Should You Stop Worshipping Family Deities Because a Guru Says So?

The speaker says the first thing is this: whoever you hear about, whose experience makes you go towards doing that sadhana, you must first find out well what the method will be, what the paddhati will be, what the tradition will be. For example, he says, we all know that in the worship of the Mahavidyas forms at home, we cannot do the upasana, sadhana or anushthan of Ma Dhumavati or Bhagwati Chhinnamastika at home. But suppose someone tells you: "brother, I have done Dhumavati sadhana with Bhagwati Baglamukhi; I do japa at home with Baglamukhi given a Samput of Dhumavati's mantras, and I got such-and-such results." These experiences are in place after place on Facebook and on YouTube; hearing them you too wish to do it, or do it, and from that you suffer loss. So why is it, he asks, that one person got that thing to bear fruit and you did not? And if you are going to do something new and leaving the old, what difficulties begin to arise? These, he says, are the questions he will take up.

The speaker frames a common question from the messages he receives: we have been worshipping certain devi-devatas for 5, 10, 15 years or for generations, and a person in the position of a Guru says to stop all these pujas for some days and begin a new sequence — worship of some new form, or guru-puja, worship of the guru's feet. Should the home's worshipped deities be left? A second version: the same deity's other form — we have long worshipped Batuk Bhairava at home, and now we are told to worship Bhishan Bhairav instead. His first point is that we throw the sufferings and troubles of our lives entirely onto the devi-devatas: "brother, if we change the devata, change the devi, our things will change too." To some extent that is right, he says, but not by leaving the old one — they are not bhoot-pret, brother, they are devi-devata. If for some reason they are not giving fruit, then their own bigger anushthans should be done. Suppose you have been doing Batuk Bhairav's puja for 15 or 20 years, there is a childlessness problem in the house, and someone tells you it is pret-badha or some such problem, so you should do Bhishan Bhairav's sadhana or anushthan for a long period, three months, six months — and along with it they have surely also said "do not do Batuk Bhairav's puja." If you stop his puja, leave him completely, install his new form and start worshipping that, then somewhere or other it will not give you full fruit properly; it will cause trouble, without fail. Old worshipped devi-devatas, he says, are never left like that. Do the new puja alongside their puja.

The speaker says that when you feel the deities established in your house are not giving fruit in proportion to your labour — the time you give to puja-path, the japa you do — you should have a big AnushthanaAn extended ritual observance — such as 108 recitations of a scripture — carrying its own strict rules. of theirs done. Or first look at your whole situation properly according to jyotish and according to tantra, and accordingly get an anushthan performed at home relating to Mahadev and Bhagwati. What this does, he says: when a Mandala puja happens — a Navagraha mandala will be made, a Sarvatobhadra mandala, many many kinds of mandalas — then whichever devi-devata's gracious glance was stuck anywhere, all of them are worshipped in many ways and all become satisfied. Once a chandi-yajna has been held, so many devatas and upadevatas are all satisfied, and after that you begin to get full fruit. If you are not able to have so large an anushthan performed, then on both days, Poornima and Amavasya, give Ahuti through the mantras of your own established deity's murti, whatever form it is, according to the problem. If you have installed Batuk Bhairava and there is trouble in begetting a son, do Havan with kheer or with ghee. If the problem is about money and Batuk Bhairav is installed, take the mantra in Batuk Bhairav's form that is for aapada-uddharan, rescue from calamity, and do havan with that mantra using mustard oil and bel leaves. If obstacles have come because someone has used tantra and so on, do havan with black pepper using Batuk Bhairav's 108-name list. Havan, he says, becomes a very big medium. Through havan we can satisfy the deity and strengthen him; and if some vachan has attached, or some tantra prayog has been done, its cutting happens. It does happen — but you have to continue it for a long time: keep doing it on every purnima, amavasya, ashtami and such days.

The speaker says that when you go over to a new form and leave the old forms, the trouble does not get solved there. You are in the delusion of maya that things get solved; that "experience" exists only for marketing. So if you are ever taking up a new form, it is never by leaving the old — it should be done alongside. Or, he says, there is a fixed time for the new form: "we will do only this much anushthan" — for as long as that form's sava-lakh AnushthanaAn extended ritual observance — such as 108 recitations of a scripture — carrying its own strict rules. lasts, the old form's dhoop and deep will keep going; the new form was given anushthan for so many days, and then Visarjan was done again. But one should never do this: seat the new form, lift the old form and immerse it in the river, and worship the newly installed form. Troubles will then start to come to you in a different way. Everything, he says, has a process.

The speaker says that a devi-devata established in the home is never to be removed, even if the greatest of great persons tells you to. Does such a thing happen? Nowadays it does, he says: a wife comes into the house, so send the parents off to an old-age home. This must never be done; sanatan culture gives no order for it. The sanatan tantra texts, the path of tantra in whatever Guru tradition, never say: "brother, when you install a new devi-devata in the house, do visarjan of the old one." If the murti is khandit, if there is some problem in the Shri Vigreh, some impurity has come, some dosh has attached, then you may again establish a good form of that deity. Bringing an upgraded version — a well-made, beautiful murti, a bigger murti — that is a separate matter. But completely changing that deity's form itself and installing a new form, and that too by insulting it, treating it in a disrespected manner, is wrong in its place. And even if you have left it all at once, it must not be neglected either: the home's Shri vigrahas must never be neglected.

The speaker takes the case of a home where Hanuman ji has been installed, and someone says: leave Hanuman ji's puja now, do only and only guru ji's puja. This is running everywhere nowadays, he says — guru ji's puja; guru is fine, but today everywhere it is only guru ji who must be worshipped. So you are doing guru ji's puja — while your parents and their parents had one murti of Hanuman ji, a Ram darbar, established in the house for a long time, and its seva and upasana was going on. A little trouble came in the field of work. You went to some very big marketing-type Guru ji, whose name you had heard a lot, seen and heard on YouTube; you brought his photo, and from there a mala, a yantra, everything, installed it and began the puja: "we will worship guru ji; worshipping guru ji will set everything right." Whether guru ji's puja will do anything or not — that delusion will remain with you separately, he says; that is one thing apart. But the one by whose grace and blessing three or four lineages and generations moved forward — and over one small thing you are changing the form, changing things, not doing their puja-path — that one will then start giving you trouble. And it will not be Bhagwan Shri Ram who comes to give the trouble there. Here, he says, comes the matter of bhav-pradhan versus karma-pradhan, kriya-pradhan: the kriyas you used to do — rising at a fixed time every day to offer bhog, reciting the Ramavatar daily.

The speaker says it is said that wherever Bhagwan Shri Ram's stuti is done, wherever the chaupais of the Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas and the shlokas of the Ramayana are read, Shri Hanuman ji can be present listening — in subtle form, or, if the level of bhakti is quite high, even directly, in some other form. When Ram-katha and stutis are heard, know that the Ganas of Rudra, Bhagwan Shiva's ganas, come in part, because Narayana is dear to Bhagwan Shiva. All of Hanuman ji's servants — those established as lok-devatas in folk custom, and chiefly his vanar ganas in place after place — are present everywhere, and wherever Shri Ram's puja is happening they will go there in subtle form, daily and regularly. In the same way, if you are worshipping a Mahavidyas, her servants and upasaks who are in folk custom, in the form of lok-devatas and lok-ganas, will go there. So their coming and going remains continuous. In such a condition, he says, suppose that because of some karma of yours, some PrarabdhaThe portion of destiny already set in motion by past actions — spiritual practice and good deeds can lessen its severity, but not eliminate it., for six months or a year you had a loss in business, trouble came in the family, the difficulty grew big. And you set aside your established deity and everything with it: "no, now we will not read the Ramavatar, we will not recite these shlokas, these stotras, we will not do this havan; leave what we used to do, nothing is coming of it, the trouble has grown. We will do only guru ji's puja, guru ji's paduka puja; with guru ji's puja every puja is done, the worship of the entire brahmand lies at guru ji's feet, guru ji this, guru ji that." Do not make this mistake, he says. All those whose coming and going was happening, the subtle atmosphere that had formed, the deities whose presence was always there — when they become angry, "brother, how can you even think of insulting my upasak?" — these things you must understand. Then the real trouble begins, and no guru ji will be able to save you. Then your faith will waver from here: faith in guru ji gone, faith in your own devi-devatas gone — where will you go then?

So, the speaker says, do not change the deity, do not change the murti, do not change the form — rather do the big anushthans of that same deity in that same form. If it seems that "we have been doing five malas for ten years and nothing is happening", then increase it. In good parvas — some Navratri, Shivratri, or the good months where there are many days and some tithi of the deities is already in use and established — do their big anushthans in all of those; have them performed by calling sadhaks, and if you do not know how yourself, learn, and do it after learning. It is no great rocket science to do for oneself. But do not live in delusion, and do not put the deities out of the house. If you go by sanatan tradition, he says, then whenever trouble comes in these matters — trouble does not mean parents are changed: "there is suffering in life, so change the parents"? Does that happen? No. One has to do their seva-puja. It may be that by our PrarabdhaThe portion of destiny already set in motion by past actions — spiritual practice and good deeds can lessen its severity, but not eliminate it. some suffering is coming in life. His whole point today, he says, was this: O scholars — do not, caught up with today's great scholars, put out of your house the devi-devatas and the pindas worshipped by your kul. You may remove something thinking it a mere pinda of clay; later that same clay pinda will lay your pinda, and then you will go about giving pind. So never make this mistake, on anyone's say-so. The home's devi-devatas are worshipped and must remain so daily; if they stay worshipped lineage after lineage, only then will there be welfare. Because of suffering, because of the troubles life brings, one should do the big anushthans of those same devi-devatas and learn their extended puja.

The speaker says: watch, the bhav will come. If you are doing the upasana of Bhagwati Durga or of Bhagwati Kali, have been doing it for ten years, and "this is not happening, that is not happening" — never mind. Learn the Aavaran Puja of the Yantra. Satisfy every devi-devata, every one of their Ganas, every one of the Bhairavs. Do their havan, do the japa of their mantras, and especially on the day of Amavasya go to their temple and offer there. They will themselves show you there, he says. It may be that some influence of the planets is falling on you; then whatever lies in whose jurisdiction will be shown to you through your Ishta Devata, and you will come to know — "ah, so that is it." Then some such medium will form: some right person will meet you and tell you, "fine, the puja-path you do — for so many days at least…" It may be, for instance, that a mahadasha of the great planet Shani is running, so they will say: do the japa of these mantras of Shani Dev for so many days. Done, he says: that planet's jurisdiction is completed as well, you have come out of all these things, and you will not have to do all that much.