do your household good. The place was given. Now it sits alongside the Kul Devta and receives worship too. And this, he says, is the case in the maximum number of homes. One or two generations on, it is known purely as the Kul Shakti; nobody is aware any longer that it arrived through Abhichar, or how any of it happened. He grants that it may well be doing the household good — causing no disturbance, everything running fine. The problem lies elsewhere: after another generation or two you will let go of this one as well. And that is how the original powers, who in former times were worshipped and were tremendous powers in every household, were let go one after another — some Abhichar-borne power becoming the Kuldevi at one point, some Sokha or Ojha attaining a Siddhi and seating a power at another, and so it went on. He names the powers people will actually report worshipping today, as evidence of how far the substitution has run: most will say only Sokha Baba is worshipped in our house; somewhere it is Sokha Baba along with Bandi Mata; Gauraiya Baba is worshipped as well; in some places Thakur Dev; in others Sati Mata. Look honestly at two or three generations back, he says, and see what these powers actually are.

The speaker points out that even in households where genuinely old powers are worshipped — powers running through many generations of the lineage — the method of their worship is not known to the people worshipping them. The matter has been reduced to this: let the worship happen once a year and that is plenty. Nothing beyond that is to be done. He rejects the premise. Daily remembrance and worship — no deity has forbidden that for a Kuldevi or Kul Devta. But a taboo has been constructed, an idea seated in the mind that only this much should happen and no more. He recalls the accompanying warning that listeners will have heard from older people at home: do not perform too much worship, ghosts and spirits attach themselves to those who do; do not do so much worship, go and play; do you want to become a Sokha or an Ojha. His reading is that this is not about worship at all. It is the voice of frustrated minds — people who have become frustrated with their own deities. Study it, he says, and you will find frustrated people asking what their deities ever did for them, saying they were ruined anyway. A child dies in the house and worship is abandoned at once: who will worship, there is no deity worth anything.

The speaker is explicit that he is not speaking about caste and does not want the passage read that way: he is not saying a Brahmin is speaking, or a Kshatriya or a Vaishya. He is speaking of a class defined by knowledge — whoever it may be — who understands society, who knows the deities, who knows the Katha and the Puranas, who knows the Sanatana community, who has the experience to say that if you do this then that follows, and who tries to explain it. That person, he says, is the one who has always received the most abuse. He calls this the great irony, and the cause of the resulting ruin. He adds a related observation he treats as simply true: where one generation has been very wealthy, by the third the counting has turned and ruin sets in however much they hold, and the fourth generation begins the effort again from the start.

The speaker explains the reason behind the three-generation cycle he has just described, and starts from where the listener actually is. You are thoroughly beaten down: afflicted by enemies, afflicted by Tantra, afflicted by debt, unhappy and troubled in every way — and you are keeping yourself motivated by some means and performing the service and worship anyway. He puts his own timeline against it as a measure rather than a claim, and says he does not otherwise make his personal sadhana public because it is a private matter. Twenty-one to twenty-two years is what it took him. Take it that the thing begun in 2002-03 began to give a response only after a considerable time — take that as about ten years. He then states the rule people are actually living inside. If your father or your grandfather, or their father and grandfather, were very good practitioners, then Bhagavati and your Kul Shakti will grant grace and give health, wealth, sons and grandsons, all of it. There is no second opinion about this; they do give. But what happens after the receiving is the problem. Having received, you become carefree — and that carefreeness is precisely what you hand to the coming generation. You give the next generation comfort. You give them freedom from concern. You give them so much ease, because you have become well-off yourself and do not want your child to suffer, that the practice never reaches them at all.

The speaker lists what is actually withheld, in the voice of the parent withholding it: what is the need, we are already getting up at three o'clock and doing the worship, and whose account will our worship go to if not yours — so why trouble him by waking him at three, why tell him about Brahma Muhurta, why teach him Svasti Vachan, why teach him Ganapati's Stotra, why teach him the Sahasranama, why teach him how a Rudrabhishek is performed, why the deities at all. We will do it, baba; you study, you become a Collector. Then the child studies, becomes a Collector, and simply does not know any of it. That, he says, is your lack, and the fault is not to be laid on anyone else. He grants the standard objection in full. Nobody has authority over another soul; that is true. You may be very knowledgeable, you may have a great deal of knowledge, and it is entirely possible that your child will not accept what you say and will not be willing to walk the path you walk. That too may be true. But that you should not even make the attempt — that is your lack. His examples of the attempt are small and specific. A grandfather sitting the child down and saying, sit with me and sing the Ram Stuti. A father or mother sitting with the child and telling him some story of the deity they themselves adore — which does not happen, so the child does not know the name of Hanuman's mother and is watching something else on Cartoon Network instead. That lack of yours, he says, is what the child will have to bear.

The speaker builds the point from the transmission of merit. Since your sinful acts reach your children, your meritorious ones reach them too. So merit is indeed reaching the child: through your austerity, your pilgrimages, everything you ground yourself down for, the child will be healthy, prosperous, full of wealth and grain. But, he says, the child will be devoid of Sanskara. Because you will not actually give Sanskara — you will teach only 'respect your elders', 'show the incense and lamp, do a little, we are doing the rest anyway'. And the reason you give the child that comfort is study: concentrate on your studies, you have plenty of time for all this worship later, do not worry. He is sharp about the token gesture. Very pleased with yourself, you taught the child the Hanuman Chalisa and did him a great favour. Under the weight of that favour the child reads it sometimes and not others, and when he reaches a young age, what will his state be — what education have you given him for how to carry these subjects? His conclusion: the greatest capital you had to give was the capital of your sadhana, and people simply do not give it. They are so ungenerous, so miserly in giving it, that the mala chafes the finger and the back hurts from sitting, and the child is told that instead of reading Sanskrit that long he would learn more from his course books.

The speaker turns from what parents do not teach to what is being taught instead, and names the fashion he objects to: the excellence-branded Gita courses now in circulation, where a strange kind of modernity is taught. That, he says, is an altogether different generation running, an altogether different sort of Gita. His specific complaint is about channels he has watched. He describes one where a woman, fully turned out, recited the entire Kamakhya mantra in a single day, and says his reaction was to ask what this even is. His reading is that such presenters are the product of a factory that never taught them the question that matters: whether the worship of the Sri Chakra is a thing one tells anybody about at all, and in what manner; how a Kamakhya mantra is to be given, if it is to be given; and if it is being said aloud, then how. What frustrates him is the consequence rather than the person. Watching it, he says, frustration rises in him — why are these people doing this. How many households have already been ruined; and inspired by them, many more will be ruined, on the reasoning that if she is doing it, why should we not.

The speaker sets the ranking out plainly. Whichever divine Shakti you have worshipped, and whatever capability has come into you by her grace — know that of the three kinds of Siddhi, the successes of this human life are counted the lowest. A good car, a good house, fine wealth and grain, good sons and grandsons, a life of ease with no debt, no worry of any kind and no depression: this is a Nikrishta Siddhi. He is careful about what the word means. Nikrishta Siddhi means a Siddhi of the lowest level. It is divine grace — but of the lowest level. His point is what happens if you stop there. Having fulfilled the material, you stand in the third dimension: Dharma, Artha, Kama — Dharma is done, Artha is done, Kama is done, desires are being fulfilled, and you are even moving in accordance with Dharma. But you are not in motion towards Moksha. And when your next generation does not carry this forward, he says, it will take you down into the pit — remember that. He attaches it directly to the earlier point: this is what follows if you do not give what you had to give. That is also why, if you do not know about your Kul Shakti, about your Kuldevi and Kul Devta, about their worship and service, and you are deeply frustrated over it, the bequest is your forebears'.

The speaker attributes the loss squarely. If you do not know about your Kul Shakti, about your Kuldevi or Kul Devta, about their worship and service, and you are deeply frustrated on that account — this is your ancestors' bequest. For it, he says, you cannot abuse him or anyone else. Not a discourse-giver, not a Puranic reciter, not a storyteller, not a knower of Tantra — nobody. It is your forebears' mistake that you do not know about your Kuldevi. The lack was theirs; they did not tell you. And from there the duty shifts. It now becomes your responsibility that when you obtain that divine grace through your own capability, and divine capability enters you through it, you take care that it is never lost again. He cites the Shankaracharya of Puri, who he says always states that nobody should abandon the worship of their Kul Shakti and that one should perform sadhana for an hour and a half to two hours daily — adding his own standing minimum, that if nothing else, do ten malas of the Panchakshari Mantra each day, because that capability needs to exist within you for when it is required.

The speaker reaches this through a warning about devotional feeling on its own. Bhava-predominance can turn into Bhava-emptiness very quickly: you listen to someone with great feeling and then do Radha Radha, Krishna Krishna, Shiva Shiva, Ram Ram — you have done it all. But two months later, when life's stick falls on you, when suffering and trouble come, you will not be able to hold for long. Why — because it has been put into your head that merely taking the name is enough and the work will be done. That is exactly where you go weak. Against that he sets study. He says the sessions on the Shiv Mahapuran move slowly on his channel precisely because it is not a matter of only reading through; they discuss it. And in several of those Kathas you will hear this: the spiritual fruit of an act is certainly there, you will certainly receive it in the next world, but in the material world you will have to bear the fruit of your own karma. It is written there explicitly. He does not recall the chapter, but says the subject has come up several times across the uploaded videos. So where a person performs meritorious acts after committing such misdeeds, the merit will certainly bear fruit — but not in the material world. It will fruit in the spiritual world, in the next world; there you will not come to ruin. What you have done here, however, has to be suffered here. The ruin he considers worst is the one built on the opposite expectation — that all suffering of every kind will simply be lifted. Living in that hope, he says, is the greatest ruin of all.

The speaker starts from why awareness of the Kul Shakti is so thin. He says that if Facebook and YouTube did not exist, people would have no awareness of the subject at all even today, and would lie entirely unconcerned — have the worship performed by whoever, they will manage it. He cites a screenshot he had posted to the community from a listener who had studied in a Catholic school and had been so impressed, so thoroughly worked upon, that he wanted to become a Catholic; and who gave his own reason for it, that there was simply nobody to tell him otherwise. The speaker does not accept that there is nobody. He gives two reasons the tellers go quiet: listeners are not found, so the person who would tell steps back; and when opposition begins and no backing arrives, people fall silent. Such people have always existed, he says, otherwise Sanatana would not have survived at all — the shortage is of listeners, and of supporters. His account of what audiences actually want is blunt. Subjects that create confusion are where the largest number of listeners are produced; people enjoy hearing a confusing subject. Discuss a subject that requires labour and they will abuse you four times and run. And of the labouring subjects, the ones that transgress are what people will attend to in full: say that one should perform the sadhana of the Pashupatastra, or of the Brahmastra; explain that the Khadgamala is done thus and produces such a state; explain how Shri Chakra Archan is performed — your live will go viral at once. The cost is what nobody stays for. Never mind that for it you may keep appearing for a hundred years, through a hundred wombs, in the forms of insects and worms, and keep falling into hell — that will be read about whenever, who is going to check; enjoy it now, what does it cost now. Speak of transgression and people will listen.

The speaker states it directly: if you are alive and there is still breath in your body, that vital energy comes from your Kul Shakti. This life is obtained because of the Kul Shakti. His reasoning is that until a Kul Shakti wills it, birth cannot take place within her lineage. She wills it, examining high-order practitioners according to her own capability, seeing that if this soul comes into our lineage it will certainly do our lineage good. He puts the obvious question: which mother or father would want a bad soul to come into the family, to do harm, to become a thief or a bandit? Everyone wants a good soul to be born. So why would a Kul Shakti want anything wrong? The qualification he adds is that the soul does not run according to her wish alone — it is bound by its own prior karma, and whatever motion follows from that will follow.

The speaker draws a parallel between two moments. It is written, and has been discussed several times, that when a person is going to perform the Shraddha rites their ancestors and forebears become greatly pleased. Exactly so at a birth: when a soul is born, the forebears are delighted and beat drums, saying that this soul has taken birth and will perform good acts for our onward motion, will perform Shraddha, will perform Tarpan. The deities, he says, are pleased in the same manner and are never displeased. They are very pleased that a good child has been born into our lineage — that through its good acts we shall be satisfied and contented, it will perform our worship, and satisfied we shall do this lineage good, there will be increase, and our name will stand in the assembly of deities.

The speaker asks the listener to leave the spiritual field aside and consider it generally: if you become very wealthy, very successful, will your Kuldevi and Kul Devta not be discussed? In society, certainly — perhaps not directly, but it will happen. His example is a cricketer who became a world champion. When that happened, which place in Jharkhand and Bihar was talked about most? The sixteen-armed Durga; Bhagavati Deori. Her temple falls in the region around Ranchi. There was a great deal of discussion of her at that time, the temple became quite famous, and its whole aspect has since changed. From which he draws the general point: which lineage's Shakti would not want her own fame, that people should know this lineage has this power, this capability behind it. So a lineage's Shakti never wishes you ill — that too is true. What goes wrong, he says, is the same thing as always: the person becomes ungrateful. Once capability is obtained, once everything is obtained, he abandons it, and it no longer particularly concerns him.

The speaker takes as his example the memes made about one of the country's wealthiest industrialists, whose position nobody has the capacity to reach. The same people who make the memes mock him the most, which he says is perfectly fine — but look, he says, at how that family worships Bhagavan Shri Krishna and Bhagavati Radha, and at the dedication held within that capability and that stature. His explanation of the mockery is simple and general: the greater a person's capacity, the more people will mock them, and those are frustrated people. If your son becomes an IAS officer tomorrow, the neighbour may praise him to his face and mock him thoroughly behind it — he was a womaniser, he was a drunkard, who knows how it happened. If your child gets a government job, the neighbour will say at once that it came by bribe, not by ability, that they sold a field to pay it. If a beautiful daughter-in-law comes into your house, the neighbour will find her arrogant and quarrelsome. All of it, he says, is envy: the injury of knowing that one's own capacity cannot equal theirs, and the attempt to cool the mind by ridicule. Then he notes the turn. Many of those same people will start worshipping Bhagavan Krishna and Bhagavati Radha themselves — if worshipping Radha and Krishna made him this, then perhaps we might become something too. People worship a renunciate Baba for the same reason: so that they too might obtain the Siddhi, so that they too might become capable of the same feats. The worship is not being done for its own sake at all. And he concedes the reasonable half of the impulse. People do learn from it: that here is a successful person, with standing in society, whom we cannot compete with and are not even capable of rivalling — but at the least we can bring into ourselves the same dedication towards the Shakti to whom he is dedicated. That much is legitimate.

The speaker accepts the impulse. Seeing someone doing well, one thinks: let us also worship whom this person worships. Up to there it was fine. The mistake is what follows — removing the Shakti of your own lineage and starting their worship entirely in her place. That, he says, is where you go wrong, and that is precisely how brainwashing happens. His analogy is drawn from the self-help books. Do not do the Rich Dad Poor Dad thing, he says — it reads well in a book and is very good material for people in network marketing, but do not bring it into your life: abandoning the father who gave you birth and beginning to call another man father, one who used to explain how money is to be made. His own view, stated as a view, is that a father is a father and there is only one; there cannot be ten. Others can be father-like — a guru can be father-like, an elder brother can be — but you cannot give them the place of the mother or the place of the father.

The speaker gives a small example from a practitioner of the Vindhya region who has, he says, very good capability in Tantra — and who works with three counted powers, three seed-powers as he puts it, received through the Guru Parampara. And a good Parampara at that: the lineage of Bhairav Ghati, of Bhairav Kund, whose formidable practitioners are now Brahmalin, and whose disciple this man was. Before describing what such a practitioner does, he explains why Katha and Purana have to be read at all — and not only Tantra. You will succeed in a subject only when you know every part of it. In the Kathas we have heard that when capability arrives, positions get changed; the Rakshasas changed the posts. The same pattern is visible here. He describes the effect on an afflicted person who goes to such a man: he is so assured that if the matter really is a Tantric application of some kind, it will take effect that very instant. You will feel entirely fresh; it will seem as though there was nothing there at all, that you are completely fine, whereas until then you had been thinking no such capability exists. His explanation of where it comes from is the point of the passage. One who receives powers from his Guru's Gaddi, who holds the traditional power, obtains such capability without any special effort — that is the Gaddi's capability; say plainly that it is Bhagavati's grace. It is one thing to labour oneself, and another to obtain the power of a Parampara. He grants that Guru Seva is itself labour: it is precisely why service of the Guru is enjoined, and it was your diligence, your respect, your service that the Guru saw before granting it. What concerns him is what happens afterwards. Once the Guru departs, the disciple is more or less freed of the vows — the Guru released him from everything. And from there, as soon as a work succeeds and the next person is impressed, the sequence begins.

The speaker describes a pattern he says he has seen not only in one practitioner but in several. Once the work succeeds and the client is impressed, the next step is: fine, now offer a stream of liquor in the name of this deity of mine near your house. Up to there it was still acceptable. First they have it done for eleven days, then twenty-one. And then, gradually, they have that deity worshipped inside the client's home. He notes that some go further and have their own Brahm installed in other people's houses to be worshipped there, on the promise that it will protect them. His objection is not to the underlying technique, which he says is well known and which he confirms is done. Where the person before you is severely afflicted and under Abhichar, and their protection is needed, you may install one of your accomplished powers at their house for a period — a month and a quarter, two and a half months, six months, a year. After that year it is dismissed, and the term is agreed in advance. In practice, he says, nobody grants so long a term; eleven days or twenty-one is the maximum. It is never installed at their house permanently. Where a power is to be worshipped permanently, it is made explicit: this is the procedure, this is how you must worship it, this is how you must take it, this is what is in your house, its compatibility with these is such — worship it if you wish, if they say so themselves. That is a different matter altogether.

The speaker draws the distinction between a legitimate temporary installation and one obtained by playing a technical game. Where someone manoeuvres to have his own power worshipped in your house, the effect is this: he will tell you to recite the Durga Chalisa, the Durga Stotra Satnam, the Bagalamukhi Stotra Satnam — but behind that, his own things will hollow out your whole household. His formulation is blunt: you will perform it, and he will receive it. He runs on this, and no diminution comes to his capability, because a source of energy has by then been established there for him — for obtaining merit, for obtaining powers, in as many places as it is worshipped. This, he says, is one of the ways people end up going wrong with their own Kul Shakti. His conclusion for the listener is the practical one: if you do know your Kul Shakti and have the information, never let there be any lack in their service and worship. Do not abandon them.

The speaker states this as a plain consequence of the month rather than as a concession. In Shravan the worship of every kind of power takes place — whether it is a Yogini, whether it is a Dakini, or whether some power is seated in your house in the form of a Bhoot or Pret for worship. His position on such a power is unsentimental. Standing in the form of your Kuldevi and Kul Devta, addressed as Baba, they will not remain Bhoot and Pret for you. That is the straightforward matter of it: in the lineage, their worship will happen. He moves from there to the error people make even while performing the worship correctly.

The speaker raises this as an error people make even while performing the worship correctly: do not eat the Prasad of another household's Kuldevi and Kul Devta. If the rule is already known in your house, well and good; if it is not, it should be brought into your knowledge. Why people give it at all is a separate matter, and one he says he does not himself understand — why give it, why does it have to be given. Where a deity's Prasad is to be distributed among eleven people, distribute it to those who need it. And if you are giving grain as Prasad, do not put Laag into it; people knowingly put Laag in and cause trouble, and these things are to be avoided. The remedy he gives has one route only. Gau Mata possesses the capacity to consume and digest every kind of Laag — that capability is in her digestive fire, the Badavagni present in her stomach. So if Prasad of that kind reaches you, it is to her that you should feed it.

The speaker is firm on both halves of this. The Saptami Prasad — whether a milk Khappar is offered or the family worships in some other way — should not be given to anyone; the people of the house should eat it. Where a household rule exists and is known, it is to be observed. If the rule is that the daughters of the house will not take the Prasad and will not touch the Kul Devta — a provision he says is particularly common in the Mithilanchal region — then do not have that rule transgressed. He names the pressure directly: do not let today's preachers cause this mistake, saying God is in everyone and the Goddess is in everyone, so the Prasad is made, you take it too. Do not ruin their life. If the forebears made a rule, they will have made it for some reason, and that rule is not to be disregarded. The same holds where the annual Saptami worship in Shravan carries the rule that only the boys of the house will prepare the Prasad, perform the worship and eat it, and that only they hold the right. Then that is what should happen.

The speaker declines this question deliberately and explains the refusal at length. Where circumstances leave no man of the household present and a woman would have to perform the worship, discuss the alternatives with the elders of your own family — how it is to be done. He says plainly that if you ask him or anyone else, it is possible that a wrong suggestion of his could wreck your life. He cannot even offer the obvious workaround — call a Brahmin and have the worship performed — because worship by an outside hand may simply not be accepted there. Which deities yours are, and how much your elders know about them, whether there is a permitted alternative or none, whether the worship may be deferred to when the elders and the men of the family arrive next month: these are things to be looked at and decided there. He adds why he will not gamble on it. If he says fine, have a neighbour perform it, have a Patidar perform it, and the matter is spoilt — who will suffer it then. It is not that he speaks and walks away; the connection is there, and the reckoning will come, asked why he spoke when he had the knowledge. Take the suggestion from your elders, he says, because the full information about every kind of divine power is properly held by them. He closes by noting with approval what many do manage: a good many people travel to their own home and door in Sawan for the worship of the Kul Shakti, and that is good work. Just do not do the kind of thing that traps you on a wrong suggestion from anybody.

The speaker sets out the mechanics of why this fails, prefacing it with the case of practitioners whose capacity for Shodhan is of a very high order — he names Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham, who writes the whole matter out on a slip and states it fully. Even so, he says, remember always that where you are taking this kind of information about your own Kuldevi and Kul Devta from someone — a near and dear person aside — it is simply not possible that it will come out 100% accurate for everybody. Suppose the power worshipped in your lineage is a Brahm, and suppose it has been worshipped for eight or ten generations — a formidable power. The person you have gone to for a reading holds a power that is capable, but not very old, and not of the standing of the power seated in your house. He interrupts himself to restate a principle he does not want misread: the capability of the powers themselves is equal for everyone. Hanuman is as strong for you as for him; Bhairav's capability is the same for you as for him. What differs is how much grace we obtain through our own japa, austerity and observances — and it is according to that grace that the capability lies within us to know something about someone, or to do some good work through that power. So the ten-generation Brahm in your house has full capability, but you never served them with full capacity. And if you serve them independently, he says, they will not give that capability either — that too is true. Alone, they will grant you only very limited grace, until Shiva's grace is present.

The speaker names the two routes by which a Brahm Shakti is pleased: the great Chandika, who is Bhagavati Ma Durga, and — if one goes into the Bhagatwal usage — Badi Bhavani, which he says means precisely Bhagavati. He applies it to the case in hand. The Brahm worshipped in your lineage for ten generations, fifteen, twenty, very old: you want their grace, and you offer them independently the Satvik worship of Monday — the Khadau, the Janeu, the milk stream, the Khappar, the rice, whatever is offered — and the Amavasya offering. They will grant grace, but it will be very limited grace. You will not find joy in it; you will think this is all there is, and it will remain just that. But if you have completed, say, twenty-five lakh or crores of the Panchakshari Mantra and then perform this whole process for your family's power, their capability for you will be tremendous. He attaches an unusually emphatic caution to this passage: do not be inspired by what he has said and simply go and do it. He is not encouraging anyone; he is giving information only, as his own experience. He does not know who is present in your house or how they are. Take information, and do it only alongside someone qualified.

The speaker takes issue with a classification he says circulates among those discussing Bhagatwal powers, one that produced the claim that Kali and Bhavani are different and that Bhavani is Kali's servant. He sets out what that scheme actually says: an unmarried girl who has died is called Bhavani; a married woman who has died by fire is called Sati; a pregnant woman who has died is called Kalika; and the child in her womb, if a soul had entered it and it became a Masan power, is called Bhairav. On that scheme, he notes, Bhavani does indeed become Kalika's servant, since one is in the form of a daughter and the other in the form of a mother. Against it he gives the meaning he holds to: Bhagavati means, and Badi Bhavani means, Jagadamba seated in full form with complete capability. He adds that the Goddess's high-order Yoginis — particularly those bearing three eyes — are not equal to any local power at all. Their realm is separate from this one and their capability is many crore times greater than that of local powers, though they reside in someone's lineage on earth in a much diminished capacity.

The speaker gives a rule for locating the dominant power of any locality. In every region, the oldest site of Durga worship — an old Durga temple, or a Chandika temple, or a temple of Bhagavati Kali, and particularly one where Bali is offered or where Mahishasura Mardini is worshipped, at least fifty or a hundred years old — is where that place's most formidable power is certainly present. He explains the Yoginis' standing alongside it in terms of liberation: these are powers that have attained the state of Sayujya, or of Sarupya — having obtained the form of their own Ishta and holding that form, so that the pre-eminence is theirs. Even when they remain on the mortal plane, they are bearers of that same power directly. A Shakti who bears capability of that order, he says, is what is called Badi Bhavani. He illustrates the scale of such realms from the Puranas — the description of Shiva's divine Mahamaheshwar Loka in the Shankhachurna Katha, where fifteen gates had to be crossed to reach Bhagavan Shiva, and the gatekeepers standing at those gates were Shiva's own form: five-faced in the Panchanan form, ten-armed, each bearing the third eye, matted hair, the Ganga on the head, the moon.

The speaker returns to the enquiry a second time and now looks at the person being asked rather than at the power. He restates the structural half first. You never served your own family's Brahm with full capacity; you never obtained, through the worship of Shiva and Bhagavati Chandika, the capability that would make that Brahm grant you full grace — and you want to accomplish the Brahm independently, a power of ten, fifteen, twenty generations. Now the man you have gone to may himself be worshipping a power a hundred years old, and he is being asked to go to your house and bring information about a family Brahm of that standing. Do you think he will tell you 100%? He will not be able to. He will not give the information at all; he does not have the capability for it either. Then the half that is about character. Yes, if he wishes your welfare, and is worthy, and knows the power well enough to speak of it — if the matter is between equals, if he is humble — he will tell you. But the full information as it is actually obtained, he will not give; he will evade. He will give information that is half-complete or wrong. And for that, the speaker says, you cannot blame him: you took your information from the wrong place, or should not have taken it that way at all. One case he treats as reliable. Where a person is simply doing a great deal of worship of Shiva, of Hanuman, of Radha-Krishna, with devotional feeling, and alongside it wants to know what kind of powers these are and how they may be pleased — there the deities have already been influenced by his good qualities and are already pleased, even though he feels they are not. Then go to someone who has the capability, however lowly the power he himself worships, because these deities want their lineage's welfare: at that moment the man will show it completely and clearly, the answer will be given, and your road will open. The risk attached is the last thing he names. If the man mishandles it, he will suffer for it himself — but he can also spoil you after taking the information, because envy operates there as well; envy, he says, is packed into every house and between all people. Once the full information is obtained and it emerges that so formidable a power is present in this house, greed arises at once: how can this be got renounced and taken. He notes he has made videos on exactly this.

The speaker works the case through with himself as the offender, using a named acquaintance whose Kuldevi is Bhagavati Renuka as the example, and stating that this is an illustration rather than an account of anything done. Suppose he learns that a formidable power is present in that household. He has already seated himself through crores of japa of Durga, Kali and Shiva. Suppose he then applies his mantra-strength and Tapo-bala to surround the fractional Yogini powers present in that house and annex them to his own. They may well come, he says, out of regard for his mantra-strength and austerity. But where will they fold their hands? Directly before Renuka — mother of Bhagavan Parashurama, a great Yogini of the formidable Chandika. And when the reckoning comes from there, who will come to save him. When the Vajra Vairochani moves, who will protect him then. At that point every power he had seized and every power he had earned is confiscated. After that, he says, go and wander, keep having goats cut, keep saying let me go Maiya, let me go. He adds the parallel from the Puranas: the Asuras' work of seizing Indra's station, and who it was that undid it afterwards — not Indra himself, but those Indra went and had it done by. His counsel while such a process is going on is to stay silent, because this is a matter for those whose matter it is; it is not a human being's business. He also notes why the reckoning may be delayed: the offender has merit of his own too. His illustration is that Bhadrakali, who manifested with a thousand arms and fought with them, did not herself slay Shankhachurna, because the boon stood that only Shiva would slay him and Krishna had already said the slaying must be by his own Aradhya — not that there was any capacity to stand before Bhadrakali.

The speaker answers a challenge people write to him with: look at great Chandi Path practitioners, famine falls on their households. His reply is that such causes do form, but you are watching only the visible half. After capability was obtained, what misdeed was committed is what you are not seeing. He describes the mechanism. A person may earn a great deal of merit — many recitations of the Durga Saptashati, worship of his own Kuldevi powers, all of it — and then exploit those same powers to exactly that degree, looting as much as possible in the name of doing people good. One form of misconduct he names directly. After obtaining mantra-capability, after obtaining some power, there is the story that runs in the name of cutting Tantra, where people are told to send a photograph of their navel, and such things. If there genuinely is a difficulty of that kind and you can see it, then look at the men's too — you do not ask the men for theirs, he says; you ask it all of the women. If the cause is forming in that manner it would be forming for everyone. Bhagavati has said it directly: if she stood as a daughter to you, or as a sister, and you did this, then you will certainly suffer for it. He allows the other case fully — if you genuinely hold capability and are genuinely performing such an act to know the matter, then there is no fault at all, the subject is different. But does it actually happen that way, he asks; people should look at a person's words, knowledge and capability, and at what level they are doing that work. Beyond the looting, he identifies the deeper problem: where power arrives, intoxication arrives with it. Power produces agitation; balance departs. You will see many people whose balance is shaken. Capability is obtained, and then the person regards nobody, spoils whatever he wishes — his disciples, his kin, his neighbours; say a word to him and he will apply something to you directly. Nothing stays in balance. And where balance does not remain, it will have to be suffered for.

The speaker gives this as the reason such counsel exists. When you are performing sadhana, or have performed it and now hold a great deal of capability, come into contact as little as possible: come into society as little as possible, let your friendships be few, meet people less. And if you do meet them, hold no attachment. On provocation he is deliberately permissive at the ordinary level and absolute at the other. Someone abuses you — fine. Give them two words back if you like, but never apply your Tapobal to them. Say four things to them; not from the heart, just to vent the frustration, since the capacity to control anger is not there. He will give you four more; make a face and come away, what more will you do with him. What you must not do is sit down with water in your hand and say that by the merit of the eleven Saptashati recitations performed over so many days, I curse you — and take the Sankalp. A curse and a boon are both Sankalp, he says; it is the Tapobal you hold that goes, that is what is spent. By cursing, you are destroying your own capability there.

The speaker reaches this through an account of a case he had offered to help with publicly — a small child harmed abroad — where he had told the family that if the local police could not help, he would take it up through the channel and assist as far as he was able, because it was a matter concerning a child. In the event he judged the person unreliable and did not proceed. But he uses the case to state the exception. If such a misdeed genuinely occurs to someone — a child, or anyone — and you learn it to be true and anger arises in you, then what should you do? Then you should curse. If there is no other path, this path will have to be taken, so that proper punishment is delivered. He gives the form: whether the person will receive the punishment of their own karma or not, if you hold the capability, give that curse. Give it on one recitation, on ten, or take a Sankalp on one lakh of the japa you have done — that by the Sankalp of one lakh of the Durga mantra, may Bhagavati deliver such-and-such punishment to that person as swiftly as possible. The limit is stated in the same breath: if you use these things to harm someone, then your own harm follows afterwards. That, he says, is also how it comes about that a person was a Durga practitioner, that there were Durga practitioners in his lineage, and he is now suffering for it.

The speaker separates the two cases cleanly. For those who know their Kuldevi and Kul Devta and know the tithi on which their worship falls, the matter is very good — use that tithi. For everyone else, the Saptami of Shravan is the day. He notes that in the year of the recording it falls on a Sunday, but generalises it immediately: on the Saptami of the Shukla Paksha of the month of Shravan, in whichever year you are listening to this, perform the worship of your Kul Shakti. He returns to the same point in the closing Q&A: where a household's Kuldevi worship has always been performed on Purnima, that household performs it on Purnima and does an ordinary worship on Saptami. Those who already know their own tithi use it; those who do not, all use Saptami — which is precisely why this Saptami is called Kuldevi Saptami.

The speaker gives the substitute plainly. If you do not know who the deities of your lineage are, who its Goddess is, then perform the worship of Shiva and Gauri. Alongside that, perform the worship of the Shakti Peeth nearest to you, in the name of the Kul Shakti — and make the prayer explicitly: that whoever our Kul Shakti may be, may this worship reach them. He develops this at length with a worked regional example, and returns to it in the Q&A for listeners in several different states.

The speaker treats this as the straightforward part: it is the annual worship, so the offerings follow from that. For the Kuldevi, first of all the sixteen Shringar articles, as far as your means allow — saree, saya, blouse cloth, bangles, sindoor, mehndi, the whole set, good ones. His condition is on quality rather than price: even if you are buying at a low price, buy without compromising on quality. Bring good materials. For the Kul Bhairav, a dhoti and gamcha. Take red, take yellow, take pink, whatever appeals to you — if you do not know what is prescribed, follow that.

The speaker works the substitute procedure through a concrete case: a listener living in the Jharkhand region, near Baba Baijnath Dham in Deoghar, where the Lord is present as a Jyotirlinga. If you do not know your own Kuldevi and Kul Devta, then there the Bhairav is Baba Vaidyanath, and there is the Shakti Peeth of Bhagavati Jay Durga, where the Goddess's heart is held to have fallen. It is for that reason, he says, that the Lord had his own Atmalinga established there through Ravana — his very Atma is established there. So take these as your Kul Shakti and perform the worship. For Bhagavati Jay Durga, arrange cloth of pink, red or yellow, with the matching Shringar — a chunari, bangles, a bindi, all of it lovely. For Shiva, for Baba Vaidyanath, bring yellow cloth and offer it. All of this at home. Kheer and puri, if you can make them, are excellent. Make kheer-puri and lay out the full Naivedya at both places, offer it, and along with it perform Panchbali without fail. He notes what makes that region convenient: the Shakti Peeth and the Jyotirlinga are not even ten paces apart — the Jyotirlinga inside that same courtyard, the Goddess present as the Shakti Peeth inside it too. The two are joined, both seated in one place, so worshipping them obtains the grace of all.

The speaker defines the term and gives its purpose in one movement. Panchbali means the donation of grain to five kinds of living creature. Through them the ancestors of the lineage will also be satisfied, and the deities will be satisfied. The five he names: give to the ants, give to the cow, give to the crow, give to the dog, and give to some person — feed someone who is hungry. He treats it as the most ordinary part of the Saptami observance, and it appears in his instructions at every level of means.

The speaker gives the Havan for the case where the family deity is unknown: it is offered to these same substitutes — Bhavani Shankar, and the nearest Shakti Peeth. The form for the Deoghar example is 'Shri Vaidyanathaya Swaha', with 108 oblations. If you wear the Yajnopavita, perform it with the Pranava. If you are a woman and there is no man to perform it, use the Devi Pranava instead: 'Hreem Vaidyanathaya Swaha', 'Hreem Jay Durgaya Swaha' — 108 oblations to each of the two. He gives the ingredient split by gender, the same convention he uses elsewhere: women will keep more guggul and less ghee, men more ghee and less guggul, mixing sesame; women too will mix sesame and offer in that manner. He also states what this substitute worship is expected to lead to, and how long it takes. Keep this rule permanently, and let the remembrance of these two always be there. As you increase your capacity in sadhana — five lakh of the Panchakshari Mantra, ten lakh, increasing steadily — darshan begins in dreams, intimations begin, information about the Kuldevi's form starts to arrive; you take Sankalp after Sankalp, you pray, tell us who you are. Done properly, he says, it takes three years — and because nobody does three years, it does not happen for them either. Where the Havan is performed as well, the capacity increases so much that she may grace you with the distinction of her form and tell you to worship the Kuldevi in this form. And if she does not show it, the worship, Tarpan and Havan of these great powers keeps your family's Shakti satisfied through them regardless — so perform their worship without fail.

The speaker names the prohibition first: mango wood is not to be used for this. He repeats it later in the session — whatever you keep, do not keep mango wood. What to use instead: the Navagraha woods, Bel wood, and Sal wood, which he notes is fragrant and burns very well. Offer the oblations over these, and use cow-dung cakes. Where he states a preference, Bel wood is best for the Samidha. Purnahuti is performed afterwards, and with that the Saptami worship is complete.

The speaker singles this out as the most effective part of the whole procedure. After the opening oblations, whoever your Kuldevi may be, offer with the Tantrokta Devi Suktam: she will be greatly satisfied. And if you mix ghee into the kheer — cow ghee mixed in and offered as oblation — the Kul Shakti becomes so pleased with you, he says, that she returns her full affection. His reason is that two divine powers are being satisfied at once: the Tantrokta Devi Suktam is formidable in itself, and on top of that you are mixing cow ghee into kheer and performing the Havan with it. Men and women alike may do this; anyone who wishes may offer all the oblations with cow-ghee-mixed kheer. He adds the fallback for those who cannot use the Devi Suktam: do not do it, there is no difficulty — if you do not know it, do not attempt it. Use the 108 names instead, in the form given above.

The speaker gives this as a general rule with regional cases attached, and is careful to say it is not his own opinion alone — he has heard it from others and from elders, and reports what he has seen. In Jharkhand and Bihar, whenever you perform a Havan, an oblation in the name of Jay Durga should certainly be given. In Uttar Pradesh, an oblation to Bhagavati Vindhyavasini certainly should be. For Ranchi or Jamshedpur, Bhagavati Chhinnamastika — the nearest Siddh Peeth, with Kabandha Bhairav — and after Kamakhya, hers is the most formidable of the Goddess's Peeths; the sixteen-armed Deori may be included alongside. He illustrates the principle with a practitioner from Odisha whose Havan he had watched, who offered with 'Sarva Mangala Mangalye... Jay Durgaya Swaha'. Asked why, since that is not Jay Durga's own Dhyana mantra, the practitioner replied that the region they were in is Bhagavati Jay Durga's region — separate from the Purushottam Kshetra, the region beyond it — and that if the presiding Shakti of the place is not offered to, who exactly is being pleased. He adds the scale to keep it modest: give five oblations to Chhinnamastika, he says — he is not saying give a thousand. Offered with cow ghee and kheer, no fault will attach and the grace comes besides. On Vaidyanath Dham he adds a further note: the most formidable power there is Bhagavati Pitambara Bagalamukhi, called Shiva's Kritya Shakti and granted the authority of Nigraha, whose temple stands directly behind the Jyotirlinga. In one Kalpa her place of manifestation is held to be Vaidyanath Dham Chita Bhumi, and the place is held to be the most formidable for Bagalamukhi sadhana and Siddhi.

The speaker introduces this as a small additional matter, and is careful about its status: it is an application of Tantra, but a gentle one, not a Shatkarma application. It is for those who know their Kuldevi and Kul Devta and have additionally been told that their own Kul Shakti is displeased with them — where famine has fallen on the household, where there is loss of wealth or of children, where there is real suffering. The preparation: make kheer with jaggery rather than sugar, which in UP and Bihar is called Rasiyao. Offer it as Naivedya. Then in a vessel take the jaggery kheer and mix in a little black sesame, a little curd, and a little cow ghee. Keep 108 Bel leaves ready. Kindle the fire with Bel wood as Samidha, or cow-dung cakes. The oblation is offered in the deity's own name — his example is 'Hreem Bhadrakale Divya Swaha' for a household whose Kuldevi is Bhadrakali — taking a Bel leaf, forming the Mrig Mudra, lifting a little of the mixture on the leaf and keeping the hand within the vessel while reciting the mantra. 108 oblations in that manner. His stated result: Bhagavati grants unmatched grace, becomes gentle at once, becomes calm, grants grace and clears the path.

The speaker gives a small procedural detail he treats as mattering. Of the 108 Bel leaves, the stalk should be broken off at the top — the part where a knot-like formation appears is broken off, and the oblation is offered in that state, rather than taken straight and offered whole. His practical reason is that offered whole it pricks; it will prick in the mouth. It acts as a thorn somewhere, so break it a little. He notes the same holds when a Bel leaf is eaten: the stalk is broken off first, because the pressure in it is high. His stated reason is one of Bhava rather than rule: when it passes into the mouth of Bhagavati Swaha and reaches your Ishta, harm would come to them too, and so it should not be done that way. When it causes us pain, it will cause them pain as well.

The speaker gives the timing precisely. The rule: the oblation is not to be given before saying Swaha, and not while saying it, but at the point of 'haa' — where the 'aa' vowel sits. Release the oblation while pronouncing that 'aa'. His explanation is offered with an apology in advance to anyone whose sentiments it might hurt, and with the statement that he is trying to explain in the simplest possible form. The fire of the Havan is named Varad Agni — also called Sat Kalyan Agni or Satvar Agni — and her age is held to be that of a small child, whose lifespan is short and whose mouth is correspondingly small. And how do we speak to a small child at feeding time? We say 'aa karo babu, aa'. Just as the child says 'aa', you feed it at that moment. He expects it to be difficult at first, falling early or late, and says not to be alarmed — with four or five days of Havan and more than a hundred oblations a day, the practice settles.

The speaker states the rule and then corrects the usual misreading of it. During Havan one should be neither emotional nor angry, no Kama-bhava should arise and no other Bhava either; the only Bhava should be one of surrender towards your Ishta. Why weeping was forbidden during Havan is not, he says, that a fault attaches to you — there is no fault. It was said so that the mantra should not be wrongly pronounced. If you have become very emotional during the Havan, that is a good thing: it means you are surrendered to your Ishta and their Bhava has awakened in your heart to the point of tears. But at that moment do not offer the oblation. Stop for a while. He says it happens to him too, often during the Vindhyavasini oblations, because where there is surrender and the heart is joined, it feels as though the Mother has come and is accepting from one's own hand. Wipe the tears, calm the heart — nobody is going to run away, all the deities will remain right there. Then as soon as you are normal and the pronunciation of the mantras is clear, resume the oblations. Do not go on offering while weeping and saying who knows what; do not offer stammering.

The speaker gives this as a small but consequential point. The mantras whose japa you perform should not be spoken aloud when offering oblations. His example is the Panchakshari Mantra: if you perform its japa, do not say it aloud and then Swaha. You will say the Panchakshari mantra in the mind and speak only Swaha openly. His reason is consistency with how the mantra is otherwise handled — keep to it exactly as you do in japa, and then it becomes beneficial, a doer of good.

Before giving the method, the speaker removes the anxiety attached to it. Parents — and the Kul Shakti, whose blood and whose ancestors' bone are in your body — are pleased just so; only Bhava is needed. What makes them angry is the arrogance, the pride, the conceit within you, and that conceit does not get destroyed either. He puts the point about insult in the simplest terms he can. If you sit and mock Kali thoroughly — Kali Mata is like this, is like that, she does not even sweep — will she be angered or not? The harm is theirs whose reputation is being damaged. People understand simply, he says, which is why he explains it simply; put the matter at too refined a level and nobody listens. Then he turns to the household that cannot buy the Shringar, the saree, the cloth and the kheer-puri, and says there is no difficulty. The materials: a large dried coconut, the kind oil is pressed from; ten or fifteen to twenty rupees of cashew and raisin, as much as you can manage; fifteen to twenty rupees of Bhimseni camphor, or up to fifty rupees' worth, because good camphor is what will actually burn. A little red cloth; betel leaves. He estimates the whole outlay at two to three hundred rupees. A puja plate is wanted. If you have no new plate and no separate vessel for worship, then bring cow dung from somewhere — cow dung specifically, he stresses; do not pick it up from the road and end up with buffalo dung, because that turns it into a Tantric application and the power becomes formidable. The dung of a heifer will do, of cattle generally will do, but Gau Mata's is best. Smear a small patch of ground with it and let it dry. The assembly, from the bottom: the dung-smeared ground or the plate; red cloth over it; the two Khappars on the cloth; a betel leaf laid in each Khappar with its stalk fully broken off and the tip trimmed; then camphor spread beneath, a tilak of Ashtagandha and kumkum, then the cashew, raisin and dried dates filling the bowl, and camphor packed over all of it so that it burns. Light the Karma Sakshi lamp first and offer whatever flowers and leaves you can bring to the Kuldevi and Kul Devta before the coconut is cut.

The speaker gives the Sankalp in full. Take water in the hand, pronounce your own name and Gotra, and say: today, on the day of Kuldevi Saptami, on the Saptami of the Shukla Paksha of Shravan, I am performing this worship to the best of my means for the pleasure of the Shakti of my lineage; may the Shakti of my lineage accept this worship and be pleased. Say that much and release the water. The placement is fixed. Of the two Khappars before you, the one on your right hand side is your Kuldevi's; the one on your left hand side is your Kul Bhairav's. The order is the reverse of the placement: light the Kul Bhairav's Khappar first, and after it the Kuldevi's. While the Khappar burns, remain with folded hands, fully surrendered in Bhava. For those who cannot manage even the cashew and raisin — and he says he understands, and that when the deities are displeased the situation does become bad — arrange jaggery, curd and camphor instead. The coconut is needed anyway for the Khappar, and it may be filled with these.

The speaker answers the obvious follow-up: if you do not know who your family's deities are, in whose name should this Khappar go? To the Shakti Peeth around you, and to that Peeth's presiding Shakti and its Bhairav. He gives the cases by region. In the Jagannath or Purushottam Kshetra, Bhagavati Vimala will be worshipped in the form of the Kuldevi and Bhagavan Jagannath in the form of the Kul Bhairav. In the Calcutta region of West Bengal, the Kali of Kalighat stands as the Kuldevi and Nakuleshwar Bhairav as the Kul Bhairav — the Khappar will serve for them. If your home lies further on towards Tarapith, fill it in the names of Akshobhya Bhairav and Bhagavati Tara. The prayer attached to it is the same in every case: that it should reach our Kuldevi and Kul Devta, and that their grace should be upon us. His closing instruction on this is the firmest line in the session: but do not let Kuldevi Saptami pass empty. On that day perform worship to the best of your means.

The speaker gives the floor of the observance, for the household that cannot manage even the coconut Khappar. Bring paan and supari: five betel leaves, five supari, ten cloves, ten cardamom, and a little of any sweet thing you can make at home to eat — kheer or the like. Light the Karma Sakshi lamp, and light five small ghee lamps; clay ones will do. Lay out the five betel leaves and offer everything on them — the flowers, supari, cloves, cardamom, all of it — saying to the Kuldevi and Kul Devta: wherever you may be, accept what we are offering to the best of our means, and be pleased with just this much. Then perform Aarti with camphor. If you can do no more, show the Aarti at least nine times. Do at least this much — but do not let it pass empty. Saptami should not go empty; the Shravan Saptami should not be empty in anyone's house.

The speaker addresses the other end of the range. Those who have the means should do it as well as they can. On that day perform the worship at home, and perform the service of living creatures. Give to Brahmins, to learned people, or to those towards whom you hold devotion and reverence; give at a temple whatever you are able. The condition he attaches is on the intention rather than the amount: the whole purpose behind it should be your Kuldevi's — that the Kuldevi should grant grace upon us. Do according to whatever means you have. He also notes that if you have more time after the worship, you may perform Stuti recitations before the Havan if you wish; and the rest of the Sawan worship continues exactly as it was — the service and Abhishek of Shiva at home goes on as before, and the worship of the Kuldevi and Kul Devta happens in this manner alongside it.

The speaker gives the Bali provisions with their exceptions. A pregnant woman in particular should not offer the coconut Bali; and women generally should not break the coconut and offer Bali in that way. Where there is no alternative and no man is in the house, the matter is different and you may do it — but try to have a man perform the coconut Bali by his own hand: one for the Kuldevi and one for the Kul Bhairav. On lemon he is unreserved: lemon Bali may absolutely be given. Kushmanda Bali too, if that is what you do, may be done without difficulty. Asked separately in the Q&A whether lemon Bali may be offered to Mata Shakumbhari, he answers that it absolutely may. On Chhag Bali he is restrictive: it should not be done at home during this time, particularly in Shravan. If you are of a high Tantric lineage or a Tantra-accomplished person, or your guru is capable enough, then decide it with them. Otherwise it should not be done at home in the month of Shravan. He presents this as his own experience and specific knowledge rather than a citation, and says that where it is already the practice in your house he is not interfering — that is your private matter. A related Q&A ruling: a coconut is not to be broken and put into the fire. Offer the coconut separately, after the Havan.

The speaker gives this as personal opinion and flags it as such twice. On the day of Kuldevi Saptami, do not look at tithi, Nakshatra, Muhurta, Rahu Kaal or Ketu Kaal — particularly if you are performing daily Havan during the month of Shravan, and especially on a festival day falling within Shravan. He is explicit that he is not citing any scripture here: he is speaking from Bhava-predominance, and if you do not wish to accept it, do not. He asks in advance not to be abused for it as unscriptural — that is your choice; perform it in the Abhijit Muhurta if you prefer. His formulation of the split is characteristic: those who hold some affection for him, who are partisans of the person, may do it at any time that day. Those who are not partisans of persons but of principles should check the Muhurta — waiting for Ketu Kaal and Rahu Kaal to pass and performing it in the Sun's period. Either way, he says, there is no difficulty in it — but do it.

The speaker treats Saptami as a beginning rather than a discharge. Whoever you performed the first worship for, whoever you performed the Havan for, from that day on remember them daily, perform their daily worship in their name. His example follows the Deoghar case: if you did it for Baba Baijnath and for Ma Jay Durga, remember them every day, and recite their name while walking about. On the objection that name-japa without a Guru mantra is worthless, he is dismissive. The claim that if you have not received it from a guru then doing as you please will not bring welfare — welfare comes only from what scripture prescribes — he answers by saying that welfare will come from any of God's names. And God himself, out of grace, when you take his name again and again, will arrange for you to receive initiation too if he judges it fitting. He draws one line: Beej mantras are not to be recited while walking about. In name-japa there is no obstruction at all. If your inclination is towards Jay Durga, take Jay Durga; if towards Kali, say Kali; if your mind is in Shiva, take Mahadev's name; Vishwanath, Bhairav, Mahakal — but take it. Do the japa while walking, sitting in a cab on the way to the office. Better, he says, to contemplate them than to be thinking about whichever film actress is current.

The speaker is careful that this passage is not for new practitioners: it is for older ones who are already doing well. His reasoning is practical. When you do one thing until you are fully practised in it and then do not move forward, you do not become disenchanted with it so much as your mind begins to cut away — because you are not a formidable practitioner who can hold the mind concentrated indefinitely, and on top of that there is the office, the business, somewhere to be. The mind will not stay that way. So something should keep being added. He is emphatic about what adding does not mean: it does not mean making a change, and it does not mean changing the deity. His worked example: suppose you have been performing daily worship of Bhagavati Kali, and until now you have been doing the sixteen-upachara worship with Pauranic mantras every day. After two, four, five years you are practised. Then add the mantras of the Devi Suktam — coordinate them with the sixteen and perform it that way; no fault attaches. Add some other Stuti or Stotra and build the practice up gradually. If you practise the Sahasranama, embed whichever verses appeal to you within it. For those authorised in the Sri Suktam, he suggests embedding the Lakshmi Suktam alongside it, or using the Durga Suktam, or the Suktas of other goddesses — the effect being that the mind begins to broaden considerably in this field. He acknowledges the passage will not sit well with everyone: it is a matter of experience, and a hint is enough for those who have reached that level; always speaking at a low level, he says, would not be proper either.

The speaker offers this as an aside on a subject he says he has not yet been able to discuss on the channel. A Yantra, he says, is such a wholly divine subject that if it is approached with understanding, it works like calculation for someone whose mathematics is very fast — integration, differentiation, where one looks and sees at once how much and in what way it will come out. The same kind of calculation, he says, emerges in Yantra work: so divine a capability develops that how a Yantra will be constructed and what will follow becomes clear — through practice built up over time, and by divine grace, when you have practised all these Suktas. He recommends alongside it the material on the Rudra Ashtadhyayi given by disciples of the Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Math, which he says should be available on YouTube; it will only make sense if you already do some recitation. When the concepts become clear, he says, it feels as though a very great secret of the universe has been made known.

The speaker refuses this question on principle and explains why the refusal is the answer. On the Rudra Chandi Path he will not summarise: read the whole text, it is written there — he asks what people are asking him for when it is written whether everyone can do it or not. Who should perform it is stated in the text. Read it, and if you are that person, perform it. He suspects the motive behind the asking. If you already knew you were authorised you would not be asking; you are asking so that he will say from here that anyone can do it, and then you will do it. He will not. Read the Phala Shruti — after the Purva Pithika, after the main body — and it becomes clear for whom it is forbidden. He will not say it himself; read it and see for yourself. He gives an example of how such rulings actually get made in public. On a very famous YouTuber's live, someone asked whether the Panchakshari may be done with the Pranava in a certain way — people say it should not be done without the sacred thread, and that without it one should not. The man answered: son, there is nothing of the kind, anyone can do japa of Baba's mantra. Once you become famous, the speaker says, whatever you say is what people accept; scripture is set aside and your word becomes the fixed line. If ten lakh people follow you, then even when you speak wrongly, that is what is right. Who is going to open a scripture and read. However much you demonstrate, however much you tear your throat, people will not accept it. One ruling he does give in the same stretch: performing the Chandi Kavach in the Trikala Sandhya is entirely proper — you may absolutely do it, there is no difficulty.

Asked why the temple of Shitala Mata — the Badi Mata — always remains closed at Vindhyachal, the speaker explains that the Pret Mata shrine remains closed in the same way. Pret Mata's darshan, he says, can still be obtained. Badi Mata's cannot, because hers is an exceedingly formidable power. Her history has been very fierce, and not everyone should go there at all; these are extremely formidable powers. His instruction is to salute her from outside and take her blessing from there — that is what is proper.

The speaker gives three methods, all built on a Kavach the questioner has already accomplished, with the Kamakhya Kavach named as best. First: consecrate a red thread with the Kavach, tie thirteen knots in it, recite the Kamakhya Kavach again over each knot, and tie it at the pregnant woman's waist — the pregnancy is then protected. Second: consecrate a Gomti Chakra with a Kavach, particularly Narayana's Kavach or the Kamakhya Kavach, keeping red Gunja with it; seal it in red cloth, put it on a red thread and tie it at the waist. Third: in the Shukla Paksha, in Ravi Pushya or Guru Pushya Nakshatra specifically, cut a ripe papaya and take out its seeds — they must be black, not the white half-ripe kind. Dry them a little in the sun, consecrate them with the Kamakhya Kavach or another Goddess Kavach — Kali's Kavach, Durga's Kavach — seal them in black cloth, put them on a black thread and tie them at the waist. He notes why he ranks the Kamakhya Kavach first: because the presence of all ten Mahavidyas is in it, there is no bar of Sutak or Patak on it. The third method likewise carries no Sutak or Patak issue. When the child is about to be born, cut it off; there is no difficulty.

The speaker corrects a listener's proposed wording and gives the grammar behind it. What will not work is 'kul devi namah': the fourth-case ending applies, so the 'ai' vowel comes and not the 'i' vowel. Do not say 'kul divye namah'; you may absolutely say 'kul divyai swaha'. He then gives the full oblation form for the Tantrokta Devi Suktam, which he says everyone performing this Havan should know: 'namastasyai swaha, namastasyai swaha, namastasyai namo namah swaha'. In full, with the verse: 'Ya Devi sarvabhuteshu vidya rupena samsthita, namastasyai swaha, namastasyai swaha, namastasyai namo namah swaha'. Adapted for the family power, it becomes: 'namastasyai kul divyai swaha, namastasyai kul divyai swaha, namastasyai namo namah kul divyai swaha'. He adds that this insertion comes after the Jayanti Mangala Kali mantra or after the Tantrokta Devi Suktam, and that if the concept of performing Havan with the Tantrokta Devi Suktam is not clear, get it clarified before doing it.

The speaker gives a domestic remedy in four parts, with an expected timeframe attached. Cleanliness pacifies Rahu. Let the house be entirely free of dirt; clean the bathroom very well on Saturdays and Wednesdays and keep it gleaming. Keep the soles of the feet clean — the cleaner they are, the calmer Rahu remains. Second, the worship of Shiva and Ganapati — Shiva's family. Ganapati worship happens in everyone's house anyway; performing the Sankatnashan Ganapati worship with twelve Durva offered will pacify Ketu as well. He notes the Ganesha episode had come up in the Shiv Mahapuran sessions as well. Third, Hanuman's red flag, in the Ishan corner if possible or wherever else suits your place — direction is not strictly necessary, but Ishan is best — with incense and a lamp burning there morning and evening. Both Rahu and Ketu are pacified by it, and Ketu in particular is pleased by a flag. Fourth, the service of dogs, specifically street dogs. Do not keep dogs as pets for this; if you do keep them, let them be outside the main door, because carrying them about in your lap indoors will accomplish nothing. Whatever you can feed the street dogs outside the main door, feed them — before you eat yourself. Do this daily, he says, and the pleasure of both Rahu and Ketu will begin to be obtained; within one and a half to three months the effect will begin to turn auspicious. He adds one negative condition: do not shout and do not abuse — Rahu is pacified most of all by that. And the more you remember God by any means, the more pleased Rahu Dev becomes; Ketu, where he is causing harm, becomes an increaser of Dharma.

The speaker extends the remedy outward from the house. To the extent of your means, go to a temple and perform cleaning, service and worship there as well. Where a temple's flag is torn in particular, help to have that flag changed — assist financially, have a flag made and give it. He names a second offering: the Chandani, the canopy stretched overhead at a place belonging to the Goddess. Offering such a canopy at a temple pleases both Rahu and Ketu.

The speaker gives two related Shiva remedies for Rahu. The first is Abhishek with milk of a Shivling that has the serpent wrapped on it — that is, a Shivling standing with Vasuki. He notes that most temples have this, but that people sometimes remove the serpent and keep it separately, and in that case it does not serve. When the serpent is fitted to the Shivling, perform the Abhishek there, give the stream — Rahu is pacified at once by it. The second is specific to Amavasya. Have a small silver Naag-Naagin made from wire, costing a hundred to a hundred and fifty rupees. Put milk in a copper pot — copper only, no other metal will serve in this procedure, whereas at other times milk is not offered to Shiva in a copper pot at all — and do it promptly, without long delay. At the temple, pour the milk into the pot, put the pair of Naag-Naagin into it, and while reciting the Panchakshari Mantra mentally, offer it to Shiva. Once the Naag-Naagin have gone onto him, they are not to be touched again. Then offer water, incense, a lamp and Shringar as your means allow — but the Naag-Naagin must not be touched after they have fallen on him. He adds a third: black sesame mixed into milk, or into water, used for the Abhishek, brings grace very quickly. The Abhishek may be done at home, but the Naag-Naagin method is to be done at a temple only.

A listener says that Kuldevi Saptami worship has never been performed in their house, that the custom and tradition have lapsed, and that the Panchakshari Mantra is currently running — what worship should they do. The speaker's answer is that they can do the whole thing exactly as described here, because the entire live is on precisely this. For a listener in Madhya Pradesh the same rule applies: look at whichever Shakti Peeth falls nearest your area. On the Karma Sakshi lamp he sends the questioner to existing material rather than repeating it: there are four or five videos on it, searchable as 'deepak grihasth tantra', covering how the wick should be and how the lamp is lit. He also holds the line on personal contact during the month: that will be possible after the month of Shravan and so on, on Telegram or on the Call Me For app.

The speaker answers a listener who framed the question in terms of their community. Whether you are a Yadav or a Kshatriya makes no difference to this, he says. Who the Kuldevi is, is something that will have to be looked into; it cannot be stated in that manner from caste alone. Where the family deity is unknown, the fallback is the one he has given throughout: worship the Shakti Peeth nearest to you in the manner described. He answers a comparable question about West Bengal — whether the principal Shakti there is Kali or Durga — by saying both are principal, and directing the listener to look at where they actually live and hold to the Shakti Peeth nearest them.

A listener reports that for two years he has been going to a temple on Saptami and donating seven kinds of sweet, Shringar, a case and so on in the name of the Kuldevi, as instructed. The speaker approves it warmly and generalises the form: seven Shringar, seven kinds of sweet, seven kinds of fruit — all of these may be given in donation at a temple. He is careful about its status. This is not being offered as some remedy or workaround; it is a Vidhan, an ordinance by which their grace comes. He points listeners to the other lives and videos on the Kuldevi on the channel, where the concept is made clear and easier methods are given. Two refusals follow in the same stretch. Asked for permission to take the household deities to a new house, he answers that who is he to grant permission — take them according to your own wish; Tulsi may simply be taken straight across. And where a listener already knows their Kuldevi to be Mata Mansa Devi, he answers without hesitation: then absolutely perform the worship of Mansa Mai. Her twelve-name Stotra had been posted to the group the previous day and may be recited; her Sahasranama, her Satnam and her Kavach all exist — perform her recitation and worship, perform her Panchang Seva.

Answering a listener in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, the speaker says to worship Bhagavati Vindhyavasini without question. On the local goddess the listener names, his qualification is about age rather than power. Her manifestation is not held to have been very long ago; but she is a very formidable power, and if she is the Shakti of that region then service and worship in her name should also take place. Principally, however, perform that of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini — and particularly so if you do not know about your Kuldevi. In that area, he adds, hers should be performed in any case, though by rights she should be worshipped throughout the whole world, and those who do are doing it. One timing instruction closes the passage: perform the Kuldevi's worship in the morning. Do it early in the morning.

The speaker answers a listener's question with a short list of requirements. A householder should keep the Shivling and the Arghi separately at home: the Arghi below and the Shivling above it, the Shivling separate. It should not be a Shivling joined into one piece. Nagraj Vasuki and the rest should be kept. For the Shivling itself, keep a Narmadeshwar, or keep crystal. The Arghi may be brass or stone, with the Shivling placed on top of it. Vasuki Nag should be present on it — five-hooded is best of all. The Trishul of Mahadev should certainly be there, and Nandi. At minimum, he says, that much should be present. He also answers, for a listener who knows the name of their Kuldevi but not the method of worship, that they may do exactly as has been discussed in this session; and rules that a coconut is not to be broken and put into the fire — offer the coconut separately after the Havan.

The speaker closes the loop he opened at the start of the session, answering a listener whose family observance falls on Purnima. If the Kuldevi worship has always been performed on Purnima in your house, then you will perform it on Purnima. Do an ordinary worship on the day of Saptami. The general rule he restates: those who have a rule and already know that their observance falls on a particular tithi should perform it on that tithi. Those who do not know will all perform it on Saptami — and it is precisely for that reason that this Saptami is called Kuldevi Saptami. He extends it to the month generally: within Sawan, if someone's own tithi means their worship falls on another day, or on Purnima, then do it that way. Three closing rulings follow. For a listener near Indore, the worship of Ma Chamunda may absolutely be done. A Nauna Visarjan may be done that day — it should have been done that day — but doing it the next day is no difficulty either. And for a listener whose Jagan Mangala Kali Kavach sadhana completes on the Monday and who reports a very good experience, he says the Kavach is not his but Bhagavati Kali's, that a good experience is a very good thing, and that the sadhana should be continued — reduce the count if you like, but keep her japa going, and perform Bhairav's alongside it without fail.