Why Eating Another Family's Kul-Shakti Bhog Brings Pret Dosha — Prasad Rules, Lok Devatas and the Kanya Restriction

The speaker opens with a custom that, he says, one hears constantly in rural areas and among those who keep the old rites: the PrasadWhat returns from the deity after an offering, and is then eaten rather than discarded. of another household's deities is not to be eaten, and the prasad of one's own household deities is not to be given to anyone else. He adds that in homes where a KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up. is the principal worshipped power the rule goes further — even the daughters of the house are forbidden to look at or touch him. Where the kuldevatas receive only an annual puja, the daughters do not take part; only the men do. The brides of the house, the women who came in by marriage, may help, but in some places even they are forbidden to touch. And in such kuldevata homes the prasad is not given to daughters at all. He says today's subject is the reason behind all this — the tantrokta reason: how it happens and why it is forbidden.

The speaker says that whatever kuldevi or kuldevata a family had in earlier times was always some mahashakti. But a time came — the period of the Mughals — after which one sees a mixing: in many homes the power worshipped has actually been a lok devata, a lok shakti. Who lok devatas are, he says, he has explained in separate videos on the channel: some sadhak who used to do very good sadhana — whether a tantric, doing sadhanas of a tantric nature, or a siddha of some other sampradaya — and who, when the body was dropped in due course, did not attain gati. By the blessing and grace of the shakti he had served, or by staying in her proximity, that saint began independently taking puja and BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats., and was then given a place. In time people did a great deal of seva and puja to him, his glory grew, and he came to be worshipped as a lok devata. He adds that even an ordinary person has been worshipped as a power of this kind, and some have been worshipped as an ansh-form of the family's ishta. These have not been there from the beginning — they have been installed here and there over the last 100–200 years.

After the lok devatas, the speaker turns to powers of a still lower grade. In some house an ordinary person died through an Abhichara kriya. Especially in the last 100–150 years, the time after the Mughals, this happened a great deal: when someone died because of abhichari activity, the local and regional devotees of that time, in order to get rid of the trouble, very often used tantra — used Bhagatvaal — to give that person a place in their own home and have them worshipped as a devata. They were given the name devata, he says, but that is specifically a Preta shakti; they have had a pret worshipped in a deva form, saying that this one is now the house's deity. After being worshipped for a generation or two, such powers become so awakened that you can no longer let them go. He says he is not calling this wrong from one point of view, and asks listeners not to feel offended — but somewhere these are elements that were in negativity, and through bhagatvaal, by giving a vachan, you have kept them in the house. As an example he takes the Brahm devs: some married woman of a house who was given a place after her death. There are two or three varieties of this — some were given a place independently, some were placed under a shakti, such as building a Mahadev temple and installing them there, so that the main puja is of Mahadev and a stone is installed as a Brahmashila saying this is the Brahm dev. And in some places a power that has gone into abhichar and killed people for abhichari reasons becomes even more unruly, causing great unrest in the family; instead of giving it a place at some dham, people very often give it a place in the home itself, and once given a place in the home, it becomes worshipped.

The speaker now sets up an example. Suppose in one home the original Bhagavati Mahakali has been worshipped generation after generation — the family has kept the presiding shakti of its kul awake; the tradition is alive and she has been worshipped from the beginning. In another home Hanuman ji has been worshipped as KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up. for three or four generations, back to a grandfather or great-grandfather. In yet another one hears that the grandfather or great-grandfather was a siddha who did so much seva and tapasya that he has a temple in such-and-such place. In a home where a lok shakti — one of the family's own ancestors, a dead person who was given a place in deva form — has been installed as kuldevata, whatever puja is done and whatever BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. is offered goes to that installed power. Those whose kuldevi is Mahakali, by contrast, worship her properly as kuldevi, and the vidhan of kuldevi worship is itself a separate thing: that tradition is carried on and kept confined to the kul that has been running it from the start. Now, he says, take the bhog that was offered in the ancestor-deity home, and let that offered thing reach the house of, or be given to, a person whose home worships Mahakali. That is the case to be made clear. Here, the speaker says, the tattva divides. The BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. of a Preta shakti's ansh is being given over to the bhog of a divine shakti in whose share Prana Urja lives — so a jhootha, a leftover, is reaching someone else. What kinds of Dosha follow from this? A shakti of a higher order is taking, accepting, the bhogs of a shakti of UpadevaA category of subordinate or lesser divine beings ranked below the principal deities — ancestors (Pitrus) are classified under this category. order. Superiority on one side and inferiority on the other — the distinction is breached, and that dosha attaches. He asks listeners to know and understand this clearly. He anticipates that some learned people will now offer the wisdom that shakti is not high or low, and asks them plainly not to bring such knowledge here: he is speaking clearly about technical reasons, classifying why, how and where a thing is made; all of it exists. Those who are Vedanta-margis and have great knowledge of Vedanta on these matters should please walk that path — there is no need for them on this channel. That, he says, is the first reason you are forbidden to exchange such bhog.

To make the case clearer the speaker asks what Kuldevi means: the shakti of our kul. And KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up. means the deity of our kul. Somewhere it has been held that we are their ansh — by their grace-prasad we have taken birth in their kul. Whatever our past birth and prarabdha karma, this present life had to be taken in this kul by the grace of those deities; they gave it, so their ansh is flowing somewhere within us. It is said, he continues, that by the grace of the Shakti, the Devi, the blood and all blood-related things in our body are formed, while the bone, the solid matter in our body, is formed by the grace of the Devata. Kuldevata and kuldevi — that is, Mahadeva and Jagdamba — form the components of the body in this way, as father and mother. So their ansh is also running in our Sukshma Sharir and Prana Urja. For those who have installed their own pitr-ancestors as devatas, he says, this is plainly visible: you are of their very kul. And on the side of those who carry Bhagavati Mahakali — whichever sadhak first attained her siddhi, or served her and pleased one of her yoginis, or installed that mahashakti in his kul and began worshipping her like a kuldevi; or a Brahmin or someone on the Vedic path who has carried the kula parampara according to kul and gotra from the beginning — there some Yogini of Bhagavati is established, whether or not she is pratyaksha. Her grace-prasad has plainly been present in everyone born in that house, through every increase of the lineage.

The speaker next asks when the same Kuldevi can be worshipped in two homes — only when you belong to one family that later split apart. Even then, he says, a difference creeps in. How? If some knowledgeable person has emerged, someone awakening tantric shaktis of one kind or another, then when he installs the kuldevi separately after parting from his family, he may well install some new shaktis along with her. And if BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. and puja are given to someone else along with the kuldevi, then — in the language of Bhagatvaal — this is called laag lagna, and the chance of Laag attaching is there. Think of our body, he says, as taking a jhoothan: laag means, in one sense, leftovers. So that Dosha attaches, and the result is that all the energy we have gained through mantra japa, karmakand and the like becomes polluted.

Now the speaker turns the case around. Some higher shakti — a shakti of Mahakali — is worshipped, served well by a high-order Brahmin or by anyone of any varna doing proper puja and seva. The BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. from that house's kuldevi worship goes to the home of a person whose worshipped deity is connected with Preta energy. What happens then? The bhog offered to Mahakali, subtly taken by her yoginis, has an altogether different energy and divinity; the glory of PrasadWhat returns from the deity after an offering, and is then eaten rather than discarded., he says, is endless, whoever gives it. Now that bhog is going into the home of someone serving a shakti of Upadevata category. When they consume it, the level of energy — Mahakali's energy — is explosive, whereas the shakti there is of upadevata category; because of Mahakali's energy, because of her divine ansh, that shakti will be bound and stunted there. It will suffer. And so will the puja-path of the people of that house. He asks listeners to note that he keeps repeating 'kul shakti' — this is not about the bhog-prasad of an outside temple. He adds a further point to be clearly understood: it is not necessary that the person now worshipped there in pret form was a sadhak in life. There are wicked people too — the bhagatvaal folk have them worshipped in homes as kuldevatas, and the puja goes on generation after generation. Their energy may well be growing, but when the bhog of a shakti of this kind reaches them, they will suffer: in life, while in the body, they did no puja-path; now, having become a devata — or say a rakshasa, a rakshasa-deva — they are taking bhog there, and the suffering begins.

When, then, will such a power not suffer even if it is taking the BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. of a kul shakti of this kind? The speaker gives two conditions. First, if the person, while still in the body, used to do puja-path and naam japa. Second, if after the body was dropped and they were given a place, they were not placed independently but under the mahashakti of some Shakti Peeth or under Bhagwan Mahadeva, with the statement: yes, this one will be worshipped and given bhog, but along with it you must daily do japa of your Mahadev's mantras and his nitya abhishekaA ceremonial bathing of a deity’s image or symbol, usually with water and other prescribed substances.. Where a Shaligram and the like has been installed there, and auspicious shaktis and auspicious energies have been built up — where they are kept with such purity and sattvikta — then, he says, the suffering will not come in that form. A little Laag may still attach, some binding, some discomfort — but still, know this distinction.

The speaker says that very often the situation becomes quite serious because of acts of this kind — though he is not speaking of anything done deliberately. He is speaking of the unknowing case. If someone does it knowingly, that is another matter entirely: there a prayog is being used with a chosen target. But when such things happen unknowingly, a Dosha attaches. The consequence, he says, is that whatever deity the house has — even if it is a pitr-ancestor who has come to be worshipped as KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up. — will tell you in a dream: look, child, such-and-such dosha has been incurred; now beg forgiveness in this way, go to the temple and offer BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats., because this is causing me pain, or it will cause you people pain. They tell you. All of this happens in this way, he says, and this is why one is forbidden ever to exchange such bhog with one another.

Now the speaker comes to why daughters are forbidden — especially where a KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up. is worshipped, the kanya is kept away. One reason, he says, is simply that a regional tradition has come down this way. The second is that a kanya has always been described here as one who will go to another house after marriage; and when she is raised in her father's house, the father has a duty toward her. Go into shastric tradition, he says, and you find that this was a matter of older times, which regional people have carried forward a little. It used to be said that a kanya was given in kanyadan and married at the age of eleven or twelve; gauna — her going to her in-laws — happened five to seven years later. Why? Because people of that time believed that if a daughter living in her father's house remained unmarried and became RajasvalaA woman during menstruation, a state carrying specific restrictions on ritual participation in this stream., her monthly cycle beginning, then whoever's cycle has begun is held to have the form of a woman — and the Dosha of kanya-hatya falls on the father. Nobody follows any of this in the present day, he notes; but those who did believe it married their daughters off. He asks listeners to relate the prasad rule to this clearly. The speaker says that until a kanya is given in dan — before Agni Dev, or by SankalpaA formal ritual resolution spoken aloud before an offering or observance, declaring its intent and dedicating its merit. with the Kalash of Varun Dev established — this form of Bhagavati, born for the increase of the family in which kanyadan will take place and for the running of this world, has not been received by any kul through Agni Dev and the panigrahan sanskar. Kanyadan, he says, has very great importance for this reason: until she has been received by someone, the limit of the shakti seated within that kanya is unlimited. Because of this a Grahan Dosha attaches. He pauses to say this applies where the kul parampara has come down this way, and asks new people not to take up this practice merely from hearing his video — he is only giving information, making clear how it works where it exists, because people ask why. There, when the kanya eats the KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up.'s PrasadWhat returns from the deity after an offering, and is then eaten rather than discarded., a rin mounts on the kuldevata. This is our grahan dosha, because that energy — Bhagavati's energy — is present in the form of the kanya. He reminds listeners of the belief that a child is counted deva-ansh until its thumb goes into its mouth; that there is a detailed account of many such things with their reasons, which he may someday cover on the channel; that children born feet-first have greater tantric significance, are given great importance in tantra and attain siddhis quickly; and that the kumari kanya has great importance in the field of tantra, as listeners will know. So this Dosha mounts — what is called grahan dosha, what is called Rina Dosha. Such families hold firmly that since the kanya has not yet been given in dan to another GotraA family's patrilineal lineage name, stated together with one's own name during a Sankalpa., has not yet been married into another house, has not yet gone to the kul for whose increase Bhagavan and Bhagavati gave her birth, we cannot in our own house give her the deities' BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. and thereby stunt our own deities or bring another dosha on them. That is why it is forbidden, and daughters too are not given the prasad.

The speaker adds a case that, he warns, may sound a little offensive. In some homes the installed shakti is somewhat uncontrolled — there some power will have been very licentious, unrestrained in its lust, and after it went into Abhichara these people gave it a place in the home, by mistake or on the word of some Bhagatvaal sadhak. There the chance of this Dosha is greater: the dosha falls on the daughters, they begin to 'play' — the shakti comes upon them — and trouble begins; and the brides too, the women who came in by marriage, are forbidden to go there. In a sense, he says, such people are nearly trapped. This case is not 100% — treat it as an exception, where something like this is happening because of some mistake. There too knowledge is lacking: they do not fully understand or cannot modify things — how to bring it under control, what to do — and because of their ancestors' error they stay bound there, and such a situation arises. Sometimes they have never known the reason at all.

The speaker insists that there is never a prohibition for the Kula VadhuThe family's daughter-in-law or lady of the house — traditionally responsible for keeping the main door threshold (Chaukhat) clean and daily decorated, with her head covered as a mark of respect., anywhere. Why would the bride not worship? She will certainly worship her kuldevi and KuldevtaThe lineage deity of a family, to be settled with before any other sadhana is taken up.. Whatever the shakti may be, he says, once the bride has come into the kul, it is now that shakti's maryada to keep: this is our daughter, she has come for the increase of the kul, so the shakti — whatever it is — must remain within bounds toward her. Where families do not let brides take part, or hold them back, it is their own lack of knowledge, and they also have to suffer for it now and then without ever understanding why.

The speaker concludes that the BhogThe food offering placed before a deity before anyone in the household eats. of shaktis should not be exchanged or given and taken in this way — or should be kept to a limited extent and in a limited manner. All these things should be kept secret and confined to one's own family, and this knowledge should be passed to one's descendants. Whatever children you have, he says, do not — in the race of modernity — turn them only into dancers and fancy fellows who learn the guitar and this and that; along with those, give them knowledge of dharma and of their own kul's side. And do not, on the other hand, give them so much Vedanta that they stop believing in any of these things at all. Either way there will be difficulty. Give them a middling level of knowledge of their kul's deities in good time. It should not be that they begin searching only when suffering comes — as is happening in the present day, when people search only once they are in trouble. That too should not happen. He closes by hoping that when listeners properly understand these subjects, apply them in life, and pass the knowledge to their children, the kul parampara will be carried on well and they will complete their spiritual journey to dwell in Bhagavati's loka.