Bhairavi
Every question on the site tagged Bhairavi, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
Lord Bhairava's consort — the recipient of one of two paired lemon sacrifices offered alongside Him in the Mahabhairava application ritual.
22 notes from our sourcesNotes from our sources
Daily lemon bali to Bhairav and Bhairavi during the Mahabhairav sadhana
The speaker says the sattvik Bali here is of lemons: at least two every day, one in the name of Bhairava ji and one in the name of Bhagavati Bhairavi, offered daily in the temple during the Mahabhairav mantra japa and at home too when the home prayog is done. Take a green, raw lemon and cut it straight with the stem end — where it hung on the tree — held upward, not across the middle as for sharbat; put Roli on the two pieces, offer them, circle water three times and release it there. After the puja, lift them and dispose of them under some divine tree nearby. This is done through the whole sadhana.
Where do the yamala and tantra granths come from?
It is here, at the point where vairagya arose, the speaker says, that all the tantra granths we read arise — Rudrayamala, Vishnuyamala, Brahmayamala, Bhairavyamala, all the yamala granths, and all the sixty-four granths, the mahagranths, connected with tantra. In some you will see Shakti uvach; in some Parvati uvach; in some Bhairavi uvach. All of these are Bhagavan Shiva in different swaroops giving the knowledge relating to tantra to Bhagavati Sati, or Bhagavati Parvati, or Bhagavati Bhairavi.
What else did Shiva teach Sati besides bhakti?
In this manner Bhagavan Shiva explained bhakti very well to Bhagavati Sati, with all five angas, together with tantra shastra and yantra shastra; and thereafter all the other shastras — vaidya shastra, jyotish shastra, samudrik shastra. He described all of them. It is on account of these very things, the speaker says, that wherever we read them, there appears Shiv vach, Sati vach, Durga vach, Parvati vach, or Bhairav-Bhairavi vach.
Can Bhairavi sadhana be done at home?
Answering Pankaj Jamwal ji, who wants to do Bhairavi sadhana at home, the speaker says that Bhairavi's seva-puja is a tantrokta shakti and her swaroop is tantrokta — so how will you do it at home? Either take proper diksha for a sadhana of this kind, and even then do it not at home but in a Shiv temple, or as the guru orders.
Why do people who do maran karma keep the sahasranama memorised?
Those who do maran karma and such things a great deal — you will see that the sahasranama and satnam stay entirely memorised for them. They will go on doing it constantly. Mala mantras and the rest they keep entirely memorised — sahasranamavali, sahasra mala mantra, sat mala mantra, whatever there is, the whole of their own ishta aradhya, whether Bhairav ji or Bhagavati Bhairavi — they keep it wholly memorised and keep japping it rapidly, because they know that at any moment anyone may return it.
What do the new self-styled tantriks tell people?
In this same sequence come the newly minted young men who become tantriks, the speaker says, using a crude epithet for them. They will tell anyone at all that there is Bhairavi tattva within you, so become a Bhairavi; that one Bhairav can keep more than one Bhairavi, that he can do this and that. He says repeatedly that this thing never happens in that manner, and that the words Bhairav and Bhairavi have in today's time been made disreputable.
Who has actually been called a Bhairav?
He within whom the capacity for bharan-poshan exists has been called Bhairav, the speaker says — and that is never present in any new sadhak. He then asks the real questions: at what time does a new sadhak need a Bhairavi, at what time is Bhairavi deeksha given, and if someone obtains Kamakhya deeksha, in what manner is it obtained, and what has to be done before that.
What is done with that energy, and how is it projected?
To preserve that energy, when they perform siddhi of it, they perform it beneath some yogini of Bhagavati Kali, the speaker says; even if it is perfected independently, it is perfected in that same form. And when it is then fed to someone or has to be projected onto someone, difficulty follows. Sadhaks of this kind today perfect such things — there will be shakti — and then, when some woman in distress comes to them, they tell her there is Bhairavi tattva within you, and have that shakti projected onto her.
Who may perform the Ahuti in a Tantrokta rite, and who may not worship at all?
In Tantrokta worship a Bhairavi performs it too — all women are Bhairavi-svarupa, all are mother-like, and they will offer, with Samagri rather than ghee. But anyone who says a menstruating woman should go and worship or perform a Havan, or that it does not matter during Navratri, will ruin you.
Which mala should be kept if one mala is to serve for all Bhagavati mantras?
Use the Bhairavi mala — the Bhairavi Rudraksha. The nine-mukhi Bhairavi Rudraksha will be the best for this. In the same stretch the speaker also notes that Shiva ji's Panchakshari may be recited on Dattatreya Jayanti.
Which mala is used for Panchakshari japa?
Panchakshari japa is to be done only on a rudraksha mala, he says. And an abhishek of Bhairav and Bhairavi on rudraksha may absolutely be done.
In what circumstances may a woman take the prasad of Bhairav?
Asked in which circumstances a woman may take the prasad of Bhairav, with the questioner adding that even in the Kashi mandir it should not be taken, the speaker says it is not like that. If it is to be seen, then apart from the Kashi kshetra, in other regions, or where the sadhaks and pujaris of a place say that a woman may not take it, it should not be done there. Otherwise, Bhairav ji pujan takes place at home, of Batuk Bhairav ji and so on, and they can take it; and in those mandirs where prasad is given to everyone, all may take it. Where Bhagavan Bhairav ji is present in person with his shakti, where Bhairavi is present, there a woman can do both pujan and prasad — as in the Vindhya kshetra where Bhagavan Batuk Bhairav ji is seated with Bhagavati Bhairavi, there you may do seva puja and may take prasad.
Can a second kavach be worn alongside the Datta kavach?
Asked by a listener who has worn the kavach of Bhagavan Datta whether he may wear the kavach of the 64 Yogini Mata or the kavach of Bhairavi Mata on the right arm, the speaker says he can wear it on the arm, the right arm — yes, absolutely, there is no difficulty.
Why is calling every woman "Bhairavi" a device for exploitation?
He says it plainly: there are not ten Bhairavis. To call everyone Bhairavi, Bhairavi — "there is Bhairavi tattva within you, this tattva is within you" — all this is for the purpose of exploitation. It is a straight matter. And it applies both ways: if you are a man and some woman says this to you as well, which does happen, then guard against it. If you are married and she is married, then think a thousand times more before going into these things.
Five lakh japa does not prove capacity; such a path opens only at a far higher level of capacity.
One may even accept that attainments happen on this path, he says — this subject is very different, set apart. But you should also know this: it will be present only when you have capacity of that level. It is not that we did five lakh or ten lakh japa and then took it that yes, Bhagavati has sent her, she is a Bhairavi, or she is a Yogini. It does not happen like that. If it is so, then, brother, that is a most divine subject: much will be obtained, much will be shown, there will be many correlations, and only then will these things be established as what they are.
Who is worshipped in the principal kaul pujan, and is she changed?
In the sadhanas that take place on the kaul marga, he says — not naming the pujan and asking listeners to relate it themselves — in that principal pujan it is not one's own wedded wife who is worshipped; in her place the other, who is a yogini, in the Bhairavi form, is worshipped. But keep one more thing in mind: she is not changed again and again. She will be one. Whoever she is in life, she will be one alone. The right to change repeatedly is not obtained by everyone; by a guru's adesh that subject is different, and to go that far up is the punya of many births.
Making every woman who comes a Bhairavi is a mentality that cannot produce a high-grade sadhak
Every second or third girl who goes to them to learn tantra vidya or to do things of that kind, he says, they are making into a Bhairavi — become a Bhairavi. People keeping a mentality of this kind, he asks, from where will they become high-grade sadhaks?
Where should the Bhairavi Kavach be fixed, and which shloka recited for the paduka?
You can fix the Bhairavi Kavach on the main door, on the upper side — in a flat or in a house, fix it above the door. And for reciting a shloka, for the puja of Bhagavan Datt and for the paduka pujan, the stuti that is Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu and so forth is the most excellent.
Who are the Bhairavs of the Vindhyachal Shakti Peeth?
Know that in the Vindhyachal Shakti Peeth there is not one Bhairav, he says. Your taking darshan of Lal Bhairav is a very good thing; Lal Bhairav too is Bhairav. Just outside the Vindhyachal temple, Bhagavati Sheetla is on one side and Batuk Bhairav ji on the other — he is the Mai's chief son, whom we call Chandi Hriday Nandan. And on the road directly opposite the temple, the one that goes towards the kotwali, you will find the world's only temple where Bhairav and Bhairavi are together; it has its own mahatmya, and is of the Pauranik age — held to be from the beginning of creation. That too is an old peeth, and it is he who is chiefly worshipped there as Bhairav.
Such people have defamed the name Bhairavi — understand plainly what they mean by it
Understand what the meaning of Bhairavi puja is, he says: they are directly telling her to do wrong, improper acts with them. And such duplicitous people, who tell others to do things of this kind, ought to be beaten with shoes and nothing else. They have defamed the very name Bhairavi. He says plainly that a negative energy is upon her body, a kshudra thing, a base and rotten thing that is doing wrong work upon her body. Boys have this problem too, he adds, but boys do not speak quickly and a separate fear grows in them; girls, when they become greatly frustrated by it, speak trusting someone, and then these wretches give it the name of "Bhairavi puja" — lustful, duplicitous people, of the kind who make one wish to abuse them.
Why are tantric texts structured as dialogues between Bhairava and Bhairavi?
Unlike Puranic literature's cosmological discourses, most tantric scriptures take the form of person-to-person dialogue between Lord Bhairava (representing pure consciousness, the guru) and Goddess Bhairavi (representing dynamic shakti, the disciple/questioner) — a structure the author frames as a deliberate pedagogic tool for transmitting practical instruction (upadesha).
Bhairavi governs death, disease and decay at the Muladhara, standing as Sodasi's correlate in a triadic structure.
Bhairavi is presented as Sodasi's correlate within a triadic structure — where Sodasi governs beauty and the origination of desire (manifesting at the head's energy confluence), Bhairavi governs death, disease, and decay (manifesting at the Muladhara chakra), while also epitomizing a fierce-yet-blissful nature and denoting an advanced female tantric practitioner.
No notes match "".