Shiva Navratri: Panchayatana Worship and Sadhanas for the 9 Days Before Mahashivratri

The speaker says that just as we keep Navratra for Ma Bhagavati Jagadamba, every devi-devata, every shakti, has its own navratra. Take Bhagavati Baglamukhi, the eighth Mahavidya: her prakatya day is ordinarily given as two, by kalpa bhed, and when you go into tantra bhed and meet sadhaks of particular guru paramparas you will find her prakatya place and time differ in each kalpa. In the tantra granthas that are readily available one reads that she descended in Saurashtra on a veer ratri — a Tuesday night — on Chaturdashi, in a nakshatra he cannot recall; another kalpa places it at Baba Baidyanath Dham, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, on a Thursday, Ashtami tithi, at midnight, in Pushya nakshatra. In the same way every shakti has its prakatya day by kalpa bhed, and their special archan-pujan begins nine days before that tithi. It is the same with Shiv ji. Mahashivratri is the most special night for Sadashiv, and the nine days before it are where Shiv ji's navratri begins — in that year, from 10 February. He frames the whole session around this: these are the parva kaal in which special sadhanas can be done for release from every trouble of material life and from prarabdha. If, with the mind rightly surrendered, one does the Sadashiv-related sadhanas in these nine days, then it can certainly be said that if Mahadev shows kripa, even what is not in one's bhagya can be obtained — and that the janma kundali is left where it lies when Sadashiv shows kripa.

Anyone who watched the television serials as a child and analysed them a little, the speaker says, will have noticed one thing: whichever god's serial it was, whichever katha or Purana you pick up and read, Sadashiv is there without fail, Mahadev is there without fail — because without him this world cannot run. From this comes the most special point about Mahadev. However many yagyas, karmakand, tantra-kand and the like we perform in life, whatever puja-paath we do — if we do not do the sadhanas connected with Bhagwan Sadashiv completely, or do them very thinly, leave them out, do them with emptiness, then ordinarily the fruit that ought to come is not obtained.

Why, the speaker asks, is there talk of bhed between Shiv ji and Vishnu ji these days? It existed in earlier times too, and ignorance may be counted a cause. But when someone starts saying the foolish thing that "my aradhya alone is supreme, the rest are merely their servants" — you may be right in your own place, but if you impose it on others and press proofs on them, then proofs are available everywhere by which other devi-mahashaktis can equally be called supreme, and you will have to accept those proofs too. People do not, and that is wrong; it sends a wrong message into society. Some people, he says, have been brainwashed to such a degree — Bhagavati alone knows what sense it is — that they make divisions even within Sanatan: my aradhya alone is supreme, so if their children take Bhagavati's name they are told "no, you are not to take Bhagavati's name". He has seen this in live videos. They go as far as forbidding the puja of Hanuman ji. He does not know where such a nikrisht tendency of mind is coming from, but says: take care never to fall into wrong things of this kind. There may earlier have been some acharya whose good works raised a very large institution that ran well; over time some distortion has crept in, so that this is the teaching now given. Avoid taking such teaching, he says — wherever wrong teaching begins to be given, avoid going there.

The supreme acharyas of the Sanatan parampara, the speaker says — in whose footsteps the land of Bharat was raised, and who are called avatars of Shankar himself — directed that all of us do panchayatan pujan, that is, the pujan of all the devi-shaktis. And for us, Bhagwan is in every particle. Where does the very first beginning happen? When we wake in the morning, the first thing we do is pranam to the Bhagwan within our own selves, in our hands — those who remember it recite the whole mantra "Karagre vasate Lakshmi" while looking at the hands. Then, before touching the ground, we ask forgiveness of Dharti Mata for placing our feet on her: there is chaitanya in that ground too, devatva dwells there too, and we are asking her pardon. Then, among humans, we pranam first those through whom we were born, our mother and father. So here already are three whom we treat as saakshat dev, saakshat shakti — as supreme. After the daily duties, Surya Narayan, who is prakriti: we give him arghya, we pranam him. We pranam Tulsi ji, the Aparajita plant, Shami ji and whatever dev-vrikshas are available. We feed roti to Gau Mata and to the dog. Then, sitting down in the puja room, all the devi-devatas who can be bathed daily — Shaligram shila ji, Narmadeshwar ji, a shivling of any form of Sadashiv — we bathe them, do their shringar, and then do the pujan of all. This sanskar, this bhaav of seeing Ishvar in all and the supreme in all — we do not, when bowing to Prithvi Mata, think "oh well, do it, small Prithvi Mata, the biggest is my aradhya, but fine, what is there in bowing". If we were to pranam only our own aradhya, then in that state we should simply give it up and respect no one else at all. And that, he says, is what such people end up teaching — forbidding even the taking of another devi-devata's name. Avoid such places.

The second thing, the speaker says: when we worship Mahadev, it is held of Mahadev's form that when, in the shivling of Sadashiv, we worship him along with his argha, with Nandi ji, with his serpent, with his weapon the trishul — that whole mandal — then the pujan connected with Sadashiv is done, and in it the pujan of all devi-devatas is done. If daily we only do Shiv ji's abhishek, it is held that the abhishek of all the shaktis in the whole brahmand has been done, the pujan of all has been done. When his pind has been worshipped, the whole universe has been worshipped here. It is complete.

A listener asks: while doing seva in a temple, things offered to Bhagwan fall under one's feet, unwillingly; a dosh must attach — if it does, what is the nivaran? Go into the big temples, the speaker answers — what to say of anywhere else, go to Baba Baijnath Dham itself. The bel-patra and flowers offered on the main shivling of Baijnath Dham are trampled wholesale underfoot. Your foot will land in the argha, in the channel made for the water to flow. After going there one feels how much dosh must have attached — that is the arrangement that has been made there. The nivaran, if it happens by mistake, can only be kshama yachana.

When a negative shakti is within the body, the speaker says, then whenever you begin a sadhana, until that thing leaves the body it will have made its home inside and will give some trouble. As long as the energy of negative shaktis is present in your aabha mandal, you will suffer. Relief comes as soon as your aabha mandal — your sukshma sharir — is freed of it. How? When the energy produced by whatever japa and tapa you are doing becomes greater than the quantity of negative energy present in your aabha mandal. Only then is it cleared. And these beings do not want to leave you. If on anyone's body, because of abhicharik karma, there is a bhoot, pret, pishach or any abhicharik shakti, it never wants to leave that body, because its food is being supplied through you. Whatever pujan-paath you do, they will increase your suffering — so that you do not do it, so that you give it up.

A listener writes that he lives near the twelve Jyotirlingas but they take ₹1100 for a Rudrabhishek — how should he do bhakti, what should he do? If they take ₹1100 and you do not have the means, the speaker says, then do not have it done; do it yourself. Learn to do it yourself. Whoever feels they are not capable of pujan, paath and anushthan — if Bhagwan has not given the means, that is a separate matter — can do it themselves. It is not necessary that the abhishek be done with milk; do it with water, with jal alone. The vidhi-vidhan is on the channel. Mix bhasma into the water, or white chandan powder, or ashtagandha. If even that is not there, mix mishri into plain water and make sweet water. If you keep a shivling at home, do it at home; if it is to be done in a temple, go and do it there. It is not that Bhagwan will be displeased with us if, lacking means, we do abhishek without having the Rudrashtadhyayi recited. He will be completely pleased. Just do it. The vidhi for doing it yourself is on the channel.

It is not a question of proper or improper, the speaker says. Those who have studied the mantras of the Rudrashtadhyayi, who hold acharyatva, who have learned Sanskrit, who have taken on their shoulders the responsibility of serving and carrying forward Sanatan culture — the responsibility for their upkeep is yours and mine. We ought to give to them. ₹1100 is very little, he says: if he told you to recite even one adhyaya of the Rudradhyaya, even one mantra, properly by vidhi and with niyam and nishtha, you would understand yourself whether that money is little or much. Two kinds of brahman are found everywhere today. One kind have truly learned everything by vidhi-vidhan — never mind how their earlier life was, once they came into acharyatva they conduct anushthans by vidhi, and if the yajman asks a question about the anushthan they clear his doubt. Such brahmans should be counted high-class in the present time, because if a doubt stays in the yajman's mind he will not get the full fruit of the anushthan. You have abhishek done with the Rudradhyaya and do not even know what happens by whose paath, what the mantras do, what they say; the brahman-dev should tell you a little, in short — by this sankalpa this happens, some upakhyana. And yajmans too should be such that when they call an acharya, a pandit ji, a brahman to the house, they have the pujan done with shraddha and surrender. If you are not able — if you feel you cannot give the dakshina asked — then say humbly: pandit ji, forgive me, Bhagwan has not given me that much means. Why would he not accept? It is not that he will fight. It is when we start answering back and quarrelling that the trouble comes; if you say "baba, this is all I can manage", he will surely say "no matter, may Bhagavati give you the means to give to this pandit too". But if we say "keep it, how much will you take, I've given this much", then he too will be angry, because that is his upkeep — whether he uses it well or badly is his karma. He gives an example he saw at Ashtabhuji in Vindhyachal: the pandits there size up the visitor's dress — the well-turned-out one is told "yajman, take out ₹1100", and the one who looks to be from a village gets the same full pujan and is told "take out ₹20"; and at every counter, the oil, the ghee, the aarti in your name. He counts that proper; you may decline humbly. It depends on means and on your own gladness. And take it from any field, he says. If you studied medicine, spent lakhs or crores, got your certificate and now sit treating people, you will have a fee — ₹500 — and whether the patient has any trouble or not you will take it for two, four, five minutes; the fee is fixed. Then a brahman who has learned karmakand and is doing your pujan and anushthan properly — if he says give me so much dakshina, where is he wrong? Either you lack the means, or your mentality is set that brahmans loot. If that is how you have set it, then everyone is looting — the doctor is looting, the police who studied are looting, every person in the country; why defame only the brahman? Do not do that. On giving: if you give someone one lakh in trust and he puts it to dharma-karya, the punya is yours and his. If instead he sits drinking beer daily and tours Goa and Manali on it — don't worry, it is not your loss; the trust you gave with will bear fruit for you. Only a small dosh attaches for not having found out properly what the person does. But those who do such wrong things with money meant for dharma-karya fare very badly. Feeding oneself is necessary, but more necessary still is that whatever remains after upkeep be used for seva of people and of Sanatan — and dharma does not mean putting all the money into the temple's service; give it for the poor brothers and sisters of Sanatan.

The first thing, the speaker says, is that two or four troubles are common to everyone's life. Show a kundali and grahan dosh comes out; in a house of five members, one or two will have it. Pitru dosh will come out by some drishti from somewhere; the so-called Kaal Sarp dosh will come out too. Doshas are coming out — and what does a dosh mean? That some shraap has come to us. Rahu in the fifth is sarp dosh; Rahu-drishti is sarp dosh — meaning that at some time one killed a serpent and the curse of nag dosh attached. Grahan dosh, whether of the moon or the sun, is equal to pitru dosh. And if there is no kundali, the signs he has given in videos show it — especially repeated miscarriages in the house, vehicle-related problems, a loss of vahan sukh, and a number of other things. Then, for release from dosh — dev dosh, pitru dosh, something related to one's parents, any kind of shraap, any dosh at all — the first thing to do in this Shiv Navratri is to offer water to Shiv ji after reciting the Rudrashtak. Offer it at home if you wish, or, if possible, go and offer it in a temple. All you need is kesar and a brass lota: put the kesar into the lota, then the water; hold the lota in both hands; recite the Rudrashtak at least eight times — twenty-seven if you have good time — and then pray to Bhagwan Sadashiv: free me from every kind of shraap. Many people give a baddua, a curse — "go, such-and-such will happen to you" — whether you were at fault or not. Sometimes an ill-wish sticks; knowingly or unknowingly people give shraap; someone's heart is hurt because of us. The other person may be very good to us and we to him, and still he may curse unknowingly. Who knows when we hurt whose heart — and the other person weighs our circumstances only up to a limit; this is Kali kaal, and after a point everyone feels "my sorrow is big, yours is small". When "go" comes out of someone's heart, think of it as him letting you go — your ticket has been cut. So for the removal of that too, whoever spoke it in grief — friend, kin, stranger — this should be done, because it is small now, and if it keeps happening it will grow. When we offer this water, what will Bhagwan do, how will he free us from the curse? He will change that person's bhaav towards us, bring good thoughts in him about us. Because such dvesh is not our mool karma or mool thought — Sanatan does not teach it; it comes from the karma we are doing in this birth and the impressions it leaves. So for the removal of every kind of dosh, certainly do this daily from 10 February to 18 February. And if some work of yours has not been getting done for a long time — you have tried and tried, you are exhausted, it simply is not happening — this is no totka: do it with a bhaav of complete surrender for the full nine days.

Someone had asked about the Shiv Sahasranama. To make the Shiv Sahasranama siddh, or to obtain Sadashiv's kripa through it, the best vidhi, the speaker says, is the lotus flower. There is the thousand-petalled lotus, but bring just one lotus; tilak it with kesar, having bathed it and so on; hold it in your hand and first take the sankalpa; and with it still in your hand recite the whole Shiv Sahasranama — at least once, and five or eleven times if you have a great deal of time. Then, after the paath, offer that flower on the shivling. In this way, over the nine days, if you take a sankalpa for some work of yours that has been stalled a long time — "Sadashiv, this work has been stopped so long, make it fruitful" — then recite the Sahasranama and offer it, that is the vidhi. The frame around it holds for every vidhi. Whenever you do any karmakand, a ghee lamp should already be burning; that is, do the opening pujan — panchopachar, dashopachar, shodashopachar, whatever you are doing, and Shiv ji's abhishek — and after that do this work. First of all, before Shiv ji, put rice, akshat, and place the lamp on it and light it. Lamps should be lit in a pair, one for Shiv ji and one for Parvati ji: in Shiv ji all the devatas are included, in Parvati ji all the shaktis, since the ten Mahavidyas manifested from Bhagavati Parvati's own body. So two lamps first. Then offer the water for abhishek — if you want to offer on behalf of your family members too, offer as many lotas as there are members. Then bel-patra, a fine shringar; tripund if you make one. Then dhoop and naivedya — whatever you can, sweets made of milk, fruit — and keep water near him, sweet water to drink; make your nivedan to Bhagwan Sadashiv. Then sit and do your pujan, the Sahasranama paath, in yellow cloth on a yellow asan. On Ganpati: many new temples, and many old ones, have no murti of Ganpati ji, and people ask how and where to worship the prathama-pujya. No difficulty, he says: if you are in a Shivalaya with no murti of Ganpati, Parvati or Kartikeya, place the durva grass meant for Ganpati on Shiv ji's argha; Ganpati ji will accept it, and you go on with the pujan. Two cautions about the flower. Among the nine days, on whichever day falls a Thursday, you are not to pick the lotus yourself from a pond. And before going to a pond, fold your hands and pray: "whoever is the guardian of this pond, whatever yaksha or devata, I pray you grant me the order to take one lotus from this place of yours; I have come to take it for the puja of Shiv ji" — then pranam and pluck. Wherever a flower is picked, from a pond especially, it is done so; and whenever you pick from someone else's garden, you pick after praying this way, because there are van-devatas and van-devis. Going into someone else's ground to pick, who knows what bhoot has been brought and seated there — trouble can come. Go to a lonely place and you will see yantras made and hung on trees; you go to a bel tree to pick bel-patra and have no idea who has been seated beneath it. So whenever you take flowers or leaves from a lonely place, be sure to pray first, so that no dosh attaches — otherwise you went for dosh-nivritti and a new dosh attached. Later in the session a listener says the Shiv Sahasranama is very hard to pronounce; the speaker tells him the simple course: recite the Rudrashtak — "Namami shamishan nirvan rupam…" — the whole Rudrashtak, for nine days.

Some people know in their own lives, the speaker says, that sins of every kind — mental, bodily, spoken — are happening in this birth or have happened before, and they want release. Or a kundali has many yogas under the drishti of paap-grahas, and the jyotishis they showed it to told them these show a very great sinner; and they see it in their own lives — that for these reasons success is not coming, in whatever field. In that situation, do the abhishek of Bhagwan Sadashiv in the names of the twelve Jyotirlingas: twelve abhisheks from each name. The full vidhi has been shown on the channel. If the abhishek cannot be done, then do an ordinary abhishek by vidhi-vidhan, but in a Shivalaya, and sitting there take a Shami leaf. One rule: Shami ji's leaves are never picked on a Saturday; when the puja is on Saturday, pick them on Friday and keep them — they will wilt a little, but kept in water they hold up. Take even a single Shami leaf in the hand and recite the full Dwadash Jyotirlinga Stotra — "Saurashtre Somanatham cha Shri Shaile Mallikarjunam" — at least 12 and at most 108 times, then offer that Shami leaf on the shivling. It is said that by the paath alone the sins of seven births are destroyed; with the Shami leaf offered as well, such sins will certainly be destroyed — so it is held.

If there is a money problem, if debt is not coming off — then in this same period, the speaker says, the Daridrya Dahan Shiv Stotra, but with one small vidhi. Bring and keep the small fruit called krishna draksha, black raisin. Each day you will need twelve raisins, and kesar. Rub the kesar with a little Gangajal mixed in, and mix the twelve black raisins into it. Now recite the Daridrya Dahan Shiv Stotra: take one raisin, recite, offer it on the shivling — do this twelve times. If you can also get twelve bel-patra, place one raisin on one bel-patra, recite, and offer — from this too you will get exceedingly great benefit. Dhan-sampada is obtained by it, and release from debt too. Take care, he says: if you do it in the bhaav of a totka, of an "upay" — we are doing a remedy to get rid of a nuisance — then it will not bear fruit. It is to be done with surrender. And this vidhi is not a totka; it is written in the shastras, with tantrokta pramana. He cannot show the proof on the channel now, but it is written: krishna draksha joined with bel-patra, and madhu is written as well — he is not adding madhu here because it would add one more step and people would call the vidhi difficult. Offering these gives release from debt, and along with it the attainment of dhan-sampada.

After this, the speaker turns to the case where there is a great deal of disease in the body, no release from it, and medicine has no effect on the body. For such a situation there is the Mahamrityunjay Kavach and the like; but it contains beej mantras, so those who know the pronunciation can do that vidhi — he will give its vidhi separately too. It is not to be done for nine days; only five, that is, the five days before Shivratri, so it must begin from about Navami. For those five days do 27 paaths daily. There will be one paath for each nakshatra, and after each paath it is offered. Bilva giri is used in this — the pulp inside the bel fruit. Take it in the hand; do 27 paaths; but you must take with you the names of the 27 nakshatras written out, and on each nakshatra's name — for the first paath, say, Ashwini nakshatra — you say: "O Sadashiv, for the shanti of Ashwini nakshatra, and if any ill effect from it is falling on my body, if any disease born of Ashwini nakshatra is affecting my body, then for its shanti I am doing this paath." Then recite the Mahamrityunjay Kavach. Then the next: if it is Revati, the paath is for Revati; Bharani, then Bharani's; Krittika, then Krittika's — taking every nakshatra's name and reciting the Mahamrityunjay, in the bhaav that they are being pacified. If you go into the full vidhi-vidhan in Sanskrit, each one has its own separate vidhi; he is telling it briefly, simply. Done this way, the bilva giri stays as a single piece in the hand throughout, and afterwards is to be placed on the shivling.

Listen to last year's Sawan lives, the speaker says — four or five, from the Sawan and Mahashivratri period — where he gave a vidhi using tree bark. When we pull the outer bark off a tree, as with a mango tree, gum begins to come out, a sticky liquid. The bel tree has bark in the same way. If these barks are taken off a little firmly from old trees, they come away whole, unbroken, and from them an argha is prepared, a fairly large one. The method: the bark is put into water and left; when it has swollen a little it is bent very gently and given the shape of an argha. That argha is put on Shiv ji — fitted around the shivling like an argha — and then Shiv ji's abhishek is done. In that vidhi astra mantras are used. The Mahamrityunjay mantra is used, and if you go into tantrokta mantras, astra mantras are used as well — the Aghorastra; the Mahamrityunjay Nilkanth astra, which is separate (Nilkanth is not the Aghorastra; the Nilkanth astra is a different astra), used for shatru-nash and the like. Other Mahamrityunjay mantras are used for Lakshmi-prapti — samput mantras; and for shatru-nash it is used for abhichaar-nash. Those prayogas exist, but the vidhi is somewhat involved. He will show it sometime, as he has shown many vidhis in videos — how to do a small prayoga at home. For instance, for rog-nash: make a small argha from the bark of the neem tree, set it around the shivling, and then do Shiv ji's abhishek with mattha; from that, rog-nash happens. That is how the vidhi has been given, and it too can be done.

The full vidhi of praan pratishtha for a murti brought home has been shown on the channel, the speaker says — each step done in Hindi, with very light use of Sanskrit mantras here and there and an alternative given for them. Some have commented that the vidhi is very long and they want a short one; if you want a short one, do it short — what need is there to do that one? It is a matter of karmakand, and there are medhavi sadhaks on the channel who wanted the whole vidhi-vidhan but do not know the Vedic mantras, so a middle way was found: bhaav-purna, but by vidhi — why agni-uttaran is done, and so on. Listen and you will learn. The vidhi done in temples is not the full vidhi either; a temple's vidhi is different. This is the home vidhi, of bhaav: it is not that an achal pratishtha is happening — a wholly ordinary pratishtha is happening, no such mantras are used, you speak all the mantras in Hindi with bhaav and establish Bhagwan. By that vidhi you can do pratishtha. The subject came up because someone asked whether pratishtha is to be done for a shivling of Sadashiv. A Narmadeshwar shivling is never given pratishtha. If you are taking a shivling joined with mani-manikya — of sphatik, of munga and the like — you can do it; the pratishtha vidhi stays the same, using the vidhan related to Mahadev. If you are taking his shri vigraha — of the Shiv parivar, or of Sadashiv alone — and want to do its pratishtha, that too you can. Keep one thing in mind: in the pratishtha of Sadashiv, or of any devi-devata with three eyes, in the netra-unmilan vidhi that he gives, do not make the mistake of opening the third eye as well. That would be a piece of over-smartness; do not do it there. This is a point one needs to know.

The nine days of Shiv Navratra are very important, the speaker says. Those who have been doing a sadhana should repeat it in these nine days. Not a prayoga — not now. He describes what people do: one sadhana of 11 days, and at once the messages start — "Guru ji, my sadhana is complete, tell me the prayoga vidhi", repeat on repeat. Give the prayoga vidhi and then: "Guru ji, it made no difference, nothing is happening." Where would a difference come from, he asks. If ₹10,000 is deposited in your bank, don't spend more than 10,000 and then complain that you wanted to buy a Mercedes and cannot — you said work so many days and then buy it; look at the balance. Here you are going to spend 100 malas; from where will 1,000 malas be spent? Your enemy is no raw player — those who have vichar-karma done do such wicked work; how would it come off so easily? On top of that you ask for the prayogik vidhan when you have not done it with fullness of bhaav — the bhaav is not so much that your energy has been raised very high. Hanuman ji or Sadashiv is exactly as powerful for you as for him; why do their mantras give different fruit to the two of you? Because your bhaav, thought and way of working are different from his. So whenever we go to do a prayoga, before doing it at least its kripa-siddhi should have come; for that, repeat the sadhana and anushthan as many times as possible, and only then will the prayoga, when done, give effect. And in the special parva kaal — Mahashivratri, the Shiv Navratra now coming, the night of Holika coming — it is much better to attend to making the mantras chaitanya than to doing prayoga. In these times only wicked people do prayoga, to harm others — foolish people. Those who are clever, who have a little sadbuddhi given by Bhagwan-Bhagavati, use this time to awaken and make chaitanya their mantras, to make them more effective and active. At other times, if the other person does a prayoga and you are capable of cutting it, you cut it when you take a sankalp and do paath. But when a wicked person misuses this time and does the prayoga right then, whatever tantra-vichar prayoga he did with sankalp will give effect at once, since its capacity is greatly raised then. But what after that? If the other side's ishta is strong, his tapa-bal strong, he will be ill for two, four, ten days, have some trouble, and then he will be fine. And when he takes a sankalp — "for all my known and unknown enemies who have done any tantra-mantra vichar-karma on me or my family, I am doing the anushthan of this stotra, I will do so many paaths, may my sankalp be fulfilled and the enemy be utterly destroyed" — then the one behind it, the Chinese bamboo, will be left nowhere. So first become that capable, he says, then do prayoga. Do not take on big enemies in two or four days or two or four months, because the enemy who has the capacity to use maran vidya on you has made the shmashanik and masanik pretas siddh and pratyaksh. That too is a vidya — bhoot vidya, pret vidya, a nikrisht vidya, a low vidya, but still a vidya — and he stands there having made his devatas siddh and become capable.

Look at all the prayoga-vidhans he has given on the channel, the speaker says: they are not prayogas, they are only nivedan. When you are doing Hanuman Janjira, you are not saying "so-and-so is the name, go and finish that enemy's story". In the Bhairav ji vidhans there are such things, but nowhere has he said to take the name; if you are going to take it, take it at your own risk. Behind you there must be enough capacity that when you take the name and the enemy strikes back, you can then stop him. That is why he has warned again and again: this mistake is not to be made. If you must punish an enemy, leave it to Bhagwan — to whichever aradhya you serve and worship. Do the paath and keep surrendering it to them. If you are doing Hanuman Janjira, surrender it: "Hanuman ji, you look at my enemies, you punish them, you see to it." You are not to say "make so-and-so my enemy, go and do such-and-such to him." When you do that kind of karma, you must have capacity of that kind — you have made some devata siddh, there is a trivacha of that kind — then do it, that is proper. Otherwise take a sankalp for shatru-nash, but surrender it to your ishta and aradhya; do not make the mistake of doing it by taking the enemy's name.

The prayogas related to Bhairav ji are given on the channel, the speaker says, especially for abhichaar-nash — and not ordinary abhichaar but the full kind, where maran prayogas and the like keep being done on someone's house and family. Those in whose lives very strange events in particular are occurring should do Bhairav ji's anushthan in this Navratri: the Bhairav Hriday, Batuk Bhairav ji's Hriday; or the Batuk Bhairav stotra of the Rudrayamala, taking the sankalp of the shatanama and doing its anushthan; or the anushthan of the Mahabhairav mantra, or of the Mahabhairav stotra. Do the anushthan first, and after that its prayoga vidhi; repeat the anushthan again and again. He adds that people at the start, in the sadhak family, keep asking — a message came that very day: "which one should I do, Guru ji?" Some have fixed it every year: in Shiv ji's Navratri and at Mahashivratri, they take the sankalp only of the Nilkanth Aghorastra and do its anushthan by vidhi. He has only one stotra done by his mool sadhaks — those who follow his subject, accept it, learn, and are themselves very capable — and it has been fixed at one time: at Shivratri we will do only Aghorastra siddhi, only its japa; everyone's is fixed. So those who want to enter the sadhak family, or walk with sadhanas, should understand this: settle in one place. Do not keep attending only to "we have done so much, when will the effect come, when will the effect come". The one who gives the effect is seated there; he will give it, not you or I. Do you have the capacity to move a single leaf? No — nor does he. But Bhagwan says: all things happen by my will alone.

Recite the Shiv Mahapuran, the speaker says, and right at the start of its Vishveshwar Samhita you will find this. Everyone knows that on Mahashivratri Shiv ji and Parvati ji were married. But that is not all of it. Even before the marriage, this is the tithi on which — by kalpa bhed, one kalpa differing from another — Bhagwan Sadashiv first appeared in the form of the Jyotirlinga. In one kalpa it is held that he appeared on the Krishna Paksha Tritiya of Margashirsha, in Ardra nakshatra; that tithi is accepted too, it is not wrong, and different Puranas describe it in different places; it becomes a matter of kalpa bhed. On this day Sadashiv first took murta form, gave himself the shape of a pillar. That is why the day is so special. You should also know, he says: the form of Sadashiv we first see as a man — three-eyed, serpent at the throat — what was his first form? It was not with one face alone. He has been five-faced; Panchanan is Bhagwan Sadashiv's complete svaroop. Another form: at Kamarup Kamakhya we worship Bhagavati Kameshwari, Ma Kamarup Kamakhya, and her shakti Kameshwar Mahadev — both are held to have the Panchanan face; Bhagavati Kamakhya has six faces, Kameshwari five; and going into kalpa bhed here too you come to bhed of form and name — Kameshwar Mahadev, Kameshwari, two shaktis; the shakti of the Kamakhya Shakti Peeth becomes separate; and going into Shri Vidya in the kula of the Mahavidyas, the dhyana mantra you read will be different again. So the bhed are many. You need only know this much: Mahashivratri is in itself exceedingly special, exceedingly particular. And if for the nine days of Shiv ji's Navratra we do sadhana and aradhana with these subjects, it is very good; special fruit is obtained.

If you do not have much time, the speaker says, and want to take up just one thing and still want fruit — especially related to wealth — then at godhuli bela, in the evening, at the very time we do sandhya vandan, recite the Shiv Tandava Stotra. And if the bhram sits in anyone's mind that the Shiv Tandava Stotra should not be recited at home — where people bring such ideas from, Bhagwan knows; sometimes he feels he has landed in the wrong circle. Do not nurse such a bhram. It is written in the Shiv Tandava Stotra itself — read the end — that whoever recites it after pujan at sandhya time, Lakshmi will stay in his house with stability, with chariots and elephants — meaning the attainment of all dhan-sampada. So in the evening you can do this work. Begin from Shiv Navratra and then keep doing it for the rest of your life; you will soon get to see its effect — if you do it at the right time.

A listener's fifteen-year-old son writes: "Uncle ji, how much puja must a janeu wearer do every day?" Look, child, the speaker answers — trikala Gayatri is what has been said. But by desh, kaal and paristhiti, let it at least be this much: that pujan-paath happens every day, morning and evening. And if even that cannot happen, then while giving arghya to Surya Narayan let the Gayatri be recited mentally at least five times; even then that fruit is obtained. That much one must certainly do. The full vidhi-vidhan is not possible in the present time; trikala Gayatri, trikala sandhya, is what has been prescribed.

A listener writes that Ma Manasa Devi finds no mention in any Purana — so how did her worship begin? Where, why, who has said that no mention is found in the Puranas, the speaker asks. Have you read all the Puranas? Who has said that Bhagavati Manasa Devi's katha is found nowhere in any Purana? If you say Manasa Devi is not mentioned at all, then think for yourself: the whole Mahabharat becomes wrong, the whole Shrimad Bhagavat becomes wrong. Consider why he says so. If Bhagavati Manasa does not exist, then Raja Parikshit's katha becomes wrong too — and then Kaliyug itself becomes wrong here. You have said a very big thing, he tells him: if Devi Manasa does not exist, you have spun the whole brahmand around.

A listener asks whether dev shaktis can truly give an order in a dream to do their sadhana, or whether some other shakti does it to mislead. Both can happen, the speaker says, and you have to think according to the sense you had at that time. Whether a dream-order came rightly, from the right shakti — a video is already available on how this is found out, with some common checks. First we look at the nadi: whether the Surya nadi or the Chandra nadi was running at that time — though it also depends on which side you were lying on, right or left. By nadi vigyan — Chandra and Surya, what are called Ida, Pingala, Sushumna — we decide whether the dream we just had came as direction through a dev shakti, or is an ordinary daitya shakti, some negative shakti. That is one way. Second: when our sleep breaks, if it was a dev shakti, the surrounding atmosphere will be extremely clear, calm and gentle. Some particular kind of fragrance may be sensed as well — it can be sensed even in half-sleep. But if it was a negative energy, then after getting up you will suddenly feel slightly afraid; the atmosphere will feel fearful; nothing will feel good. And until your aabha mandal is sensitive enough to receive all these things, such direction does not even come. A trishanku sadhak — one still in the middle of sadhana — keeps having all these things happen, and it becomes a little hard to understand.

A listener asks why more anger comes from japa of Ma's mantra, and how to reduce it. It is not only from Bhagavati's mantra, the speaker says — ordinarily it will happen with japa of any mantra — and it can be understood two ways. First: when we sit as sadhaks and do japa, the moment Muladhara begins to activate — our Muladhara is right by our asan, and it is the first to become active — kama and krodha both come first: the surge of desire rises, and a great deal of anger comes. This is the starting phase of sadhana, and the one who has lordship and control over that chakra is Bhagwan Ganpati. That is why Ganpati is prathama pujya, why Ganpati pujan is done first — so that once Ganpati has controlled these things and is pleased, then whenever we do further sadhana, when the surge of kama and krodha comes, Ganpati establishes control over it and such difficulties do not arise. But how much Ganpati sadhana do we do? "Gajananam bhutaganadi sevitam" — said, done. A very special sava lakh japa hardly anyone does; 11,000 or 21,000 finished in a day, two, three, sadhana over. So the effect is of that size too. Now you are about to do five lakh, nine lakh of Bhagavati's mantras, and of Ganpati ji you did a mere 5,000 — the control will be in the same proportion. That is why it is said: Guru, Ganpati first; after Guru and Ganpati, Bhairav ji, then Hanuman ji, and only then the main sadhanas — with the kula devi-devatas and the rest before as well, since their kripa can be obtained this way. If you go straight to japa of the main mantras, this will happen. Second: what the nature of the mantra is, and if it carries a beej mantra, whether you are pronouncing the gakar, the makar, the anusvar and so on correctly. The effect on your body will follow from that. Take Bhagavati Kalika's beej mantra: will we sound the gakar or the makar in it? When is gakar to be sounded, when makar? If that is not known and we do it straight backwards, it will give trouble in the body. Along with this, by shatchakra one must also see which of the six chakras is strong and which weak; if a chakra is not balanced, the quantity of anger in your body will rise. If you say you are getting very much anger — set aside the first subject, leave Muladhara — then your navel chakra, the energy of the navel, will be unbalanced somewhere. Ram is the agni beej: if you are doing japa of mantras related to it, or whatever beej is included in your japa, and doing it wrong, then your energy will rise, you will not be able to control it, and a great deal of anger will come. So it is necessary to know one's own prakriti and so on — when you are about to do sadhana in very large quantity, these subjects should be known.

A listener asks whether the coconut deepdaan taught for Deepavali can be done on every special parva. Yes, absolutely, the speaker says — he has said too that whatever special parva kaal comes, it should be done; Magh Purnima has just gone. There are so many subjects he cannot keep them all in mind, and he asks listeners to message him ahead of a parva so he can repost the reminder for everyone to do deepdaan. He mentions two sadhikas in Haridwar, sisters, who do Bhairav ji's full deepdaan on every Krishna Paksha Ashtami, and another sadhak who does it and sends it — he himself sometimes forgets that Bhairav deepdaan is to be done on Ashtami, so big is his own daily niyam, and they send it from there: "see, the whole deepdaan is done", by the full vidhi, every Krishna Paksha Ashtami until now. So if you have the means, do it fully; otherwise do a little. But the coconut deepdaan vidhi he had given — the deepdaan of 108 wicks, how it is done in less, how it is made in the coconut — that is overall: for the destruction of negative energy, for the obtaining of wealth, for everything. The pitr are satisfied by it, the devatas are satisfied. So do it every Purnima and on every parva kaal as it comes: Saraswati Puja has just gone, it was to be done then; on Magh Purnima it was to be done. Now Shiv ji's Navratri is coming, so certainly do it on Mahashivratri. Then do it on the Falgun Amavasya. Then on the night of Holika. Someone will say: here colours are to be thrown and you are telling us to do a Diwali thing — do both, he says; you will get a fine fruit from it.

A listener writes that her daughter was born in Shraddh, on a Saturday in Shani Pushya nakshatra, and everyone says it is not good — that a child born in Shraddh has hardship in life. Tell me one thing, the speaker says: whoever said that — is there no hardship in his own life? It cannot be said that because the birth was in Shraddh it is a birth of hardship. And as for a Saturday birth in Pushya nakshatra — ask the one who said it, just once: who is the lord of Pushya nakshatra? Who is the devata of Pushya nakshatra, and who its lord? Ask them, and then let them explain how a birth on Shani Pushya went wrong. People have heard of Guru Pushya and Ravi Pushya; if a birth is on Shani Pushya they say it is not right — then which graha is the lord of Pushya nakshatra, whom is it held to be? Certainly ask those who said it. And that a birth in Shraddh Paksha means hardship all life long — where is that proper? He adds: keep in mind that the lord of a nakshatra and its devata are two different things; he has spoken of both the lord and the devata of Pushya. Do not be misled. Everyone has hardship in life; everyone, you or I, is born to work off their prarabdha. Do not blame the grahas and nakshatras.

A listener asks whether bel-patra or flower petals should always be kept on the shivling at home, and whether Nandi ji, Vasuki ji and the trishul should be kept too. A very right question, the speaker says, and yes, it should be done. At home or anywhere, the mastak of a shivling is never left bare — because Shiv ji is the raja of the whole brahmand, the maharaja, the maharajadhiraj, and a king's head never stays uncovered. Always keep a mukut on it. If you cannot put on a mukut, then certainly an unbroken grain of rice should be offered, or a bel-patra should be there; and if bel-patra is not possible, because you cannot get it daily, then a silver bel-patra — you can offer a silver bel-patra. But never bare. With it, certainly keep the Vasuki serpent — a five-faced serpent, if you keep one, is best — and Nandi ji must be there, and his trishul must be there. Later a listener says his brass shivling has a round head with a projecting point, so that rice or anything offered on the head slides off. Two things can be done, the speaker says: either have a small silver mukut made, or, if you do not want silver, bring the pretty cap-style mukut that comes these days for Kanha ji and put that on Mahadev. Change it for a new one every month, on each masik Shivratri. The head simply must not stay bare.

A listener asks: their four-year-old son's kundali shows Kaal Sarp dosh — can they, as parents, do rudrabhishek for him, and nine days of pujan for the pitr as well? The first thing, the speaker says: a four-year-old child's kundali is not shown. There is a dosh of the bal-grahas — at the time of birth, at Shashthi and the like, when the janma kundali is first made, the pandit tells you, for the years up to thirteen, that at this and this time you are to have this and this done, this shanti had done. In between, no kundali is shown and nothing is read. If Kaal Sarp dosh is being told — fine, let us grant it — then you can do it yourself, there is no difficulty: rudrabhishek and the rest, and all the pujan you wish, taking sankalp. When the listener clarifies that the kundali was not shown later but this was told at the time of birth when it was made, he says: then that is fine — that is exactly what he was saying, that at that time they tell you that in such a year, at three or four years of age, this problem will be there and this is to be had done. You may certainly have a rudrabhishek done; speak to a pandit ji and have it done on some day of Shiv Navratri.

A listener asks about taking a sankalp to have darshan in a dream and to speak with the deity. In his view, the speaker says, these things happen of themselves — they will come on their own when we begin to do sadhana with surrender. He points to a sadhika commenting in the live: her state sometimes reaches the point of saying "today there was no darshan", yet she lives an entirely ordinary, simple life; it is not that she displays much — she does not give her real name, does not show herself off before anyone — and that is what we must become. When you go down into sadhana, this begins to happen regularly; darshan in dreams begins. There is no need to do a separate swapna siddhi. So he would say: do not take such a sankalp — whether it will succeed or not, he cannot say. But do sadhana with surrender: any of the Mahadev-related sadhanas that have been described, or one of your own wish — kripa will surely come; he can surely give darshan.

Several listeners ask about the lemon on the Bhairav trishul, and the speaker's answers together make one teaching. One says the Bhairav trishul is small and a lemon does not fit — what to use? What smaller than a lemon could serve for bali-chhedan, he asks; he himself puts a lemon on last of all. If you go discovering something new, that needs thought. If the trishul is small, put a flower on it — any flower can be put on it — but a trishul should at least be big enough for a lemon to fit; if one lemon sticks on each of the three prongs, that will do, and even a thin one will take a lemon. Another asks whether two separate trishuls at home, one for Ma Kali and one for Mahadev, bring a dosh — no, why would it, he says; both hold the trishul, it is good. And where there are three trishuls, in Ma's hands and so on, the lemon is put only on the iron trishul kept in Bhairav ji's name. On changing it: he had said the lemon on the trishul is changed every Saturday. If Saturday is not possible — the listener asks what to do when she is unwell that day, whether to leave it or have her mother take it down — then it can be done on Sunday or Tuesday as well. Where to release the old lemon: either under a dev-vriksh, or, if there is a river, in the river — you have the Ganga near you, release it in the Ganga. Several may be kept and released together.

A listener asks what kasht a family suffers when a boy is born after three girls. Such a boy has been called a tetar, the speaker says. If after three girls the fourth child is a boy, it is held to bring kasht to the mother and father; it is held to bring kasht to the elder brother — harm related to health, harm related to wealth. This is not some kupratha, he says; there has been a reason for it. It has stood in lok-prachalan too; for it there is dosh-nivritti as well; and it has also been seen that the boy, later on, becomes a cause of klesh and kasht in the family — especially for the elder brother, he says, and for an elder sister and the like as well.

Now one special thing, the speaker says. In these nine days, what would be best of all? If you are doing some special sadhana, very good, or you have some special wish — but if you want only the kripa of Bhagwan Sadashiv, and, say, you are doing some ordinary anushthan in which you want Sadashiv's kripa, then in this Navratri, Shiv ji's Navratri, for the full nine days do the paath of the Puranas connected with Bhagwan Sadashiv. If the Shiv Mahapuran, then recite as much of it as you can; or recite any one samhita — the Vishveshwar Samhita, the Rudra Samhita, the Kailash Samhita — that is, one of its parts, its whole paath completed within the nine days. With this sankalp: that I obtain the kripa of Bhagwan Sadashiv and Bhagavati Parvati, and by their kripa attain dharma, artha, kama and moksha, all four purusharthas. It is not nishkam — it is kama — but if you do it here by a separate vidhi-vidhan, that is, if you do the paath related to the Puranas, you will certainly obtain special fruit.

A listener asks: if someone has done bandhan from every side, which puja can be done in Shiv Navratri? For freeing from bandhan, the speaker says, the Shiv-bhakt, the Shiv-avatar, the Rudra-avatar Hanuman ji is fully capable. He who can free the nine grahas from bandhan — why would he not free you and me? If there is some special, difficult situation of that kind, you can do an anushthan related to Hanuman ji.

A listener asks him to make a video on Pratyangira with the prayoga included. He does not make such videos at all, the speaker says. On the channel there is a playlist, Baglamukhi Tantra Rahasya, where one or two videos related to Bagla will be found. Pratyangira is a krama vidya. Not everyone watches every video on the channel — nearly 500 now — and if he put Pratyangira up directly, everyone would know, the vidhi would be made clear, and they would start doing it at once. This is a prayogik vidya: energy is not built in it, it is spent; in it you are giving orders to the Devi, not asking her for tapa-bal. It is a different vidhi-vidhan, and he cannot give it this way. It will surely happen in future that when the group of mool sadhaks — those doing sadhana over a long time, at present ten or fifteen with whom he talks comfortably — grows large, then through the membership such videos will be made practically, with access only for those members. At present he cannot give it publicly; it is not proper either. Another listener says Bajrang Baan or Pratyangira comes back on him and asks for an upay. That is a very difficult thing to say, the speaker answers; it is a matter for looking into — if it is coming back on you there is surely some reason, and it will become clear in discussion. There can be many causes: the very first can be your own kula devi-devata. As for your enemy sending Pratyangira back — that is not possible in that way; some basic mistake must be being made.

A listener asks whether a woman can recite the Kamakhya Kavach even while rajaswala. It is given on the channel, the speaker says, that every person, a rajaswala woman, can do it at any time — the topic itself is titled: the kavach that protects even in ashuddhi, the Kamakhya Kavach. For reciting it while rajaswala: she is not to go to the puja place, not to light dhoop or deep, not to go to the place of the devatas. Having bathed, standing anywhere outside the puja place, with folded hands, she recites it mentally — that much is enough. And no other paath can be done in that state.

A listener asks whether the names will bear fruit without diksha. Why would they not, the speaker says — take the name with that much surrender and they will bear fruit. And it is from their very fruit that you will then receive diksha — but only if there is that much surrender. Another asks whether the name of a Mahavidya form can be japped publicly. For name japa there is no difficulty; you can do it. Just do not attach any beej mantra to it. A third says a brother told him that without diksha only Ram ji's name should be taken, since through it one's own ishta is also japped. No, the speaker says, that is not so — those are the bhaav of the one who said it. If you have shraddha in Bhagwan Ram, take his name; if your shraddha is in Bhagavati, then take her name. Take the name of the one you have shraddha in, and you will get across. Writing the name counts as mental japa; it comes under both.

A listener asks the speaker's view on taking money to do havan for others — as when someone gives money and has it done by a capable sadhak. On this he can say only this much: if there is dev kripa, or some devi-devata has told you, or your guru has told you, and you are that capable, then you can. Because whenever we do sadhana, pujan or havan for another for money, or do japa — why is it said that one cannot digest a brahman's wealth? In truth it is not the brahman's wealth but the sadhak's that cannot be digested; that is how it should be put. When a sadhak takes a sankalp for another person, then all the bad circumstances of the one for whom he took the sankalp and japped, whatever dosh and the rest, will come and fall on him — since he is doing it for their parihar. That is why it was said, "only have it done by brahmans" — the point was not merely "by a brahman". The meaning of brahman there was: those who were born brahmans were sent from the very start to Vedic study, were taught pujan-paath from the start, had trikala sandhya and Gayatri done from the start, so their tapo-bal stayed. When an ordinary person does japa for another in this way, and does not do trikala, or having once got mantra-siddhi for himself does not do much japa afterwards, does not do havan for himself, does not regularly worship the devatas — then as soon as he does it for another, whatever dosh the other has will fall on him, and his family will reach the brink of ruin. One may ask: we know brahmans who do very wrong things, yet perform others' puja-paath and live in comfort. No difficulty — in the coming time, he says, you will meet brahmans who say "my grandfather was so learned, had such shaktis, such siddhi, was a crorepati, and today we have nothing". The grandfather's punya was strong; he enjoyed it and went, but the descendants are paying. It happens to all. So — if you have that much capacity, you can.