The Navratri Worship That Cannot Be Skipped: Hanuman and Bhairava

The speaker says that in Navratri the main worship is of the various forms of Bhagavati Jagdamba: the Navadurgas, the ten Mahavidyass, or chiefly one form. But while doing her puja, or japa of some mantra, people leave certain worship out. They forget to worship or remember certain forms of the deities, and he says this is absolutely compulsory: without their worship the Devi's puja and japa is never complete. Especially in Navratri, and in chaitra-navratri when Ram Navami also falls, worshipping all of them is compulsory. The reason, he says, is that in Navratri, in Chaitra Navratri, every shakti is at its peak. They come from their own lokas to the earth, to their divine places and to the places of their devotees. So the worship of all of them becomes necessary. Answering the many who ask whether this can be skipped, he says he repeats it again and again: the Anga ShaktiThe Goddess's own limb-powers — one of the reasons Her worship is never complete without also worshipping the wider set of powers, like Mandala Shakti, that accompany Her.s and the Mandala ShaktiThe Goddess's peripheral or attendant deity powers — accompanying Her like a family's sons and children, and mandatory to worship alongside Her main form.s are necessary. If you invite a family, Bhagavati will not come alone; all her sons, her boys and girls, will be with her. So the worship of all of them is compulsory, and at least their ordinary worship and remembrance, as far as one knows, becomes essential.

The speaker says everyone should take special note that in chaitra-navratri the worship of Hanuman must happen in every home. If Hanuman is worshipped from Pratipada tithi up to Chaitra Purnima, that is Hanuman Jayanti, one gets many, many benefits; and if he is worshipped with a special vidhi-vidhan for any one wish, many kinds of gain follow. So he sets out how to worship from Pratipada onward. Reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, he says, is quite good and ordinary; one can do that. If one wants to do only the Chalisa paath, one should remember him through that alone, but must do it, and never ignore him thinking Hanuman's worship is not needed. He has also taught a vidhi for the Havan of the Hanuman Chalisa, which one can do. Second, if one does archana of Hanuman with his 108 names, which takes two or three minutes, he is greatly pleased. For the archana one may use flowers or tulsi leaves, as one wishes, but the archana must be done. And if from Pratipada to Purnima Hanuman is worshipped by archana with his SahasranamaA recitation of a deity's thousand names — a devotional text genre used across many deities, not one single fixed composition. for any one wish, he says Hanuman certainly fulfils that wish. Along with this, if Bhagavati Anjani, Hanuman's mother, is also worshipped and the mother remembered, then nothing can stop the work from being fully done, because this seva is reaching both the mother and her son. In this way, he says, Hanuman's seva and puja should be done especially in Chaitra from Pratipada to Purnima.

The speaker says one should bear in mind that, whatever regional tantra or ordinary seva-puja one follows, even without knowing much of the greater Tantra, in ordinary puja-paath when the Devi comes people recite the Durga Chalisa, and it too says "Langur Veer karat agwani". Langur Veer, that is Hanuman, receives her and walks in front. Wherever Bhagavati Jagdamba is about to come, or her shaktis are about to come as her portions, Langur Veer goes there first and looks over the whole place. Put one way, he says, the burden of security there lies on Hanuman and on Bhairava. So the worship of Bhairav and the worship of Hanuman, both, become extremely necessary. And because Hanuman comes first, he says, Hanuman's worship, and Bhairav's too, should be done before the worship of Bhagavati.

The speaker says that on the tithi of Ram Navami and on the tithi of Chaitra Purnima, on both days, there is a special worship of Hanuman's dhwaja. He says he will explain that in a separate video and does not give the vidhi here. What he does insist on is that on Ram Navami one must put up Hanuman's dhwaja at one's own home.

Having said that Hanuman's worship must be done in Navratri, the speaker adds that Bhairava's worship must also be done, as far as one is able. At the very least one should remember him, do japa of his name-mantra, and light a Chaumukh DeepakA four-faced oil lamp with four wicks, used in pairs or in multiples across a house during application rituals for Bhairava and similarly potent deities. lamp and the like in his name; this, he says, must certainly be done. The reason he gives is that these two shaktis, Hanuman and Bhairav, are the ones who carry out all of Bhagavati's works, and the responsibility of protecting her devotees lies on them. For that reason, he says, the worship of both must be done especially in Navratri.