Installing a Mahalakshmi Tantrokta Kalash at Home — the 16 Items, Abhimantran with Mahalakshmi Ashtak, and the Order of Filling

All the things laid out before you, the speaker says, are tantrokta samagri, meant for a Prayoga to be done on the night of Sharad Purnima, Dhanteras or Diwali. They are for making a tantrokta Lakshmi Kalash, or tantrokta dhan-lakshmi potli, dhanada Lakshmi potli. You can also build this kalash for the pleasure of the Lakshmi of your own kula, the Lakshmi a kula has. He explains why there are sixteen things and with which mantras they are charged: sixteen is very dear to Bhagavati Lakshmi. Shodashi is sixteen, Kamala is sixteen; sixteen is extremely dear to her. There are sixteen items, and in the Shri Suktam too there are sixteen suktas. In the same way, in this tantrokta prayoga, sixteen kinds of things have been taken.

First of all, the speaker says, take a Kalash; small or large as you like, and one with a lid is very good. There will be MauliThe red-and-yellow thread tied on the wrist or around a kalash. thread. Every item taken here is to be taken eight in number. Light DhoopIncense offered during worship; its smoke is treated as an offering in its own right within the sequence of upacharas. and a lamp first of all; he has them lit because he is about to show the prayoga. The items he shows: kaudi, called chitti kaudi or Lakshmi kaudi, available at a puja shop; a tantrokta kaudi would be quite expensive, so take the ordinary chitti kaudi, and buy it from a shop you know so that you get the genuine thing. Tantrokta laghu NariyalThe coconut — set on the kalash as the purna-phala, and offered as bali in place of a life., eight; you may also take an ordinary small one. Hakik stone in yellow, orange, white and red, eight. Rakta GunjaRed Abrus seeds — thrown outside a home or shop as an Uchchatan (repulsion) ritual to drive away customers, or burned in fumigation with yellow mustard to counter that same effect., eight. Moti Shankha, eight, the smallest laghu moti shankh that is called tantrokta. Copper coins, eight. Gomti ChakraA small spiral shell used in wealth and protection rites., eight, and take care to choose only those with the chakra formed on the back; he asks for special attention to this. Then one piece of real, fragrant ChandanSandalwood paste, offered and applied in worship for its cooling, purifying quality. wood, which is now to be cut into eight pieces; a hacksaw blade of the kind he shows, available for under ₹50, will cut it, and he has bought one to make it easier. Kali HaldiTurmeric, used in offering and in the mala and rites of the yellow-clad forms of the Goddess., eight, very good if it can be found. Kamal gatta, eight. Dry yellow haldi knots, eight. A darpan, very special: a small mirror, and only one; the mirror stays single. Copper nails, eight. Tantrokta SupariAreca nut, used as a stand-in for the deity in sankalpa and offered in pujan., eight, or ordinary supari if tantrokta is not available. Ordinary kaudi, eight. And two kinds of KapoorCamphor, burnt at the close of worship.: ordinary camphor, and the pure natural kind called bhimseni kapur, or bras. That, he says, makes the full sixteen items.

Sit with DhoopIncense offered during worship; its smoke is treated as an offering in its own right within the sequence of upacharas. and lamp lit, the speaker says. What is the time? If you are doing it on Sharad Purnima, sit for the pujan in Pradosha kaal, that is, at the time of sunset. With dhoop and lamp lit, place the Kalash here first of all. Take care that you wash all the items in raw cow milk and dry them. The HaldiTurmeric, used in offering and in the mala and rites of the yellow-clad forms of the Goddess. is not to be left soaking for any length of time; it must be completely dry. Otherwise, he explains, whole dhaniya is also used in this prayoga, but with dhaniya what is happening is that people drop it in while it is still wet, or the kalash stays damp, and insects get into it. So dhaniya is not to be used at all now; in its place we use kamal gatta and the rest, and all the other items; everything must be dry. For the abhimantran, first, as he said, wash everything in raw cow milk, wash and wipe it well and dry it; show it the sun if you can so that it dries. All items, except the KapoorCamphor, burnt at the close of worship. and the like, which you do not wash. Now sit. Every item, he shows, has been given a KumkumVermilion powder offered to the Goddess and applied as a tilak. tilak. Do the kumkum tilak with any mantra of Mahalakshmi, saying Mahalakshmyai Namah; if you are not dikshit, charge them all with Mahalakshmyai Namah. Take kumkum or RoliA red vermilion powder applied to ritual offerings such as the lemons in a sacrificial Bali, before they are circled with water and offered. on the finger once, say Mahalakshmyai Namah, take it again, Mahalakshmyai Namah again, and in this way charge them all; charge each item one by one.

And next year, the speaker says: suppose this year you are doing this Prayoga on Sharad Purnima; then next year, again on Sharad Purnima, you will do the same prayoga. Only the KapoorCamphor, burnt at the close of worship. will not remain in it, so the camphor you have to put in again. All the remaining samagri you take out, charge afresh, and put back into the Kalash.

Now, how are the items to be put in? First of all, the speaker says, you have to make a SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit.. Take a flower in the hand, AkshatUnbroken raw rice grains, held in hand along with water and flowers while taking a Sankalpa., a little DakshinaThe offering made to a guru or officiant that completes a rite; a ritual is held incomplete without it., KushaThe sacred grass used for seats, rings and purificatory sprinkling; treated as spiritually insulating., and then a little water in the hand, and make the sankalp, speaking your name and GotraA family's patrilineal lineage name, stated together with one's own name during a Sankalpa.; if you know Sanskrit, in Sanskrit with the full vidhi-vidhan. And say this: that Bhagavati Mahalakshmi be established in my kula for all time, that Mahalakshmi may always reside in our kula; for this I today take the sankalp of installing a tantrokta Lakshmi Kalash and, for it, of charging all the items and binding them in that kalash, "le raha hoon" or "le rahi hoon". Having said it this way, leave the akshat and flower near the kalash. After that, he says, all the items will be charged with the Mahalakshmi Ashtak and put into the kalash.

The Mahalakshmi Ashtakam, the speaker says, has infinite glory. The Shri Suktam may be recited by men, those who wear the YajnopavitaThe sacred thread ceremony marking initiation into Vedic rites (Janeu) — if lapsed across generations, expiation (Prayashchitta) for each known generation is required before it can be resumed.. For the rest, the recitation of the Suktam has weight in it and has to be learned; it is a sukta of the Rigveda, so the svara must be pronounced correctly. That is why very many people cannot do it, and women should not do it; it is forbidden in a great many places, and scholars say so too. Therefore the Mahalakshmi Ashtak is the best. When the three worlds had become devoid of Shri through the curse of DurvasaA formidable, short-tempered sage and practitioner of Smashana Kali, known for the episode with King Ambarisha involving the Ekadashi vow. rishi, it was this very Ashtak that Devaraj Indra recited; Mahalakshmi was pleased, and as a blessing she appeared again from the samudra manthan, becoming one of the fourteen ratnas. She is called the daughter of the Kshir Samudra. So, he says, all of you are to charge the items only by reciting the Mahalakshmi Ashtak, the one in which comes "Namastestu Mahamaye Shripithe Surapujite, Shankha Chakra Gada Haste Mahalakshmi Namostute". He will give a link to a PDF of it in the description of the video for download, and that is what the abhimantran is to be done with.

After the sankalp and the rest, the speaker says, remember Guru and Ganesha; then the items can be charged in two ways. Each item has been taken eight in number, say eight kaudi. In the first way you take one kaudi in the hand, close the fist and hold it near the heart, recite the whole Mahalakshmi Ashtakam once, and drop it into the Kalash. The second way is to take all eight kaudi together, recite the Ashtak once, and drop them in. Both are fine, but if you do the first, charging and dropping one item at a time, it is the best and most excellent. If you have the time and the capacity to sit, do that one. If your home and kula are in need, in extreme need of Shri, if Shri Lakshmi has turned away, if the kula is drowned in debt, then certainly do it this way, giving it the full time. Which items go in first: bhimseni KapoorCamphor, burnt at the close of worship. first of all. Take the whole camphor in the hand at once, or all eight one by one if you are doing it singly, and recite the full Ashtak; he recites its first four shlokas, beginning "Namastestu Mahamaye Shripithe Surapujite", and says to read the remaining four as well. After the full recitation, drop the camphor in first. Then kali HaldiTurmeric, used in offering and in the mala and rites of the yellow-clad forms of the Goddess., charged one by one or all together, into the kalash, settled well. Then kamal gatta, the same way. Then the eight haldi knots, small ones, or large if the kalash is big, charged and dropped in. Every Aushadhi is to go in first. Then the SupariAreca nut, used as a stand-in for the deity in sankalpa and offered in pujan., tantrokta or ordinary, charged and dropped in. Then the eight kaudi, charged and dropped in. Then the eight copper nails. Then the eight Hakik stones. Then the rakta GunjaRed Abrus seeds — thrown outside a home or shop as an Uchchatan (repulsion) ritual to drive away customers, or burned in fumigation with yellow mustard to counter that same effect.. Then the eight pieces of ChandanSandalwood paste, offered and applied in worship for its cooling, purifying quality. wood. After everything has gone in one by one, last of all the mirror: recite the Mahalakshmi Ashtak once and put the darpan in, and at the very end place the camphor on top of it all. Now close the lid of the kalash, or tie it with cloth if you prefer. The mala he shows is his own japa mala, a tantrokta RudrakshaA sacred seed strung into rosaries and worn during shiva worship. mala; if you have a mala, bind the kalash with it in this way and decorate it further. Then decorate the kalash well with dhoop, lamp, flowers and so on, do Mahalakshmi path and puja, do Havan and the rest, and complete it.

Every day, the speaker says, sit in front of the Kalash and recite the Mahalakshmi Ashtakam at least eight times, or else sixteen. Within a year, certainly, Mahalakshmi bestows her kripa. Nothing in it will spoil. In the prayoga with dhaniya, what happens is that if the coriander gets wet for any reason, since in different regions the humidity is less or more, there is trouble and it goes bad. In this one no item will spoil; such items have been used, and along with them the most divine use of such a mantra. Install this kalash yourself at home and see, he says: nothing in it will go bad, it will last a long time, and you will also receive the kripa of Bhagavati Mahalakshmi.