Family
Every question on the site tagged Family, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
Notes from our sources
Why should a protective ritual against dark influence be kept secret from an afflicted household?
If other family members are also under dark influence, a protective ritual should be carried out quietly and without announcement, rather than declared to the household in advance.
How can a pre-marital or extramarital relationship transfer negative spiritual influence, and why does its effect often appear years later?
A relationship with someone from a household that worships spirits or ancestral entities through non-vegetarian and alcohol offerings can transfer that element to a partner's body, with effects — often on health or childbirth — surfacing only years after the relationship has ended.
What can be done if a spouse becomes irritated or troubled whenever worship or sadhana is performed at home?
If the irritation stems from a negative influence on the spouse's body, discreetly consecrate salt and sugar with the mantra or Kavach already being practiced and have them consume it without being told; if it is simply behavioral resistance, address it through calm conversation.
How can a household resolve severe black magic (Abhichara) affecting the family?
Perform repeated field-protector offerings (Kshetrapal Nikari) — this offers sacrifice to all lingering spirits and entities through Kshetrapal Bhairav, pacifying them.
Black magic never strikes suddenly: it takes hold where worship has lapsed
The speaker says no Abhichara ever lands on a person "with a jolt", out of nowhere. It only appears sudden for those who have done no worship, path or special anushthan for a long time — a lamp once on Diwali, a little incense in Navratri, and nothing more. Where auspicious energy is not present in proper measure, he says, that is where the trouble comes.
Daily lamps at the kshetrapal temple: why the regional guardian must be approached
The speaker's second task: path alone is not enough; one must go regularly to the temple of the area's Kshetrapal, Gram Devta or gram devi. His reason: those doing Abhichara cannot act without the kshetra rakshak — they always give worship to the gram devta, Dih Baba and kshetrapal — so approaching the same deity puts a block in place against the enemy. If the guardian is unknown, the oldest temple in the village or city is taken as that seat. There, every day, two medium atta-deepak lamps of mustard oil: one for the temple's guardian, one for the family's protecting shaktis (Kuldevi or Kuldevta, known or not), with a prayer for the home's protection.
Distress during an anti-black-magic anushthan is expected: self-effort over dependence
The speaker says that through the whole anushthan any bodily suffering or disturbance at home should be ignored as far as possible: the entities being removed see the effort and will give trouble. Complaining that "everything I do makes it worse, there is no power in this, I have no time" is, he says, one's own problem. Putting the burden on someone else does not mean a permanent solution — only two to four in a hundred get solved that way — and while the enemy is awake and repeating Abhichara, one cannot stay dependent forever; get the abhichaar destroyed by others but prepare oneself too. He adds that 90 to 99 percent of people only seek a solution after trouble comes, having dropped home worship; time must be managed as it is for movies and trips; do it small and slow, because once dev-kripa comes, Preta and pishach are nowhere.
Panchabali: the five daily offerings that run alongside the anushthan
The speaker says that as long as these anushthans run, one rule holds for everyone and is essential for the Abhichara-afflicted: the food cooked at home each day must go to the cow, the dog and the crow. From time to time, flour mixed with powdered sugar is put for ants under a banyan tree in a deserted place — never near the house, since anyone stepping on them causes loss of life whose suffering falls on the giver. The fifth part of Panchabali is feeding a worthy or needy hungry person daily, not only a Brahmin (though Brahmins should be given on festival days). When the beings' souls are satisfied and bless you, he says, bad Prarabdha is cut, and only then do the sadhanas bear fruit.
Precaution: a chowki needs one's own house and a family successor
The speaker says that before bringing such a shakti in at all, a sadhak should think about how it will eventually leave. Because he is a householder sadhak giving it a place in his own home, that home should first of all actually be his own — never done in a rented police-residency quarter, company flat, or any place one may someday have to vacate. Even in one's own house, he should see whether a family member exists who can carry this forward after him, so it should be brought only with the intent that the tradition continue and that the shakti, if served, actually does kalyan — and only if it was brought with a lok kalyan bhavna in the first place.
Final gati of a sadhak who dies without freeing his bound shaktis
If such a sadhak dies for any reason without having freed these bound shaktis, the speaker says he becomes trapped along with them. Citing Narayan's teaching in the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita that one attains what one worships, he says a sadhak who spent his days worshipping the chowki ends up becoming part of that very chowki, and strife begins in his family. So the gati is not mukti — he cannot attain liberation. Freeing him would require releasing every single entity of the chowki individually, with the full support of tantra, which becomes an entirely separate undertaking.
What is Baba Khatu Shyam's scriptural source and lineage?
His complete account is documented in the Skanda Purana's Kaumarika Khanda (within the Maheshwara Khanda), and he descends from Bhima through Ghatotkacha and Maurvi.
Who was Barbarika's mother, and how is she connected to Goddess Kamakhya?
Maurvi was invincible through powers granted by the Yoginis and the grace of Goddess Kamakhya, who once protected her from Lord Krishna's Sudarshan Chakra; Ghatotkacha won her hand only after defeating her in both scriptural debate and combat.
How a marana prayoga showed itself in one family: voices, blood splatters, madness and two deaths
The speaker recounts a true case from a village near Dhanbad, Jharkhand, where a very intense Marana Prayoga was worked on a prosperous family of three brothers. For about three years there were night-time voices calling from inside the house, which the family ignored as they did only ordinary puja; then the eldest brother began going mad, local healers gave relief that lasted only two or three months, the middle brother fell ill the same way, voices came every second or third day in family members' own voices, and blood splatters appeared on walls and near the main Chaukhat. A tantrik worked at the house at great expense and things stayed fine for four or five months; then, near Holika Dahan, the eldest died on the spot in an accident and the middle brother died in another accident within ten days, before the shraddha was even complete. After that the surviving brother's wife could not put her swollen right foot on the ground though doctors found nothing, and the two dead brothers' voices began calling. Because the family was wealthy, he says, it had many enemies and no idea whom to suspect.
Why do consequences of careless sadhana sometimes show up later?
Doing things properly does not always bring an immediate result — merit accrues and is often paid out only later, sometimes falling on one's children or spouse rather than oneself, at which point the cause cannot even be traced. Mantra dosha, deva dosha, deva shraap and mantra shraap are dangerous precisely because they do not announce themselves in advance.
Signs of tantra done from inside a family: small recurring illnesses in everyone but two members
The speaker tells a true case from Delhi: a successful businessman's son in a joint family of about twelve, who had opened his own showroom and made a love marriage. About a year or a year and a half after the wedding, he says, trouble began that a normal family does not see — nothing serious, but everyone except the husband and wife was unwell in some way: repeated fever, heavy anxiety and irritability in the adults, upset stomachs and fevers again and again in the small children of three or four. Then the mother's body kept swelling and the father developed chest pain, and Delhi's best doctors and every medical report found nothing to name. He presents this pattern as the way Abhichara done by a family member shows itself.
Mistake of dropping the family deities for a satsangi guru's single name once money comes
The speaker says the afflicted family was making the mistake he sees whenever money comes into a house: people drop their own traditions and catch hold of some famous Satsangi baba. They still did the once-a-year puja of their Kuldevi and family deities, but gave other deities and other shaktis the main place and gave up the daily worship of their root shaktis. Asked about it, they told him they had taken Diksha from a certain baba who says only one deity's name is to be chanted and everything happens by that name alone, so kirtan and bhajan got the importance at home. He says people of that kind do not even accept that such things as tantra done on a family can happen.
Tracing an affliction to inside the house, and why the one untouched member did not believe it
The speaker says that after gathering information on every family member and looking over the whole house, it was clear the matter was inside the house — no outside Abhichara vidya at all — and had been done around the time of the marriage. He told the man to discuss it with the family elders. The man said he already knew what was being said — that his wife and her maternal side were doing it — but could not digest it: he loved her, kept her short of nothing, and above all he alone felt no suffering while everyone else did, so he suspected people were lying. He then asked how it could be tested and how the family could be freed, since a wrong had been done by his own side too.
How a defensive prayoga reveals the sender: the family's ailments move onto one person
The speaker says that once the man completed the sadhana and the home Anushthana and its Prayoga began, the result of three, four, six months of effort showed: the family members' illnesses gradually reduced. What remained common to everyone was only cold, fever and stomach ache; but every distinct ailment — the swelling of the body, the chest pain, the fever, the headache, the upset stomach — now appeared in the man's wife, who had been fully healthy for two or three years. The man himself was also somewhat affected, he says, because as her husband, living with her, some element or portion of it had reached him too. This is how, he says, the thing was caught.
Fights breaking out the moment a puja or festival begins: a strong sign of Pitra Dosha
The speaker says a third symptom of Pitru Dosha is a family that lives well all year but breaks into serious fighting the moment a festival, pilgrimage or puja arrives. His example is Navratri: all preparation is done, and just at the time of Kalash sthapana a quarrel starts over a flower not arriving or a mango leaf being missed, and it turns into beating and throwing things. If this repeats at Diwali, Holi and every auspicious occasion, right at the moment the puja is about to begin, he says Pitra Dosha is present in the house with great force. He notes that Abhichara shows the same pattern, but counts it as a Pitra Dosha symptom too because what is being blocked is the auspicious work itself.
Sudden illness just before a festival, puja or pilgrimage as a symptom of Pitra Dosha
The speaker says another symptom of Pitru Dosha is a house where everything runs normally, but as soon as a festival or auspicious work approaches, a family member, often the main member, falls very seriously ill, to the point of needing hospital or being unable to do anything; sometimes most members of the family fall ill at once. He fixes the timing: around Amavasya, or when Navratri, Diwali, any puja one is going to do or get done, or a Teerth Yatra is about to happen. Illness exactly then, he says, is counted as a symptom of Pitra Dosha.
Special case: a generational Brahma Pishacha dosh lifted by one descendant's Badvanal
The speaker says that even the oldest Brahma Pishacha Dosha, the kind called a family Brahma that has stuck to a lineage and passed from the first generation to the second and the third, can be dealt with. He says if in that kul even one person is born who takes the refuge of Hanuman and worships him through this stotra, that person becomes able, by Hanuman's grace, to protect his whole kul.
Showing a newborn to the world before the Chhathihar invites nazar and tantra
The speaker says a birth in the house provokes jealousy simply because the line has grown, more so for a boy than a girl, and today people upload the baby to Facebook, stories and WhatsApp status before even the mother has properly seen it. This he calls the biggest mistake: everyone knows the rule that when a child falls in Sataisa the father should not see its face, but not the rule that until the chhathihar the child is to be kept hidden and not shown to the world. Fifty people looking at the child put Nazar on it; very few are truly glad, most feel a stab of envy behind their congratulations, and among them are your enemies, who then get something done and come to the Chhathihar with the baby's clothes already worked on. If no puja-path for the protection of the house has ever been done, he says, trouble in the house follows.
Precautions for a newborn until the Chhathihar
The speaker says that whoever comes, do not hand the baby to anyone to hold, take away or play with; refrain, because a line grows only by great grace, so learn to keep the rules. He says wise wives scold their husbands over this and in earlier times mothers kept the baby hidden, whereas today the baby is given to the dhol players for a video and handed happily into the laps of the transgender visitors who come; his rule is "give your blessing, brother, but from a distance", and why put the child in anyone's lap at all? A newborn's Aura is very pure and very sensitive, which is why it suffers most, and it cannot say what hurts; it can only cry. The harm may show at once, or what was set on the child, a pret or pishach done against it or against the line, may come to dominate two, four or eight years later and trouble it from childhood.
Open haldi ceremonies at weddings: shamshan bhasma rubbed in with the haldi
The speaker says that at weddings too people today keep none of the elders' rules, set everything aside, and even the show they put on is not kept within limits, so envious people very easily get their chance; earlier the bride and groom were kept under restriction and met no one. Now the whole world comes to apply Haldi with no rule followed, and if someone comes with shamshan Bhasma in his hand, rubs it in with the haldi and walks off having done what he came to do, what can you do? The rule, he says, is that only those who are meant to apply it should apply it; instead people want to show that the whole clan and the whole city, even people they do not know, will come and apply it, and who knows what is in anyone's mind.
Dismissing a raksha sutra as superstition, and the troubles that follow
The speaker says that when parents give something to wear at the neck, or the kul purohit or a pandit gives a bandhan for the wrist after reading mantras over it, saying keep it tied, today's children answer "it came loose, it fell off, I forgot, why are you so worried, Mummy" and, once earning, "tying this does nothing". He says that had they been disciplined in time they would at least understand its importance. Later, when no child is being born, they run for IVF and this and that, and then weep. You drop your own protection yourself, he says, and the very things you dismiss outright as superstition strike you at the right moment like acid, so that no work succeeds; then you weep, speak ill of the devas and call those who teach this frauds, though the blow lands hard. His advice to anyone in such trouble is to look carefully back at their own wedding, at how the rules were kept, if someone has told them it was done at the time of marriage; you may have kept them, but the spoilers are many, and these things must be handled with great care and passed on properly to the next generation.
Only regular worship of one's own kul devi-devata and kul shaktis holds a house against abhichar
The speaker says that until you begin your own sadhana, until regular puja-path and the uplifting of the devatas begins in your house, until you begin to awaken your own kul's devi-devatas and Kul Shaktis and give them Bhog and pujan, and until they actually begin to receive it, you will have to keep suffering. He explains it technically: your house's own shaktis are not standing with you because the enemy has removed or bound them through Abhichara or a vachan, so a shakti brought from someone else can only stay with you for so long, and one cannot keep fighting on others' strength or keep paying others again and again. He adds at the end that complete freedom may or may not come, but the effort can certainly be made.
Finding your own kul shaktis through a sadhak's dhaar pujan and starting their worship yourself
On how to protect oneself from Abhichara, the speaker says: know your kul's shaktis. Ask whichever sadhak you are going to about them; by giving dhaar pujan and the like they will call them and tell you what shaktis are here, which devi and devata belong to your house, and what their pujan and Bhog are. Once told, begin your own pujan-path by the vidhi-vidhan they give. He says it is not rocket science and one can do it; only for checking whether the devatas are actually receiving the bhog one may need a sadhak, and even then one may still do it oneself. He says he has already put out many vidhans on this for those who find no sadhak to tell them, covering household shaktis and kul Pitr too.
Quarrels at puja time and obstacles to auspicious events as signs of abhichara
The speaker says that once tantra has been done, the most quarrelling and strife in the family happens precisely at puja time, and in festival periods there can be terrible fighting and beating. The reason, he explains, is that the projected forces do not want you to raise positive energies through puja that would stop their work and make them leave you. He adds that any auspicious event planned at home meets many obstacles, and even if it somehow gets done, trouble at home increases because of it; all these problems come on quite fast in the beginning.
Why should every household establish and worship the Batuka form of Bhairava?
Batuka (child) Bhairava, alongside Goddess Shasthi Katyayani, protects a child from conception through birth and up to twelve or thirteen years of age, and neglecting this worship leaves the household vulnerable to spiritual disturbances (Abhichara).
Ancestral impurity from readmitting a daughter who left the lineage tradition
The speaker's second cause is a son or daughter marrying into a kula wholly opposed to the family's tradition. His example: a daughter from a Sanatana house where puja follows Vaishnava or Dakshinachara vidhi goes off with a Muslim boy, and the family later takes her back out of pity or attachment — then, he says, it is more than 95% certain the Pitrs will be angered by impurity, because her character and body are wholly impure from what is done there against dharma, and when she crosses the Chaukhat with that aura the impurity falls on the children and descendants. His rule: do not let such a person back in; if you feel compassion, meet her outside. If she truly wants to return, take her first to a tirtha where the Ganga is pure — Haridwar, Rudraprayag — have Brahmins conduct Prayashchitta (he mentions Ganga sand being fed for seven days), and keep her there in vidhi-vidhan puja for at least a month and a quarter before bringing her home; then no dosha attaches.
Ancestral impurity from a daughter-in-law who breaks the lineage rules
The speaker's third cause is a son of the house marrying a woman — not necessarily a Muslim girl, he says, but any woman — who runs wholly against the kula tradition. His examples: meat is not eaten in your house and your Pitrs' seat and deities forbid it, yet she cannot live without it; she will not sweep and mop, will not do puja on time or at all, or ignores shuddhi and shauch (Ashauch); being very modern she does not observe menstruation and in that state touches the pitrs' seat, the deity images or enters the deity's place. This, he says, pains and impurifies the pitrs, who then bring suffering on the family — and it applies even if you yourself arranged the match.
People keep themselves in illusion, and by the time family malice is accepted substantial damage is already done
People try to keep themselves in illusion to feel peaceful — it takes a long time to accept that family members harboring malice could resort to occult practices, and by the time one realizes it, substantial damage has already occurred.
In confirmed cases of occult attack, how often is the ritual actually commissioned by family rather than outsiders?
In roughly 75% of actual cases, the rituals are commissioned by someone within the victim's own extended family or blood relations — malice from internal family rivalry, property disputes, or jealousy is far more intense than any animosity from outsiders.
Families that struggled together stay bonded, while ancestral property and its partition breed the deepest resentment
Families that struggled together financially in childhood tend to maintain strong bonds with negligible internal rivalry, while families with ancestral wealth and property frequently see severe disputes erupt during partition of land or jewelry.
How can you tell whether household disruption is from land energy or a targeted occult affliction?
When disputes escalate around new property, elite education spending, or sudden earnings gaps, roughly half the issue may relate to the land's energy while the other half may involve targeted occult affliction — if the land itself is peaceful yet acute disruptions persist, close relations with detailed household knowledge are often the source.
Outsiders abandon the effort after a few attempts, but a relative driven by malice rarely stops until the objective is met
Outsiders generally attempt malevolent rituals only a few times before abandoning the effort due to lack of sustained interest or expenditure, while family members driven by persistent malice rarely cease their attempts until their objective is met.
Temporarily relocating from the premises, since the conflict is exceptionally hard to resolve while living in the same house
If feasible, temporarily relocating from the premises is the most practical immediate measure to safeguard the family's lives and wellbeing — resolving such conflicts while residing in the exact same household is exceptionally difficult.
How do relatives sharing the same home actually carry out an occult attack over time?
They initially act cordially to gather personal materials (hair, nails, worn clothing, biological items) and astrological birth details, then inflict distress through two coordinated fronts — continuous emotional discord plus occult rituals — revealing hostility openly only once the victim seems helpless.
Remedy for sudden flashes of anger: mishri water in a copper lota at the bedhead
Asked about anger that flares suddenly over trivial things, souring the home, yet subsides within a minute, the speaker first asks whether the person is of Kumbha lagna with Surya and Mangal as lagnesh in the lagna — then such quick-rising, quick-cooling anger is expected. If the lagna is something else and the trouble persists, the one remedy is: every night fill a copper lota with water, add a little rock mishri, keep it at the bedhead, and in the morning offer it to Tulsi ji — not onto the plant, but poured near its root — six days a week, leaving out Sunday; relief comes in some days. His jyotish reasoning: Surya is the atmakaraka, Mangal the chief karaka of anger, copper represents Mangal, water the Moon and mishri the Sun, so this works as an utara of all three. He adds: also get a medical check — blood pressure and the like.
A stotra's deity does not cause uchchatan unless the sadhana clashes with the kula shakti
Asked whether the deity of a stotra one is reciting can itself cause Uchchatan, the speaker says no — that shakti will not do it, unless you are making a mistake. The first thing a person must see is who his kula shaktis are — the beings he accepts as kuldevta. If, for instance, a Brahm is your kuldevta and you take up a Mahavidya, mahavira or astra-mantra sadhana, they will suffer, and when they suffer they will give you suffering; the sadhana will fail and you will blame the path you began, when the mistake is at the root — you picked the wrong sadhana. First look at them, take their adesh, learn what kind of sadhak they were or whether they were a paishachik shakti that was pacified and seated; only then begin a sadhana. Apart from that, one is not ordinarily uprooted unless a mistake is made — a test by the deity is a separate matter and does not happen so easily.
First-day Datta pujan together with the wife
The speaker says that if the sadhak is married, then on the first day, whenever the pujan is done, he should keep in mind to do the pujan of Bhagavan Datta together with his dharmapatni, certainly, if it is possible.
What if someone has to take a loan to go to the Kumbh?
If he has no money and cannot go on that account, he can go by taking a loan; and the one from whom the loan was received also obtains the fruit of that punya. If he returns the money in time, the speaker says, then it is a very good thing.
Can one leave the family behind to go on a tirtha?
Whenever we go on a tirtha, he says, one must look at the circumstances of one's family; to go without looking is somewhere or other to be an offender, and what punya would then be obtained? If there are elderly parents at home with no one to care for them, and inspired by some sant or mahapurush you leave them and go and bathe, and something happens to them behind your back, then that tirtha will never bear fruit for you but will instead bring punishment and affliction.
What was Shukdev's reply when his mother asked him to continue the lineage?
His mother told him to stop, to increase the lineage, that his marriage should take place, and that without producing a son there is never sadgati. Shukdev Muni replies that if sadgati came merely from producing offspring, then a bitch gives birth to several pups at one time — why is there no sadgati for her? This reasoning, the speaker stresses, is for those who are jeevan-mukta.
What kind of person, living in a family, still stands under the other rule?
Those who have attained that kind of bodha of mukti — who may be living within a family, but whose state is such that they have no greed of any kind, and on whom honour and dishonour make no particular impression. Had Shukdev forgotten, the speaker notes, he would have had to start afresh like an ordinary jivatma, as you and I do; the boon was given and then he took birth.
May even such a person abandon his responsibilities to go?
If they have become jeevan-mukta, then even if they go in such a state, it will do. But to go leaving family members behind without being released from one's responsibilities, or without putting some alternative in place, whoever they may be, would be improper. Their arrangement, he says, must be made.
See to the family first, or the whole trip turns to paap instead of punya
If you are going for an adventure trip and also wish that a little punya may come to you along with it, then first certainly see to your family. If you go having made your family unhappy, he says, then in every way only paap will attach to you.
May a grihastha eat at the anna kshetras and shivirs?
If you are going into shivirs and other kshetras and accepting anna there, then as a grihastha you should keep in mind that you have your maryada. You may eat, there is no harm in eating — the mahaprasad season at the anna kshetras will run and will begin from the 8th or 10th. If you are going to do kalpavas there, or even for one or two days, you may absolutely eat anna; but as a grihastha it is your duty-dharma that you should never take anyone's anna in that manner. Some value for it should be given.
What should be done about a very stubborn seven-year-old child?
The child is seven years old now, he says — explain with love. When he becomes eight or nine years old, then explain by beating. And keep one thing in mind: although up to the age of thirteen years it is nothing particular, even so, if some special condition arises with children, then having the analysis of their birth kundali done by some enlightened and learned jyotishi, whatever subject is arising should be remedied.
Why can a lifelong worshipper still suffer in old age?
The speaker cites someone's father-in-law who does a lot of path-puja and naam-japa, a hundred Malas daily, and whose body has fallen into suffering; the daughter-in-law phoned him asking what use all that daily path and japa was, when he has to bear so much pain in old age and God does not come to see him or cure him. The speaker answers that the elder is living out his own Prarabdha, and that God has given some medium: he will not appear in body to serve him, but he has given such sons and such a daughter-in-law who are finishing off that old-age prarabdha quickly. To those who talk this way he adds a pointed warning: think, if a person who did that much is in such a state, what will become of you.
Hardship comes by one's own karma; when punya runs low, family may bear it instead
The speaker says suffering and calamity keep coming according to our karma, but if we remain surrendered, a way out of it also keeps opening; if we do not remain surrendered, breaking is certain. Whether it is you or him, everyone has their own karma: "we break too, you will break too". However much comfort we live in, one day when our Punya begins to run out our troubles will come; and if not to us, then to the people of the family we are in, and for them we will have to do karma. That happens in family life, he says, but we must not break or run from it. If we stay properly surrendered and trust our aradhya, he will certainly help us, and all the powers and energy around us will support us.
Why does a household usually fail to recognise abhichar in time?
Very few people accept the calamity for what it is; they keep being ruined, and only long afterwards does it become clear — by which time the thing has spread its roots. If for any reason a sadhak is born in the kula and is awake to all this, the generations that come after can be secured.
Can all the members of one family worship the same shakti?
All the members of a family cannot worship one and the same shakti, the speaker says. So keep in mind that if, say, someone is doing Mahabhairav, it is not that he will start right from the evening. The pujan of Diwali that has to happen in the evening must certainly happen — whether of Bhagavan Kuber ji or of the principal forms of Bhagavati whose pujan you will do, together with the kuldevi and kuldevata. After that you will do the main sadhana at night, from ten or eleven o'clock.
Can the 64 Yogini prayoga be done alongside the five-day amla prayoga?
Asked whether the 64 Yogini prayoga can also be done along with the five-day amla prayoga, the speaker says never leave the 64 Yogini. He has repeated this many times: keep the whole paath and prayoga of the 64 Yogini in your nitya practice, for the protection of the family.
Can two Shaligrams be kept in the home temple, and can a woman touch one?
On keeping the Shaligram, the speaker says the vidhi and niyams include that if you live by the niti and niyam, and especially if there is a guru's adesh, then you should keep it. He then states the other side directly: the touch of the Shaligram is in many places forbidden for a woman — but if the family is of such a state, then you may keep it. It would be better, he says, to look at your own household and family first and only then keep it; and if you are keeping a new one, take the advice of a learned person according to your family, and keep it after that.
Can the amla lamp be lit in the hand and then placed on a plate?
Asked whether the amla lamp can be taken in the hand, lit and then kept in a plate because the household may create a quarrel on seeing it in the hand, the speaker says he said this in the video he cut and posted today and said it yesterday as well: it can certainly happen that they will see the amla lamp in the hand and become frightened, wondering what tantra vidya is being done. If such a state arises, then you may set it down; there is no difficulty in this, and it is not the case that any trouble will arise if you put it down from the hand.
Why should every householder obtain the kripa of Batuk Bhairav?
Of the forms of Bhairav, obtaining the kripa of Batuk Bhairav should in some measure be compulsory for every grihastha, the speaker says, because the capacity to maintain and feed a family is obtained by Bhairav kripa alone. If Bhairav gives kripa there is never a shortage of grain and wealth.
What qualities appear in a person who worships Bhairav?
The speaker says such qualities become present of themselves in those who do Bhairav upasana that they protect, increase and maintain others. Where the head of a family, on whom the family's responsibility rests, has Bhairav's kripa, he takes up all his responsibilities without obstruction and cheerfully.
Which deities must not be brought inside a householder's home?
Walk on the grihasthi path, he says, so that your welfare happens and no such tattva or dev shakti becomes present that would harm the other people of the family. So an ugra devata should be worshipped outside, in a temple outside, and should not come inside the house. Their seva puja is to be given, not stopped — the right that is theirs must reach them — but according to where their form belongs. Shamshan Kali's puja is not done seated inside a home; those who have it done may do good or ill to themselves, but the ruin of the one for whom it is done is certain.
Who does the deep daan, and at what time of day?
According to that vidhi, at home together with the whole family, again do deep daan on this day of Batuk Bhairav Jayanti — everyone, in the evening or in the morning, whenever it suits you. It is not that it has to be done only in the evening; if you have time in the morning, do it then.
What is the right maryada in caring for stray dogs?
To Vaishnavi ji, who writes that she has taken in two stray dogs that stay outside the house and that there is boundless joy in their company, he says this maryada should always remain as it is — let them stay outside the house and let their service also continue. One should love living creatures, help them according to one's capacity and arrange food and drink for them; but the maryada that they will not be brought to the threshold is very proper, and she has done very rightly.
Honouring the mother, maternal uncle and mother's sister strengthens the mind and the mantra
Along with the japa and temple visits, the speaker says, give particular honour and respect to your mother, your mama and your mausi, and obtain their blessing. From this too, he says, your mantra and your mind will gain considerable strength, and the pujan and path are there alongside anyway.
What argument did Brahma give Shiva for marrying?
Brahma explains at length that Shiva is Devadhidev, Mahadev, and that all are as sons to him. Of the asuras that will arise in future, some will be slain by Shiva, some by Brahma, some by other shaktis — but there will be very many whose slaying will be done by Shiva's sons. For that purpose, to save the world from calamity of that kind and to keep the world well, he too should perform the panigrahan sanskar.
What did Shiva say his wife would have to be in each of his states?
When I am engaged in yoga, she too will have to remain a yogini; and when I am under the sway of desires, she too will have to remain in the form of a kamini. That is — when I remain in grihastha she should become a householder and be a help and support in the household, and when I go into yoga and dhyana she should assist me in that too. But let no woman who places obstruction in my contemplation and my tapasya become my consort.
What did Sati ask for so that the matter would be complete in worldly terms?
Bhagavati Sati says: I pray to you that you accept me by the vaivahik vidhi before my father. Shiva says he will do so and goes back to Kailash parvat. Sati goes to her father and tells him she has received such a boon — at which Daksha Prajapati begins to be troubled by the worry of how the thing will be accomplished.
How did Shiva set the marriage in motion from Kailash?
Having given the boon, Shiva invoked Brahma, Saraswati and the rest at Kailash and told them the whole matter — since Bhagavati Sati has performed tapasya I have given her this boon, so how will the vaivahik vidhi be followed? Go, all of you, and speak with Daksha Prajapati — since Prajapati is Brahma's own son.
Why is Brahma called Rudra Shira?
An incident occurs here on account of which Bhagavan Brahma is called Rudra Shira. The speaker says a charitra was manifested through Brahma for the sake of any wicked man who keeps feelings of desire toward another woman or does wrong deeds. It was manifested for the sake of the fall that ordinary men are liable to. Merely by hearing it and understanding the matter, one is freed of that sin — and the sin in question is the sin arising from looking with kudrishti at any pativrata woman or the wedded wife of another.
What did Vishnu pray for at the wedding?
After offering his full stuti, Vishnu says: remaining with this Sati, protect the devatas and good men, that the beings of the world may always have welfare. And, O Sarvabhutesh, O Prabhu — whoever, seeing this Sati or hearing about her, becomes filled with desire, slay him; this is my prayer.
What happens to one who casts a wrong eye on a pativrata?
The meaning here, the speaker says, is that whoever looks with a wrong eye at any pativrata woman who is devoted to her husband, or attempts to stain her charitra, is slain by Shiva himself. This charitra arises from this point, and its direct example is given here as well. Shiva was pleased and said it would indeed be so.
What happened during the pradakshina of the fire?
While the pradakshina of the yajna, of the ekagni, was being done, Bhagavati Sati's feet came out beyond her garment — when a bride walks, her foot showed a little from outside, the rest being under the ghunghat. The speaker says the charitra is shown because here, before his eyes, she is about to become the left-side consort of another; and Brahma himself had a pratishodh in his mind against Rudra, wanting desire to arise in Rudra too and him to become a householder, because Rudra had rebuked him for what he had done on seeing a woman.
Should a man delay in taking up a weapon for his wife?
The speaker says the description is given so that a man, as soon as his panigrahan sanskar has taken place and he has chosen his ardhangini, should not delay in taking up weapons if any other man attempts such a wrong deed. Here it is Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh — the root of sanatan, from whom sanatan arose — through whom this picture has been placed: if anyone casts a kudrishti toward your wedded wife, you must not delay even half an instant in raising a weapon.
What is the fruit of hearing the Rudra Shira charitra?
Shiva says: those who see this form of yours and wander the earth saying, how did Shiva come to be upon Brahma's head — and whoever hears your complete deed — will be swiftly freed from the abandonment done on account of another man's wife. If anyone abandons his own dharma for another's wife, the speaker says, he should hear this charitra, in which Brahma's death, a brahma hatya, was about to occur.
What does hearing this katha actually mean?
Whoever hears and understands this whole picture — and hearing, the speaker says, does not mean Amar Chitra Katha, this is a matter to be understood — learns that we are not to do deeds of this kind and are never to depart from our own conduct. The achran of dharma is not to be abandoned; otherwise Shiva himself will slay. That, he says, is the meaning of Rudra Shira told here.
What is the phal of hearing this marriage katha?
Brahma says that he has described how the marriage of Bhagavan Shiva took place in the Svayambhuva Manvantara in a former age. He says that if anyone's marriage is about to take place, or a yajna, or any auspicious work, then whoever performs the pujan of Bhagavan Shankar there and, with a calm mind, hears this katha — his whole vaivahik karma is completed without any obstruction or hindrance, and other auspicious deeds also are always completed without obstacle.
Against what does hearing the katha protect at a wedding?
Whoever hears in peace this entire charitra of the marriage of Bhagavati Sati and Shiva, when a vaivahik work is about to occur in the house — there are a great many people who cause obstruction in a marriage, the speaker says: they can be neighbours, they can be relatives and kinsmen. So that no obstruction of any kind can arise through them, or any other such calamity or misfortune come, this katha should be heard for the sake of protection from all of them; many difficulties come at the time of a marriage.
How long did Shiva and Sati live at Kailash?
Vasant himself was called and Kailash parvat was fully decorated, and there is a description of the amrit paan and the rest of both Shiva and Sati. It is said that, reckoned by the years of the devatas, this was twenty-five years — and 360 of our years make one year of the devatas. So for 360 times 5 — that much time — Bhagavan Shiva carried on his grihastha life with Bhagavati Sati on Kailash parvat.
What did Sati complain about at Kailash?
She says the place where they are situated is one where much trouble occurs: the rainy season has come and the clouds thunder greatly, the wind blows very hard, in the rains the lightning flashes so fiercely and such torrents form that the mind becomes greatly agitated. This rainy season is very painful, very terrible in the place where they are. Here there is no knowing of day and night — by day the sun is not seen, by night the moon is not visible.
What did Shiva ask Sati when she finished her complaint?
She says it seems as if these clouds will now fall upon our heads. Bhagavati Sati says all this to Shankar. Making many such descriptions, Shiva then asks: what is it that you want to say? What is it you are saying at such length, what do you want to say, what is your wish?
What dwelling did Sati ask Shiva for?
Bhagavati Sati says: O Vrishabhadhwaj, make a dwelling worthy of you on Kailash parvat, or on the Himalaya, or on Mahakoshi, or on the earth. That is, the speaker says, Bhagavati Sati wanted there to be a beautiful house, a palace, for them, whereas Bhagavan Shiva used to live up on the mountain; and she set it all out at length.
What does the arising of vairagya signify for a householder?
What is being told here, the speaker says, is that everyone's time is fixed. After sporting for a certain time, after fulfilling one's desires, vairagya ought to arise in the mind. This is what has always happened in the grihastha ashram in sanatan; this passage is its indicator.
What order of dharma, artha and kama does Sati's life show?
First Bhagavati Sati performed dharma-yukta karma — walking the path of dharma she performed tapasya, and for the fulfilment of her desires she did tapa in order to marry Bhagavan Sadashiva. Then her marriage took place. After dharma comes the earning of artha and the fulfilment of desires: after the marriage with Bhagavan Shiva she sported for many years and fulfilled her wishes — I want a house, I want to roam here, I want to roam there.
Should one be content with the life partner one receives?
The same should happen with an ordinary householder, he says: this is what sanatan is teaching. After marriage one first performs dharma-yukta karma; performing tapa well, let Bhagavati grant grace; and remain content with the life partner obtained by prarabdha. One should not, in any manner, attempt to abandon them in order to cut one's prarabdha.
Should one leave a spouse if a shakti tells one to?
Where a husband has given pain, he says, nowadays the story is simply, leave at once. People twist their own minds in many ways — that some devi shakti is telling me that I should go with them. It is a very difficult situation, and these things too he has to hear. When people tell him, he says: it is only and only durbuddhi. There is no support from him in this; it is a very wrong deed. A husband too should try until the last state to remain with the wedded wife he married, and bear whatever pain comes. One should not abandon.
What happens to those who run from the marriage?
Sanatan teaches a right man and a right woman that in any circumstance the prarabdha is being cut by it, the speaker says. If you run, tomorrow you will have to undergo it again. In this birth it may be that by breaking the relation and marrying again you become happy — if it is written, you will become happy. But the balance that has been left over will produce the same episode again in the next birth. Until the balance sheet is balanced, one has to keep undergoing it; those who flee, both man and woman, have to undergo it.
How should one proceed in the tantra kshetra with material desires?
Those who go into the tantra kshetra, who have to do mantra japa and have material desires, must proceed in an ordered manner, the speaker says — and it should be so: there is the devi panchayatan or the panchayatan of other devatas, and pujan happens in a panchayat. He has clarified before that our aradhya is like our husband — whether you are a woman or a man — and just as a pativrata woman gives her husband comfort in every way.
Which bhava goes to the ishta and which to the other devatas?
In the same way, when you serve your aradhya, where you are to keep dasya bhava and where sakhya bhava — all these bhavas should be kept toward your chief aradhya, the one in whom your mind is set. With all the rest we keep a feeling of ordinary samarpan and do their ordinary pujan, just as with the husband as chief one keeps such conduct with everyone else — with the parents-in-law, the brother-in-law, the sister-in-law and so on. Therefore one should never think that we will worship one deva only.
What did Sati say when Shiva asked how the test went?
She began to think that she had not obeyed Shiva, that on account of a mean intellect she had thought and considered so about Shri Ram; and what answer would she give if Shiva now asked? Seeing Sati sad, with sorrow on her mind, Bhagavan Shiva asked what had happened — you took the test, so how did you take it, tell me what happened. Then Bhagavati Sati stood with her head bowed, stricken with grief; and Bhagavan Shiva understood the whole matter and knew everything.
Which vow came back to Shiva after Sati's test?
Remember again, the speaker says, what Vishnu prayed for and which pratigya Shiva took when Shiva's marriage with Sati was taking place. Shiva remembered that very pratigya, which the maryada-protecting Rudra had taken earlier at Hari's special insistence, when the devatas made their request for the marriage. What had he taken? That if anyone keeps a wicked feeling toward another's wife, I shall slay him myself.
Why did Shiva's vow force him to abandon Sati?
Here, since Bhagavati Sati had herself assumed the form of Sita, and by assuming Sita's form she came into the form of the wife of Bhagavan Shri Ram, she became equal to a mother for him; and being another's wife, Shiva could no longer look upon her with the feeling of a wife. Shiva said: if I love Sati as before, then the great pratigya of me, Shiva, who follows the leela of the world, will itself be destroyed. Thinking in many ways in his mind, Shankar, the protector of the Veda and of dharma, abandoned Sati from his heart.
Harm to the family as the first sign of a misfiring mantra japa
The speaker says the first negative effect came within 11-12 days of starting — before a fortnight was out: her father fell seriously ill. She assumed abhichar was the cause and, using the experiences her japa had begun to give her, did utara on her father with the very mantra she was reciting, then havan with special dravyas; he improved, which convinced her the mantra vidya was working. Then her elder brother broke his leg where he lived away and had to be brought home; she ignored it and continued. Third, her mother's periods returned after menopause, her condition deteriorated badly, and doctors said the uterus had to be surgically removed — had it not been, it would have become cancer. Even then she did not stop. All this, he says, was within two or three months.
Why should every householder worship Batuk Bhairav?
The speaker says Batuk Bhairav is compulsory for every householder and every householder should do his seva puja. Those who have no knowledge of their kula Bhairav should also do the upasana and puja of the Batuk Bhairav swarup. Batuk Bhairav should be worshipped house by house, because it is by his kripa that protection is rightly obtained in the home.
Who is permitted to do the Batuk Bhairav Hriday anushthan?
The speaker says this anushthan can be done by every householder, and can be done by woman and man alike — there is no difficulty in it.
Can the Batuk Bhairav Hriday anushthan be done for a family member suffering from tantra or abhichar?
The speaker says that if any member of your household or family is suffering from any kind of affliction, is seized by a tantra, mantra or abhichar problem, then for them too you can have the Batuk Bhairav Hriday anushthan performed by the vidhi described, along with the Mahabhairav anushthan.
Shakambhari Kavach for the head of a grihastha family: why, and its origin
The speaker says this teaching is for those in Grihastha life who carry the whole family's Yoga Kshema: running the house, earning, feeding the family, and making spiritual progress at the same time. Such a person needs the capacity to provide properly, and for him the Shakambhari Kavach is, in the battle of life, like the Vajra of Indra himself. He says Bhagwan Kartikeya taught this kavach to Devraj Indra, and that its Purashcharana is done with only 1000 recitations (when he later spells out the method, he gives the count as 1008).
Daily recitation rule for the family head, and who must do the purashcharan
The speaker says every head of a household must recite this Kavach, keep it siddha, and do at least one path of it daily. He says it brings destruction of enemies, health of every kind, and both progeny and wealth. For those whose Kuldevi Bhagwati is, or who live where a Shakambhari Peeth stands, as in the Saharanpur region, he says the Purashcharana of this kavach is a must, and it should stay in their daily path.
Curses from family elders and the permission to jap the Saptashati shaap anugraha mantras for them
It is also ordinarily known from the person's own side — that you did some such deed, and your elders, your parents, your brothers and sisters, someone younger or older, cursed you from the heart, and you know of it. In such a case too, for release from those curses, we have the permission to jap these shaap mantras, the shaap anugraha mantras.
What stri dosh is: a man who tormented his wife in a previous birth suffers through his wife in this one
He supposes a person who has stri dosh — who in a previous birth tormented his wedded wife a great deal, on account of which he obtained stri dosh in this birth, and in this birth is being tormented by his wife, or is suffering mental, physical or financial harm through her.
Why abandoning the deities of one's own kula is the first big cause of trouble in life
He says this because when there is a problem in your life, the fact that you have abandoned the deities of your own kula becomes a large cause. Tantra vichar is a separate cause; but the first link is that. Even if a vichar has occurred, if you do not abandon the shaktis of your kula and go on holding to them, there is capacity — because you have taken birth in their kula. They will most certainly draw you out and take you through.
Who performs the first pind sthapana of a kuldevi at home?
This teaching has been given, he says, and the vidhi is stated in the Kuldevi Aavahani: that when the sthapana of the kuldevi is happening for the first time at home, especially in houses where the sthapana of a pind takes place, these very mantras are being continuously uttered by the sadhaks and by the brahmans, and the husband and wife of the house whose kuldevi she is do the pind and the rest together — but especially it is the husband who does it, and the wife only puts her hand to it.
Where must a vidveshana prayoga never be performed?
Those who use this independently never do it at their own place of residence, he says. And no householder person has it done — know this too.
Are girls permitted to give bali?
He says the process of bali and the rest should be performed by her. Girls, however, are generally forbidden for bali — it depends on the svaroop of the kuldevi and kuldevata. So if you have a brother, or any other male of the house, you may also have it done through them.
Can Navratri and Ram Navami puja be done after a death in the family?
Asked by a listener whose relative died on a Navratri day in 2021 whether the Navratri and Ram Navami puja should be done or not, he says one should walk according to whatever the family directs, according to the elders of the house; or take counsel with the pandit ji of your own region. How near a relative they were — there are many things to be looked at — so take counsel once with a regional brahman who knows these subjects.
How should a whole family perform this pujan together?
If your whole family together, tomorrow at evening or at night, all bathe and put on auspicious clothing — red, white or yellow, let everyone wear it — the speaker says, then establish the Shri vigraha of Bhagavati Lakshmi upon a chowki and do her archan by the sahasranama.
How is the archan divided among the people present?
After that, seat her upon a high singhasan and clothe her, the speaker says. Now there are five persons, so do her archan with five different substances: for the sahasra archan bring five books, or take PDF printouts in five places — or take out one only, with one person reciting while the others perform the archan.
How are the hundred and eight paths divided among five people?
Now a hundred and eight paths of the Mahalakshmi Ashtak have to be done, and you are five persons, the speaker says — so divide a hundred and eight by five. If each recites twenty times it becomes a hundred; then for the remaining eight each recites once more, or somebody recites three times, somebody recites more, and the hundred and eight paths are completed. Less paath had to be done and less time was spent, but when the paath is collective its capacity increases.
Must the whole family do it on all five days?
Do it with the family on any one day, there is no difficulty if everyone cannot do it every single day, the speaker says — but let one person do the five days there as well. Then the grace of Bhagavati certainly comes about, because Bhagavati is archan-priya; archana is exceedingly dear to her. She will bestow grace and find a way out; how she will find it, he says, is her own matter — our work is only to do her archan, and this is not a very expensive thing either.
Why should a mala pass to the next generation?
So do this too, the speaker says: if you have a shortage of money, take the beads slowly and then make it; that is permanent. And let it be permanent in such a way that it does not remain limited to us alone — that after us our coming generation may also obtain that divine mala, told that this is your father's mala, so much japa has been done upon it, so much puja has been done upon it. The older that mala is, the more its divinity will increase.
Every householder and every Sanatani born is a sadhak, not one designated person
Today is the time in which we are discussing that it is not for one sadhak alone — every householder is a sadhak, every Sanatani who has taken birth is a sadhak, the speaker says. His birth has occurred for this very reason, that he was to perform sadhana. He is astray, brother, he has forgotten; he must be brought to the right road, he must be woken and told: brother, remember, birth has occurred for sadhana, so do it — do the sahastrarchan, do the Mahalakshmi chakra.
A rajaswala sadhika does not go to the puja place or touch the kalash, and performs no arti or pujan.
One should not go to the pujan place; one should not touch and so on. That you should go at that time and touch the kalash and the rest, perform arti, perform pujan — do not do all this. And if you do, the speaker says, the loss in it is yours alone; what is going to come of his saying it, it is your own wish.
What is a rajaswala sadhika actually to do in Navratri?
If you have become rajaswala from the very beginning of Navratri, keep the vrat — you absolutely can keep it — but eat the phalahar well, because at that time the body has need of it. Do not touch the Shri vigraha and so on. Do not go into the room made for the sthapana of the kalash and the pujan. At the time of arti you may stand outside the pujan room and watch the arti, and may sing the arti; but do not touch vessels of any kind, do not take the arti, and do not go near the arti.
A brother, son or husband who creates trouble for such a sadhika is the one harmed the most of all.
That if the brother, son or husband of such a sadhika invites disturbances of some kind, begins to create some kind of trouble, or causes some difficulty — then know that the greatest harm of all is going to reach you yourself. The life of sadhaks of this kind becomes a double-edged sword.
How should the men of the family conduct themselves?
The men of the family who are in blood relation to such a sadhika — husband, son, brother — should always remain surrendered towards them, keeping the Devi bhav, that you are the Devi herself. The more gracious you remain, the more you will advance twofold a day. And the more you anger them, and if their anger truly awakens, then no shakti in the world, no anushthan, can grant you release from that curse.
Why is it improper to have relations with a girlfriend before marriage?
That before marriage it is improper. When a marriage takes place, the speaker says, the kunwari kanya is at that time first offered to Bhagavan Shri Agni Dev, and thereafter she is obtained by the man, having become fully pure. So if you want that the girl's father should get no fruit of the kanyadaan, then do all this. It is not proper in any manner — and he adds that the question itself was not one that it was proper to ask publicly.
The vidhi is pitched at ordinary householders altogether new to sadhana, with no specially difficult mantras.
The speaker says he is giving the vidhi for people of the entirely ordinary class, who are householders and altogether new to sadhana; so he will keep his words completely simple and will not use any specially difficult mantras. A ghee lamp is kindled, given tilak with kumkum and the like to make it fragrant, and water is sprinkled all around as before.
Whose birthdays should a household sponsor fodder for?
At the least, the speaker asks, on your own birth tithi and on the birthdays of everyone who is your own — parents, husband or wife, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters — have the arrangement of hara chara made for one day each, from your house and on behalf of your family.
From the day Savan starts, the first work is something done not for oneself alone.
Savan is beginning from 4 July, and Purushottam maas is going to set in from 18 July. From the day Savan starts, the speaker says — as he also said at midday — the first work is that we have to do something not for ourselves alone but on behalf of our family too.
Why do many family members not do the puja themselves?
We do our own rudrabhishek anyway, the speaker says, but there are many members in a family who do not listen to what you say and do not want to do seva-puja or rudrabhishek — because they want everything made ready for them. Everything should be fixed, and they should come and pour the water.
That one person should arrange things so the remaining family members can take part.
If in the whole family God has given even one person the sadbuddhi to do seva-puja, or by Jagadamba's kripa there is one such person in the house, then it is they who should make a little arrangement so that the remaining members of the family also have their kalyan this year.
What lamp is kept for the family abhishek, and for how long?
Do your own puja and abhishek first thing in the morning if possible, and after that tell every member of the family. Light a lamp there as well — a karma sakshi lamp, somewhat large, which burns at least till twelve o'clock in the afternoon.
How should those names be displayed for the family?
Write them out like that and stick them up there in front. Write by hand; otherwise, if a print-out is to be taken, make it in a format and put it up there in front.
What if a family member cannot read the names while pouring?
If you cannot read while looking, then first pour the water from the lota over Shiv ji saying Shiv Shiv, taking Bhagwan Shiva's name, and after that read the twelve names that are written. Read them sitting or standing — no matter. Just do this much work.
What is offered along with the water in the family abhishek?
If bel patra can be had, decorate and keep bel patra there; let one bel patra be offered. If there is bhang, let a little bhang be offered upon Bhagwan Shiva. After that let them do a dandvat pranam, a sashtang pranam, however their wish is, and come away taking Mahadev's name.
What goes into the vessel for the sixty-day abhishek?
Camphor; agaru if it can be got — sandal water is called agaru, and there is a separate one too; if not, then sandal water, ashtagandha and the rest mixed in, with a little of the roli kumkum that there is. With that do the abhishek of the Shivling yourself and have the people of the family do it too.
Is the rudrabhishek done at home enough on its own?
Otherwise, do the vidhi that has been told for doing it at home. If there is some very particular affliction, very great affliction, and you are trying from yourself and it is not happening, and there is the wish and the capacity, then tell him and it will be arranged. If not, do it yourself — there is no difficulty.
What should be done in the evening after a day of family abhishek?
During the day you may be doing puja at 5:00 and some family member will come and do Shiv ji's abhishek even at 10:00. So in the evening do this: at around 5:30 or 6:00, having done the abhishek of Bhagwan Shiva again, do his shringar.
Why does a listener's mother suffer pain when he offers red java flowers?
A listener says that whenever he does havan or gives ahuti with the red java flower, his mother has very great pain in the stomach. The speaker answers plainly: if you give ahuti with the java flower, then do not give ahuti with the java flower. He tells Nikhil Kataria ji that he understands the reason behind it, and that if he is near his mother he should not do it at all at that time.
After a husband's death or a divorce, whose gotra and kuldevata apply?
The marriage has taken place, the speaker says. In the Sanatan culture, once a marriage has happened, the husband's gotra is her gotra, the husband's surname her surname, and his varna hers. And second, the kula devi-devatas of the husband will remain her kula devi-devatas — whether you take a divorce or separate.
What is to be done with the red Ambubachi cloth?
Of the red cloth of Ambubachi with which Bhagavati was wrapped, tear half the cloth and tie it, as a raksha kavach, on the neck or on the arm or on the wrist of each member of the family; and the remaining cloth may be kept where you keep your wealth, in a pure, good place.
What should be done before beginning a wealth sadhana?
With whatever protective anushthan you have done up to now, he says, secure your place and your family. Whether you stay at home or not, whether you live somewhere else, prepare the dhuna material and give it to your family so that they may perform the dhuna. There is no need to be dependent upon anyone: make it yourself, do it yourself.
The household will call it becoming a tantric, and that is yours to manage — the body gives drowsiness in Mai's seva and none at all through a night of chatting, according to what your priority is.
Now the people of your house and family will be afraid, he says — that he has become a tantric, he is doing japa at night; that you have to manage. He says sleep does not come at night when chatting with a girlfriend, one chats until dawn, chats for two whole days, and there is no drowsiness; but when one goes into Mai's seva then drowsiness comes, health becomes bad, there is headache and backache. Your body, he says, will react with you according to what your priority is.
Which forms should a householder keep at home?
Householders who live with their families should be very careful about forms. At home, do the seva and puja of saumya and paushtik forms in particular; when you are outside the house you may worship these other forms if you wish.
Is sadhana from eleven at night to three all right for a householder?
The speaker says the time is for the sadhak, but he is a householder — now, if he can get free from household life, then let him do it, because this same time is also the time for grihastha sukh. If you are married and your wife is giving you permission, saying yes, go and do your sadhana, then it is fine; she should be satisfied in this matter and should be one who cooperates.
A mother-in-law who breaks her own daughter's home is the greatest of tragedies; the eighth house is read and the wife prepared.
The speaker calls it a very dangerous and tragic matter — if a mother-in-law is breaking her own daughter's home, nothing can be a greater tragedy; a home should be settled, not spoilt or broken. He says first get everything connected with the eighth house of the birth chart properly analysed by a learned astrologer to catch what dosha is present, since that is a chief cause of relationships being severed; and secondly, if you know this happens when she comes, prepare yourself mentally and explain it to your wife.
A family that lets its own threshold be transgressed brings its own destruction, then asks what sin it committed.
By having their own threshold transgressed they cause the destruction of the family themselves, the speaker says. And when the tandav breaks out they say, what sin have we committed that this is happening with us. Brother, this is the sin — and they will not accept it.
Why has this knowledge fallen out of use in households?
He says the elders of a house formerly knew this subject very well and performed a great deal of it very correctly. Today, in families that are strong in the sense of being highly educated, that modern strength makes them unwilling ever to accept that processes of this kind can exist at all.
What should a house with constant quarrelling do?
For the protection of a house where kalah and klesh keep breaking out very much — quarrels among each other again and again, a quarrel whatever we do, a quarrel even when going to light a lamp — he says the Bhairav deepdaan vidhi should certainly be done wherever these things are happening.
Days on which a householder should go to a temple
The speaker says that on any auspicious work or auspicious day of one's life, going to a temple is certainly enjoined. He names three: one's birth Tithi as reckoned by the Hindi panchang, the tithi on which one's marriage took place, and any auspicious day of any member of the family.
Family consent before housing an arriving shakti, or her respectful visarjan
The speaker says the family members' agreement is necessary on whether the arriving shakti is to be given a place in the house or not, and that people do argue over it. If she is not to be housed, she should be given respectful Visarjan at a devi tirtha sthan, or the vidhi vidhan for her return to her dham performed, so that she is not troubled and no dosha attaches to you.
Deciding between serving only the household and holding a darbar
Once the vidhi vidhan is complete and siddhi has been obtained by Japa of the mantra, the speaker says the guru asks whether you wish to remain limited to the welfare of your own household or to hold a darbar. If you wish people to come to your sthan, then your profession, your studies, what you have to do in life, and how far your household people will cooperate must all be looked at before deciding — and whether you mean to do the work properly or only to become famous.
What should be done for a girl born on a Thursday Amavasya?
A listener says a birth occurred in their house on a Guruvar Amavasya and the girl is now a year and a half old, and asks what vidhi can be done for her. The speaker says that you ought to have shown it at that very time; now that she is a year and a half old, take a decision only after showing her janma kundali, since the birth is on an Amavasya. Not like this, without seeing and hearing.
What if another family member comes to do puja after the lamps are lit?
Asked whether, if two lamps have been kindled for doing puja and afterwards some other member of the house comes to do puja, that person should do a separate chiragi, or whether the earlier chiragi should be done again if it has finished: if it has finished, it can be washed and lit again.
What message is given by Shiva lying beneath the feet of Kali and Kamakhya?
Asked what message is given in both, where Shiva ji is beneath the feet of Maa Kali and Maa Kamakhya: in both this very message is given — that however capable a man may be, he should always remain under the control of his ardhangini. For the householder, this is the message.
Is it right for a lizard to live in the puja room?
Asked whether a samputit path of the kavach can be done: yes, absolutely it can. Asked whether it is right that a lizard lives in the puja room: the lizard too feels that it is her house. You too feel that it is your house. And both of you ought to know that this house is not either of yours. One day you too will go from this house, and she too will go from that house. Let her stay — the question of right and wrong simply ends.
What should be done when the family prevents worship?
To Abhay Jha ji he says the fault is not yours; we are aware of your situation. This too is our prarabdha. Bhakt Prahlad was born in the house of Hiranyakashyap, and his parents too did not let him do puja and path. And perhaps just such a situation is happening in the present time. That was the age of Satyug; now it is happening in the Kaliyug — so what great matter is it? There is no need to look for a Hiranyakashyap.
How grave is it when parents quarrel over a person's worship?
If such a situation arises that the parents begin to quarrel on account of puja path, that on account of mantra-chanting they tell you to leave the house if you must do puja path, then the situation is very grave, brother. His doctrinal point is that such situations arise where the parents never gave the child any knowledge concerning their own dharma.
Parents taunt that puja and the Gita will make you a sadhu, and that the time would be better spent productively
The parents say: why will you do puja, do you want to become a sadhu? Why are you reading the Gita, do you want to become a sadhu? Who recites this much? Do not do so much drama, do a little, a two-minute time-pass. In the time you spend doing puja path, will you not do some productive work — study, become an IAS or whatever; why are you becoming all this, do you want to become a pujari?
Sons and daughters never made firm in their own dharma end by putting their parents in an old-age home
It is the same with sons and it is the same with daughters. Tomorrow, when the son or daughter — you have not given them knowledge at all, you have not given them that kind of knowledge at all, have not made them firm towards their own dharma, have kept them away from the gods and goddesses yourself — tomorrow when they do not ask after you, in old age they will take you and give you a tour of the old-age home; then sit and weep. They will do what befits you.
What is the meaning of the verse ending gatistvam gatistvam Bhavani?
In this mantra it is being said: neither mother nor father, nor friend, nor kinsman, nor your learning, nor your occupation, nor your life's companion, nor your life partner — none of them is going to go with you. Nobody is going to give you their company. Gatistvam gatistvam tvameka Bhavani — in you alone is the one gati. Accept this truth too; from time to time it becomes known.
What if a life partner or parents will not let one worship?
If your life partner is not giving you support — that no, you are not to do puja path, either give up puja path or give me up — you cannot leave them, there is no difficulty in that. But according to circumstances, do as much as can be done, because the gati is going to come from this itself. It will not come from them. If your life partner is of such a state, of a high kula, a high-order sadhak, or is taking some such test, that becomes a separate subject; it is not for everybody, and nowadays it does not happen.
People love your circumstances, not you; when the situation deteriorates the man stays the same and everybody leaves
Remember this too, he says: everybody loves your circumstances. If you are in a good situation, people will keep love for you. When your situation deteriorates, the man will remain the same and everybody will leave and go. Your parents keep hopes and expectations of you — do good karma, give them support. In their mind is this feeling: that by doing puja path you may perhaps not be able to enter the household, may not carry out the work of the grihasthi properly.
It is the fear that a person may go onto the nivritti marga that makes the family pull him away from worship
That you may not go away onto the nivritti marga — it is this fear on account of which they are pulling you away from it, and then that becomes a separate subject. To do pujan and path while living our life and living the nitya karmas that there are is a very great subject; and they will put an obstacle in it.
Where are the rakshasas of the Kaliyug?
This is the Kalikaal — in it the rakshasas will not come from Lanka; they are sitting in our own house. You will find one better than the next. Did Subahu and Sumali come and put bone and blood into the yajna kund? Here they will say such things to you that it will feel as if it is a rain of bone and blood itself.
Why is an external symbol needed if one can believe with the mind?
They say, why is external show necessary, believe with the mind. Not everybody can believe in that manner with the mind, he answers. If you have written Bhagavati's name upon your heart, then whenever you look at your heart you will obtain a strength of an altogether different kind. You have written Bhagavati's name in the heart; from there strength will be obtained by you, and you will become self-motivated.
As Ghajini was self-motivated by what was written on his head, the name on the body returns the sadhak to his purpose
You saw Ghajini, did you not — how he used to become self-motivated: as the head was being shaved the whole recollection of Kalpana would come back to him, and then he would start running to kill, that Ghajini must be killed. In just the same way, as soon as you take off your cloth and garment — he says he is speaking to the men, and asks the mothers not to take it wrongly — they will see upon their heart that Bhagavati's name is written, and will at once cry out Bhagavati; at once there will be surrender, trahimam sharanagatam. It should be like that, brother.
Is opposition to worship harder for men or for women?
Absolutely, Meena ji, it is difficult for both, he answers. It is difficult for women too in some houses; in some houses it is difficult for men too. It is not as if — there are such wives now, he says, whose names he cannot take, but they are there in his own family, and everybody is troubled. They want divorce, or do not want to stay together, only because you do puja path — your life is going very well, the marriage was into a good house, there is no lack of anything, there are servants to do the work, everything is being done for you; but why do you do that puja path, why two hours in the morning and two in the evening, this useless puja and bell-ringing, you people are altogether outdated.
Such Maharaj ji types tell the household to simply stop, when they should instead pray that the opposing person receives sadbuddhi
Now the Maharaj ji people, if they are of that sort, will say: do not do it, do naam japa, the grihasthi — why will they not say instead that the other person should get sadbuddhi? It is being explained to them: no, it is like this, it is like that; no, we will not do it. Such people spoil their own life and also spoil the life of others, of those into whose lives they come, of those they are married to — they spoil the whole household and walk off.
What should be done before marriage?
That is why, before marrying such people, ask clearly: look, this is my daily routine. And how many people simply lie — what will you even ask? They will say, yes, all right, I do not know it all now, but teach me and I will learn it all after the marriage. After the marriage they will learn nothing. If you say anything, they will say, we had only said it like that; now you stop doing it too, come along, let us go to the pub, let us drink. That is that. Prarabdha will be composed in that way and will pass in that way.
What kind of school should children be admitted to?
Asked in what kind of school children should be admitted today, and what education to give at what age so that children advance spiritually along with materially, the speaker says everyone knows what kind of education is being given in convent schools. Try not to go into one; and if there is such a compulsion that the child must be put in that school, then take only the academic education from there and give the bauddhik education from home in such a way that the child can come out safe.
What should a sadhak pray to Bhagavati for in the matter of marriage?
Those who are sadhaks should certainly pray to Bhagavati that they obtain a good dharmapatni who will assist them in sadhana and puja, the speaker says. Otherwise, however much sadhana and aradhana you do, if you obtain one who only sleeps, then you will forget the incense and the dhoop and the lamp — she will have her own puja performed and her own aarti taken, and difficulty will arise.
What about repeated vehicle accidents?
If you have trouble connected with a vehicle — accidents happening with the car again and again, wherever you go the car meets with an accident — that is the strongest sign.
Can this be used for a small child with masan dosha?
If a small child has come to have such a dosha — the dry wasting called sukha rog connected with masan, where the masan sucks out all the blood of the body — then a lepan of this same earth, mixed in ghee, should be made on the body. Cow ghee, and if completely pure desi cow ghee can be had, mix it in that and apply it on the child's chest especially and on the back, stroking from above downward. Relief comes very quickly, he says, and if you consecrate it, that is gold upon gold.
It is done for children under thirteen, on the tithis named, and should be passed on to any so afflicted
If any person you advise has this kind of affliction, certainly tell them this, and also certainly tell them to serve the gau mata. And this work should be done for children under thirteen years of age. It happens especially at the time of Dwadashi, and there are some other tithis too.
What is done if abhichar has been performed on a child under thirteen?
If a child under thirteen has had an abhichar prayoga done upon him — any kind of abhichar — and he has great affliction and trouble, his intelligence is becoming confused, he has gone completely grave and says nothing at all, or a girl stays very disturbed: then take this dust of the gau's hoof, with kali haldi. The kali haldi is to be brought on the day of the fourteenth, and it too should be brought after giving it an invitation.
Can this be done for a child over thirteen?
If it is a boy over thirteen years of age it can be done; for a girl it should not be done. He clarifies further that if a girl has begun to become rajaswala, then this upay should not be done for her in this manner at that time — for them there are separate upays. So this is for the rest.
What are the food and timing rules for that small practice?
In it you have to do the work at night, and you need have no worry about eating and drinking — eat food freely; only if it feels a little cold, heat the water before bathing at evening and bathe. On the evening or night of Chaturdashi, around nine at night, or later if you are allowed by the guardians at home and there is no such problem of quarrels among yourselves, you can do this work at night too — in the nishchit vyapam of Chaudas, in the mahanishchit vyapam, in the mahanishith kaal.
What is the dehli pujan?
After this comes the dehli pujan — the dehli pujan on the day of Amavasya itself. Dehli means the dahleez, our chaukhat. When the pujan of the devi-devatas of the house is finished, the swastik and the rest should principally be made by the hands of the kula vadhus of the house, the mothers and sisters, whoever they are; it is mangal.
Can an anushthan be done when there has been a death in the kul?
He tells Snehal ji to first see what relation the person who died in the kul was to her, whether their barsi has been done, and what the custom of acceptance is in her kul. If you people have been relieved of the sutak and you have nothing to do with their annual rites, only then perform or have performed the anushthan; otherwise, if you have to observe a year's sutak now, or if the varshiki has not been done, then do not have it done at all.
How does sutak work in a very large joint family?
Asked by someone whose family is very large — about fifty, with a child being born in someone's house within seven generations all the time, so that the main household people observe a ten-day sutak and everyone else three days — he says yes, it does happen like that. In the seven-generation reckoning, only up to three generations is taken: that is, if it is you, then you will observe it up to your grandfather's brother; from the great-grandfather onward the rule becomes the three-day one.
Does sutak attach when a sister has a baby?
No, Amit ji, he says: she has had kanyadan done, the panigrahan sanskar happened; she has become the Lakshmi of their house, she has departed from your house. So when her child is born, or when a death happens at their house, its sutak does not attach at your place. But one condition should certainly be accepted, and it does happen: if a young woman is the only child of her parents, her marriage has taken place and she is in her sasural, then her husband bears her whole responsibility, and of his own in-laws too — then that whole rule will have to be observed by all the in-laws' side as well; the entire rule applies here too. Apart from this, if she has brothers and all, then this rule does not apply here.
Why a householder should take up the Annapurna sadhana
The speaker says it often happens that a family is earning money, yet the store of grain in the house never stays full: grain is brought in every month and the bhandar still falls short. Where anna, dhan and vastra are running short in Kali Yuga, he says the anushthan and sadhana of Bhagavati Parvati's Annapurna form should certainly be done in one's life. It should be done alongside the upasana of one's own Kuldevi so that grain and wealth never fall short in the kula and vansh; and if Annapurna is herself the kula devi, her sadhana is to be kept up continually. He calls her the one Mahashakti on earth who gives contentment along with the fulfilment of material desires, and says her sadhana is extremely necessary for a Grihastha.
A havan-form anushthan should be done at home on these three days, or failing that a sankalp made at a nearby temple holding one.
At the very least, for the protection of one's family and oneself, an anushthan should certainly be performed in these three days, and especially on the Chaturdashi and Amavasya tithis. A havan-form anushthan at home if you can; and if you cannot do it at your own house, then have a sankalp made at a temple nearby where some particular anushthan is being held.
Knowing nothing else, the Jayanti Mangala Kali mantra 108 times morning and night with the family, a lamp each for Bhagavati and Bhairav, is enough to bring benefit.
Then take the Jayanti Mangala Kali mantra and do its path 108 times in the morning and 108 times at night, together with the family — kindling a lamp in the name of Bhagavati and one in the name of Bhairav ji. It is a simple sort of task, and the speaker says that if you do even that much, then whether or not you have any enemy, whether or not any trouble is in your life, benefit will certainly reach you.
Whoever cannot join an anushthan elsewhere should do at home, for three days and to capacity, whatever has been described.
Those who are not performing an anushthan at a temple, or cannot or do not wish to have it done through the tantra family, should at the very least do at home for three days whatever has been told — as much as they can, according to their capacity. Protect yourself and your family; stay safe.
As a father and grandfather are delighted at a son's good fortune, so Shiva is delighted when a being is made happy
Just as in this world, when a son or a grandson and the rest are pleased, the father becomes delighted. If you got a job, if your marriage went well, if you became happy, then your father and your grandfather will be greatly pleased that their child is happy, that their kutumb and their lineage is happy. In exactly the same way, when this world is pleased, Bhagwan Shiva is pleased.
Who is the Shashthi Devi, and what is her authority?
The Katyayani or Shashthi Devi form of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini — in the whole world hers alone is this form. She gives a son, protects him, makes the child long-lived, and after placing the seed in the womb holds the authority to protect it to at least the age of twelve.
Which form of the Devi should be worshipped according to one's own region?
Those living in the Purushottam kshetra may worship Bhagavati Subhadra; those in the Delhi region, Bhagavati Yogmaya; those of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Bhagavati Ashtabhuja. At least this much should be known, so that you can tell it to your own children.
What should be looked at for children who stammer and learn slowly?
The Upasana of Budh Dev. But first have your own chart and both children's looked at by a good astrologer to see the state of the intellect — the second house being the house of speech. And third: look in your own Kula and in the mother's Kula for a difficulty, or with your sister or aunt, and try to remedy that.
When is Kamadev sadhana actually indicated?
Only when disorders of that kind in the body are causing a great deal of trouble — that is, where a child is wanted for the sake of Dharma and the body is not cooperating, where there is a medical problem. Then it should be done. For a fit and beautiful wife, perform Bhagavati's sadhana instead: Patnim Manoramam Dehi.
How is a kada made from a mother's anklet consecrated?
It will not need consecrating. Have the kada made; then on a Monday of the Shukla Paksha, wash it well with cow's raw milk and tell your mother to put it on you herself. She has kept it against her body so many days — it is greatly consecrated already.
Should a weekday on which a forebear died be avoided for auspicious work?
This custom exists in a great many places, the speaker says — that no auspicious work is done on that day until a child is born on it — and by his reckoning it should be accepted and observed.
A nine-day Navratri sadhana for a householder with no diksha who cannot take leave from work
The speaker says he is giving a nine-day Navratri vidhan for an ordinary sadhak who has received no Diksha of any kind: which mantras of Bhagavati to jap on the nine days and what to observe, so that the Tantrokta — that is, the most intense — effect of the mantra is obtained, Jagadamba's grace comes and one's work is accomplished. The Durga Saptashati path is part of it. He says the whole vidhan is also for people who are working and cannot get leave but still want to keep Navratri; it fits work, daily life and the anushthan together, and is dedicated entirely to householders. He asks listeners to hear it calmly, reflect, and then prepare their own plan for the nine days.
Daily framework of the householder Navratri: fixed aarti times, path by morning, japa by night, dress, asana and direction
The speaker says the first day goes partly in Ghatasthapana itself; after that a morning and evening Aarti is a must, and if the family joins, do the aarti at a fixed time and do one's own path afterwards. The path in the Mahavidya krama is done in the morning; Bhagavati's mantras are japped in the night or at Sandhya. Make a full effort to wear red or yellow — it must be coloured: red, yellow or orange. The asana should be of Kusha, red or yellow, red being best, and one faces east or north.
What kind of mistake in the family provokes a Brahm?
The speaker says love marriage is a common matter, and marrying into another kula might even be forgiven; but marrying against the prakriti of the household — where garlic and onion are not eaten and there is no question of meat, fish or liquor, and a girl comes into the kula from a home where they are — then the Brahm will create uproar, and whether or not anything happens to the couple, there will be trouble in your kula and family.
What if a Brahmin girl marries into a kula whose customs go against her own family's prakriti?
The speaker says that in exactly the same way, when a girl of a Brahmin kula goes into some other kula and acts of this kind occur there, the Brahm being there, the dosha is certain to attach. They harass the whole family thoroughly; and however much appeasing is to be done, it is being done, but it depends upon them.
Who should not keep the Ashtami fast?
Those who have only one son — no other daughter, no other son, only a single son — should not keep the Ashtami upvas; they should keep the Navami one. He says this is described in the Kalika Purana and in the Srimad Devi Bhagavat Mahapuran, and that Jagadamba placed this subject before Shri Ramchandra ji when he performed her upasana for the slaying of Ravana.
Stopping all puja in the house while a woman is rajaswala is the opposite extreme.
In just the same way, he says, there are people who have made up an altogether different state for the rajaswala: that if you are rajaswala, there will be no puja in your house at all. Either stay on this side or on that, and do not stay with the root subject. One mother or one sister of that house has become rajaswala — one person, one woman. Her husband has not become rajaswala; why should he give up pujan and path, and the whole family shut down all worship as though sutak had attached?
What is the remedy for a dream of a father's death and a mother without sindoor?
Asked what the remedy is when in a dream one saw the father's death and the mother without sindoor, he answers that first of all one should as soon as possible have the tula daan of the mother and father performed, and of the father in particular.
Is a householder allowed to stay in a shamshan?
For this reason too, the speaker says, a householder is forbidden to stay very long in a shamshan; there is a bar on going into the shamshan kshetra. It is the effect of Kaliyug and of the present time that in the last fifteen or twenty years a great many temples have come up around shamshans — otherwise, in earlier times, people did not go and do sadhana in a shamshan in this way and at this time.
How should water be offered to the sun in the morning?
When the sun is fit to be looked at, at sunrise, our eyes can see the rising sun; once it takes on its full brilliance we cannot look at it. So up to the time when Bhagwan Suryanarayan is in the state of being looked at, you should give the water, the speaker says. And women who are kunwari, and those whose marriage has taken place and who are sadhava, that is who wear the shringar, should never give water from a copper lota.
How should a household treat a rajaswala woman?
The maryada of this thing should remain intact, the speaker says, and whenever a woman in the house is in such a condition, she should be given particular respect — every man should do it, and should take care of her. Somewhere, when she is gentle and content, if there is any woman-caused dosha in your birth kundali, that too is pacified by it. Therefore, somewhere, this was a very good rule made by our ancestors: that at such a time women would not cook food and the rest, and would rest, and the other people should do the work at that time.
Which name of Sandhya from the Shiv Mahapuran can be given to a child?
He remarks that the Shiv Mahapuran carries very good names for those living in the grihastha ashram, for when children are later born to them. Divakshanta, he says, is one name of Sandhya, and it is a very beautiful name.
A father-in-law feels only gladness at his own child's bride, never vikaar, which is the measure of what should not have happened.
Take a simple example, he says: when parents marry their children, a beautiful bride comes and will be like a daughter. Can it be that on seeing his own child's bride a vikaar arises in anybody's mind? That is not possible. One feels glad that so beautiful a daughter has come into the house.
What conduct is prescribed for householders?
For those who have gone into the grihastha state, he says, a conduct has been determined — how conduct is to be performed. For the purpose of the begetting of children alone you have a complete vidhi vidhan. But so much mockery has been made of it that today nobody carries the subject forward; it has become entirely a matter of jokes.
What happens once the worldly purpose is fulfilled?
When you have done it only for the sake of your worldly work and it is complete — the purpose was to produce a child and the child has come — after that you have no work there. You have taken the sharanagati of Jagadamba, and Jagadamba will then make you capable, will give you the samarthya. But, he adds, the sharanagati must be as sharanagati ought to be, not merely spoken from the surface.
Who has the hardest time gaining authority over Kaam and Rati?
Until you are surrendered to Bhagavati in the right way, he says, it is very difficult to establish influence over these two, to get free of them, to gain authority over them — especially for young people, and in today's time it becomes very hard to be saved. The full account of the Kamdev-Rati marriage is very extensive; he defers it, and announces that the Sandhya-Arundhati akhyan will begin the next day.
What should children be told to become?
When the time is bad the reality is known: there is nobody to ask after you, and uncle, aunt, brother and sister-in-law all leave and go away at that time. So, he says, is there anyone who explains this thing to his children and says: grow up and become a sadhak, grow up and serve Jagadamba, grow up and serve Shiva, you have to do the bhakti of God, you have to become a devotee? Everyone says: you must become a doctor, you must become an engineer.
How is a young person mocked for doing puja?
If he so much as touches the Bhagavad Gita they will say, do you want to become a sanyasi, a baba ji? You do puja so long, you recite the Hanuman Chalisa — what is all this for; do not do it; this nonsense will not run; where did you pick up this mala; whom have you joined? They will say, will you become a baba ji, look at the state of the baba ji people, they are all lying in jail. Only those baba jis in jail will be visible to such people, he says. The real baba jis, who are grinding down their bodies and doing the bhakti of Bhagavati day and night, are never visible, and their example is never given.
Who is Mena, and what does the coming Parvati Khand teach?
A great deal has been explained and taught concerning pratipad dharma, he says. When they read the Parvati Khand ahead, they will see what upadesh Parvati received from Bhagavati Mena. Who is Mena? The daughter of the pitrs is called Mena. And after that, Bhagavati Parvati is her daughter — so Bhagavati Parvati becomes the great-granddaughter of the pitrs. What upadesh is being given to her about grihastha dharma will be discussed, and then it will be understood what the duty of a woman is.
Man is lampat and the greatest bhogi of all, while woman is the greatest of all and must carry that greatness rightly.
To a man everything is taught, he says. Man is lampat — we always say so. Man is the greatest bhogi of all; man is low. The Brahmin is low, man is low, woman is the greatest of all. If you are the greatest of all, then carry that greatness in the right manner. Things are being done at will, conduct is being done at will. That is a wrong thing, is it not.
Who should be the youth icon?
But today, he says, your daughters at home put up the new heroes with six-packs; the boys put up the heroines and are huge fans. And what are those women exhibiting — drinking and smoking, going to hookah bars, roaming with a boyfriend to look cool and posting it. Then the children will learn just that and will make them their youth icon. What ought to happen is that you should make some pauranik person, some pauranik region, the youth icon. But that does not happen.
What should one say to a child ten times a day?
Tell your child, he says, and speak it into him from childhood: however grown your child may already be, tell him that when you grow up you will become a sadhak; you have taken birth in Sanatan in order to become a sadhak, not in order to become an engineer or a doctor. Being an engineer or doctor is a field of karma; you have to become that anyway. It is for this body that has been received — this body is a garment and nothing more. For the soul within it, with which you took birth, you must become a sadhak. Say it to children ten times a day, and say it to yourself too, at whatever level you are, as long as the breath runs.
What sadhana is advised for those of 55, 60 or 70 years?
Involve yourself a little in all these things, he says; learn to manage the mind. If you have grown old, if you are going on 55, 60, 70 years, take the name of God. Do not do the work of setting fire among daughter, son, son-in-law and daughter-in-law. Do not light fires, do not have very great expectations. You have seen your life; sit and contemplate God.
What should a fourteen or fifteen year old do?
And if you are young, only fourteen or fifteen years old, he says, then take hold of yourself from now. YouTube and Facebook did not exist and one generation was already spoilt, ruined. Through YouTube and Facebook, what is obtained merely from watching this blogging, from peeping into what is going on in somebody's life — God knows.
What happens to those who expose their families on YouTube?
We have also observed this, he says: those people who expose themselves and their family on YouTube and Facebook — a good family — some loss begins to occur, but they continue. This exposing, he says, becomes a very wrong subject; it is altogether strange.
Conduct with the husband stays separate, high and divine, while conduct with the new family formed by the marriage is ordinary.
But along with that, when the marriage takes place, the husband acquires new father-in-law and mother-in-law, new brothers- and sisters-in-law, and a new family is formed; and when the wife comes, a new family is formed for her here too. So it is not that her conduct, the bhav of sharanagati, the conduct of love, will remain only with her husband. With the husband it will remain of a separate kind, of a high order, divine, belonging between the two of them; with everyone else it will be ordinary, socially and familially loving. The sharanagati will not be spoiled in that.
Keep the practice secret — but from whom exactly?
Keep your own sadhana and Upasana secret, but certainly spread awareness among people. Not by force — among those dear to you, those who regard you, those in need or in distress. People go so secret, he says, that they will not even tell the members of their own family who need it.
What should you do when people taunt you for an elaborate puja?
When you do your puja and seva in Shravan, your basket of flowers will be full and people will see water, milk, curd, honey and ghee in your vessels, and out of envy they will ask why so much show is needed. It is for this that it has been said that bhakti is not a matter of display — it generates envy in people. Ignore it and complete your work.
How does a woman complete a thirty-day Panchakshari sadhana across her period?
Asked how to complete thirty days if one becomes rajaswala during the Panchakshari sadhana, and what to do during the gap, he says the four or five days that will fall are no difficulty. In that time the rule that applies is the usual one — not to touch, not to do puja. You need not be troubled about the four days that are missed; a little less will be done, but nothing else needs doing. If you wish very much, you may extend the sadhana by four more days, and that will be even better.
Do the worshipped shaktis remain behind when you travel?
If you are going, the speaker says, then your worshipped shaktis will all go along with you as well. You will make pranam there, tell them subtly, and they will go; they will walk with you. There is no subject of apujya here in the Kaliyuga, in the present time.
What is the seva vidhan before leaving on a long journey?
No fault will attach, he says. If you are going somewhere, then having offered naivedya, having offered a bhog of dry fruits, having covered it, having made pranam, make a request of the Lord: that we are going to this place and will return in so many days, so we request that we shall remember and worship you mentally and that you accept that same pujan of ours and be pleased; and that you too come along with us, help us in our work, and come back with us when we return. Say that and go — keep the seva vidhan just this much.
How do husband and wife each recite the Panchakshari?
If the husband wears the yajnopavit, then he will say namah first and shivaya afterwards. And if he does not wear the yajnopavit, and for the wife, then they will say namah afterwards and shivaya first.
What are the rules for a Paras shivling?
He says he has said many times in lives that the rule of the Paras shivling is such that the whole subject becomes different for a householder. Whoever you took the shivling from — do as they have told you the vidhi and rule.
What if there is nobody at home to do the puja of the vigrahas?
It is true that if there is nobody at home to do puja then there is worry about the vigrahas, the speaker says — but do not worry about the vigrahas. It should be only this much: that at the very least dhoop and deep are burning.
Dattatreya 108-name milk tarpan under a peepal, bargad or bel tree to free bound pitr
The speaker prescribes a Tarpana of Bhagavan Dattatreya's 108 names for bound Pitr, begun on any Thursday, Amavasya or Poornima under a Peepal, Bargad or Bilva tree at a place where worship is done, never a lonely tantra-mantra spot. Raw milk with Gangajal and dissolved Mishri is taken in a brass or silver lota (not copper, especially for a woman), at least half a litre or a paav, and poured at the root with a leaf of the tree or a silver spoon at each namah of the 108 names, after a sankalp with name and Gotra, Akshat, a flower and a one- or ten-rupee coin. White cloth is worn; a woman wears a white saree with a border and a full Ghunghat, for women must never do pitr work without ghunghat. A man of the house is best; failing him the badi bahu, then the chhoti bahu. It is done Amavasya after Amavasya, not daily, and after three Amavasyas he expects the kripa to begin and the pitr to show themselves in dreams.
Which tantra is best for a householder?
The tantra of Bhagavati Kamakhya is the best for a grihastha, the speaker agrees — but you must first obtain that same Kamakhya tantra in its root form. One who does not know the root starts giving out the priceless directly, and the person receiving it runs into difficulty.
What are the visible signs that such kripa has come?
Seva puja began in the home, the speaker says; the vidhi vidhan of the house became satvik, our thinking became satvik. And when at some time your enemy became strong, or your prarabdha — the wrong prarabdha — is rising and suffering is about to come to you, then he gave it thought, and even that one day of sadhana will be of use there.
Can the punya of a parent protect a child in this way?
Yes. Many times it also happens, the speaker says, that the sadhana was done by the father; a calamity came upon the son, and though we do not know what the son life is, an avesh came upon him too — because the punya was the father, the punya was the grandfather, the punya was the mother. From that too it happens.
At what age should the diksha of the Tripurasundari mahamantra be given?
Asked by Rahul Sharma what guidance he would give if the questioner were his son and wished only to obtain moksha from Maa Bhagavati, the speaker answers that first of all, at an age of less than eight years, he would have him given the diksha of the mahamantra of Bhagavati Tripurasundari. He himself cannot give it, so he would have it given.
Should a householder go to Manikarnika and bathe there?
There is no dosha in going to Manikarnika, the speaker says — why can one not go? One certainly can. The mandir of Bhagavati Manikarnika is there, Bhagavati is present there; take her darshan, and bathe in the Chakra Pushkarini tirtha, which is in Manikarnika itself. But do not enter the place where the antim sanskar and so on are performed, which is the root shamshaan area of the mahashamshan. One should not enter it without cause — though, he adds, those who do such things are even playing Holi in the masan.
Can a Baglamukhi anushthan and the Sankat Nashan be done together?
A listener says that he had asked about a divorce, was told the Sankat Nashan, but on seeing old videos he has done both a Maa Baglamukhi anushthan and the Sankat Nashan. Then do both, the speaker says, there is no problem; if you can do both together, that is even better.
Which two powers is the Amavasya of Jyeshtha tied to?
The speaker says the Jyeshtha Amavasya is directly connected with two principal powers. On one side falls the Vat Savitri vrat, in which mothers worship for victory over kaal, for long life, for the protection of their suhag and for the increase of their saubhagya, along with Bhagavati Savitri and for the sake of Yama Deva — Yamraj being connected with it.
Where does the "it is all a sham" attitude come from?
From the lack of our basic education, he says — the education connected with Sanatani matters. Say instead that the parents did not teach it in life and the children grew up illiterate in it. Then, after receiving modern education, to ignore these things, to mock them, and thereafter to increase one's own suffering and the suffering of one's descendants becomes their supreme established right.
Must a kavach be removed during grihastha relations?
Yes — apart from the Kamakhya kavach, which he says he has stated before, whatever other kavach you are wearing: if you are a householder and are to take your grihastha life forward with husband and wife together, then in such a state it should be removed, and after concluding, having become pure, it should be worn again. That is good, and your confidence too will remain. If you yourself perform the anushthan and the rest, to wear the kavach as a limb of the body and keep it on is better; otherwise its energy will not decay but will disturb you — the decay of energy being a different matter — and you will begin to be a little mentally disturbed.
Is it a problem to have read the Ram Sahasranama without nyasa?
Aditya ji writes that he did the path of the Ra-kara and other Ram Sahasranama without nyasa. Do it having done nyasa, the speaker answers: if it is to be done, what is the problem, do it with nyasa. Take upadesh from some vipra or some guru for its sake, for the sake of the sahasranama. And if your father is a person who does seva, pujan and path, then you may take upadesh for all these from your father too — ask him to give you the upadesh for it. No dosha will attach. The vast subject of tantric sadhanas needs a guru in abundance; but if your father is learned and is a devoted person who does pujan, path and seva, then take the upadesh of the sahasranama, of the satnam, from him as well. That too will be fully fruitful and will be gracious for you.
Kuldevi by surname, or the one worshipped for four or five generations?
Akshay Tanwar ji asks whether Kshatriyas should search out and worship the kuldevi according to their surname, or may keep worshipping the form of Mata ji they have worshipped as kuldevi for four or five generations. It is your own decision, the speaker answers: if you wish, it will be very good to learn the whole vidhi and subject of which Kshatriyas you belong to according to your surname, and to do that as well. But those who have been worshipped for four or five generations you cannot leave. Even though the new one you come to know of will be the older one, people must have left it at some time; that one you may begin. But in this you cannot leave your own kuldevi who has been worshipped for four or five generations already — she must certainly be worshipped.
What conduct cancels the fruit of the japa?
Now you have done the sava lakh japa and become a formidable sadhak — but if along with it you do not honour your parents, wage war with them, quarrel with them, start a war with younger and elder brothers and sisters, fight with your wife or husband, fight with or insult your beloved — then, he says, whether you do sava lakh or crores of japa, the fruit will not be obtained.
Are children affected by the same prohibition?
Innocent children who go with their parents and have no knowledge of any of these subjects incur no particular fault — for children under thirteen years of age there is forgiveness anyway. It is the fifteen or sixteen year old, who knows where he is going, whose case is different.
What is the reason behind the age restriction?
Recall your own fourteenth or fifteenth year — how fiercely the hormones change, how you were drawn to the opposite sex, a state almost of unconsciousness. Consider then how far the energy of such a person will rise after going to that region, and that if he cannot bear the surge of Kama, mistakes and offences follow and the boy is ruined.
What must be avoided toward women in these four days?
It should never be done at any time in life, but in these four days in particular, avoid insulting women and mothers. And if any woman becomes Rajaswala in that time, know her at that time as Bhagavati Kamakhya's very form. Serve her those four days, whatever your relation to her, and let no feeling of untouchability be in you.
Should an outside Tantrik be allowed into the house in these days?
No Tantrokta Anushthan should be performed inside your house by an outside person in these four days. Your own Guru coming and doing it is excellent, or one in whom you have blind trust — but a new person, or someone who bears you malice and knows the procedures, will absorb his own energy there and interfere.
What of a Sankalpa asking for the death of an enemy's child?
The speaker recounts one such: that so-and-so, who harmed me in this way, may his child soon attain death. What malice is in the man who writes such a Sankalpa, he asks — and if that Sankalpa were taken and the child did die, who bears the fault of it?
Those who had a Kula's Bali, Bhog and Naivedya stopped bear nothing when havoc then breaks over that family
That people are slowly giving up Bhagavati's service altogether — a state has come about in which the Bali, Bhog and Naivedya of one's own Kula's powers have been stopped. And when havoc then breaks out in a house and a family is wrecked, what difference does that family's ruin make to those who had the Bali stopped?
Parents as a son's greatest tirtha and the husband as a wife's
The speaker says the Vedas and dharma shastras state that whoever worships his parents and circles them obtains the same fruit as circling the entire earth, and that a parent's lotus feet are a son's great tirtha — other tirthas are far away, this one is at hand. For a son the parents, and for a woman her husband, are the best tirtha within the home; a wife gains the fruit of tirtha by serving her husband and a son by serving his parents. He adds the text's warning: one who leaves his parents at home to go on Teerth Yatra incurs the sin of killing them both, so if the parents are able, never go without taking them along. Tirthas come only after serving one's parents with body, wealth and intellect as far as one can.
Keeping the intellect alert in a crisis instead of panicking
The speaker relates Parvati's praise of Ganesha after his argument: a pure intellect has arisen in you, and one whose buddhi keeps its excellence even when a crisis is upon him has his sorrow removed just as darkness is removed at sunrise. He stresses that this is meant for everyone: crisis comes to all, and the trouble begins when one panics, loses heart and stops thinking with the intellect — he recalls how a hare made a mad lion fall into a well. Parvati adds that Ganesha has followed the dharma laid down for a child, and the parents accept his word as final.
Benefits of reciting the Ganesha–Kartikeya marriage chapter of the Shiv Mahapuran
The speaker says the chapter shows Shiva and Parvati's love for Skanda and tells Ganesha's story, and its mahatmya is that if this single chapter is recited daily, any separation or distance from one's parents or one's son is removed and a way opens. Whoever reads, teaches, hears or narrates it has all wishes fulfilled: a brahmin gains brahma-varchas, a kshatriya victory, a vaishya wealth, a shudra excellence; the sick are freed from disease, the fearful from fear, and such a person is not troubled by bhoot-Preta. It is sinless, increases fame, happiness and lifespan, grants heaven, incomparable sons and grandsons, liberating knowledge of Shiva and Shiva bhakti; those seeking Shiva's advaita knowledge and welfare should always hear it.
What is promised to someone who recites the Ganesh Akhyan daily?
That whatever desire is held, if the complete Akhyan is recited daily with that desire, the desire is certainly fulfilled. The sonless obtain a son; a girl not finding a groom obtains one very quickly; one whose wealth was destroyed obtains wealth.
Shiva would not show meekness, lest the world say Shiva is always under a woman's control — a household quarrel played out
Because, he says, if meekness were shown then a blameworthy fame would spread in the world that Shiva always remains under the control of a woman. His Ganas are pure; the policy that is best is to deal with each as he deals with you — and what valour can a single boy show?
Shiva finally orders the fight — a wife should not be stubborn before her husband, and what is destined will be
That they are all his Ganas and exceedingly skilled in battle, and by abandoning the fight would come to littleness; that a wife should not be stubborn before her husband and Parvati will certainly obtain the fruit of that stubbornness; and so — fight, and what is destined will be.
None of the Devas dared go before the enraged Parvati — the very image of wrath, like any mother whose son has died
They thought Parvati was the very image of wrath and none could summon the courage to go before her. Devas, Danavas, Dikpalas, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Munis, Vishnu, Brahma — none, kin or stranger, was able to appear before her blazing, burning form.
What is the full Phalashruti (fruit of hearing) of the Ganesh Akhyan?
One who hears it restrained becomes possessed of every auspiciousness. A son to the sonless, wealth to the poor, a wife to one who wants one, subjects to one who wants subjects, health to the sick, good fortune to the unfortunate, sons to one whose sons were lost, wealth to one whose wealth was lost, and her husband to a wife he abandoned.
Who in the house should perform the chaukhat pujan?
Especially the kulavadhu, the speaker says. A daughter of the house may also do it — but only until her marriage. Once married, a daughter should not worship the chaukhat of her maike; she should certainly give it respect, but not worship it.
How should the kulavadhu perform the chaukhat pujan?
Having done the prescribed vidhan, then bathed and put on that kind of vastra, and with the pallu placed over her head and forehead, she performs the pujan of the chaukhat. The speaker says great effect is obtained from this, and that the devi-devatas of the house are extremely pleased by the kulavadhu's pujan. If she does not do it, then whichever son or member of the house does it — that, he says, is a separate matter.
Whose food may not be eaten during a fifteen-day anushthan?
The speaker says that during a fifteen or sixteen day anushthan one rule must certainly be kept: do not eat the food of anyone else's house. While doing a purashcharan one should never eat food from another's house. Not even a daughter's house, nor a married sister's — one should not even go there, let alone eat.
Does the food restriction extend to a lover's or the in-laws' house?
Yes. The speaker says that if you are a lover and beloved, you may be very much bound by rule in your own place, but in the middle of a purashcharan you will not eat the food of each other's house at that time until your pani grahan has taken place; and one should not eat the food of the in-laws' house either. Whoever will not accept it, he says, need not.
Can a whole family perform deepdaan together?
Yes — the speaker says all doing it together is most excellent. If there are five or ten members in the family, let them all hold lamps together and, sitting together, do japa of Bhagavati's thirty-two namavali in an ugra, vira bhava — one chakra vidhi, that is thirty-three times, by the chakra vidhi. Then, he says, no one has the standing to raise an eye at that family.
What can a joint family do if someone does attack it?
The speaker says that if there are ten members, the whole family lives together and there has been no partition, then even if someone has raised an eye, let the ten sit together and make a joint sankalpa — having already done a purashcharan — and offer a bali to Bhagavati; the other side, he says, will be finished. There is great capability in remaining joint.
Can a family share one mala or one kavach?
No. He calls it a matter of real dismay that questions sometimes come saying there is a single mala on which all the members of the family do japa. It should not be so. Even if you are doing japa on the most ordinary mala, each person's should be separate and personal — both the japa mala and the mala worn. The third thing, the kavach that we wear, should also be personal to each.
May one person do the agni sparsh of everyone's japa mala?
No. Purifying them all in this way, seat each again in its own place; let everyone put on their own kavach, and everyone take their own mala. Now you are a sadhak, your wife is a sadhika, your sister a sadhika, your brother a sadhak — so do not sit down with everyone's japa mala, he says. You may do the kavachas, and the mala worn may also be given agni sparsh by you, but do not touch anyone else's japa mala. Each person will take his own out of the gomukhi, purify it, wash the gomukhi, and himself have both the gomukhi and the mala touch the fire.
The agni sparsh of a japa mala is done fast, by its own owner, and with no onlookers
It must be done absolutely fast, the hand moving quickly — as much as a touch; it is not to be roasted there. Everyone will have their own mala touch the fire. If some elderly person who does japa cannot do it, the fire should be taken to them and it should be done by them there; and if they cannot do it at all, then you may do it yourself and give it — a father, a grandfather, that will do. But it is not that ten people are touching that mala. And at the time your mala touches the fire, a whole battalion should not stand there visualising and inspecting whether you did it or not; when you do yours, only you should be there.
A prayoga for a suffering family member takes a separate sankalpa, not the daily one
Taking a listener as the example, he says: suppose such a person does the path and puja of Bhagwan Batuk Bhairav ji and has his kavach and has made it siddha, or does japa of the Panchakshari yantra and performs its seva-puja, abhishek, tarpan and archan as a daily rule. Now some abhichar has been done upon someone, or someone has fallen into a disease that troubles them, and it is understood that another member of the family is in great distress. Then, taking a sankalpa, all this is done as extra. It is not that the daily rule you already had — reciting the kavach, doing japa, abhishek, tarpan, marjan — is simply given that sankalpa, that yes, remove their suffering.
Which path are householders in particular told to use?
It is especially for householders, the speaker says, that they should go by this very path, the one you are seeing now, and should not particularly go by any other path. One should ascend from the Ishan kona or the Purva kona. Going by this path, you reach straight to the summit of the Nilachal parvat.
Householders born into sadhak families often want to be rid of the shakti their grandfather established
He says that in the Kalikaal now running, there are several people in his own Grihastha Tantra family who belong to the family of some good sadhak and who want to be rid of the very shaktis established in their kula. Somebody's grandfather, somebody's father was a good tantra sadhak and acquired some shaktis; now they are in difficulty and want release from it.
What rules does the shakti impose on a householder in return?
If you are a householder there, the shaktis will have their own rules, and they too will have you observe them according to their vachan: that you cannot live in householder life in such and such a manner; that you must behave with your wife in this way and this way. You will be bound in all these things — this you are not to eat; before eating you must give bhog in this manner; these works you can never do; these shaktis you can never worship; these mantras you cannot japa. The guru also tells this, and when such a vachan-vaacha takes place, they too tell it.
Which two clauses of a vachan are usually left unstated?
Two further things come, he says, when you say I am in vachan with you for life: whether, when your body is released — that is, at death — they will be free of the vachan; or whether you are establishing that shakti in your kula for ever. That too has to be told at that very time. Those who do not tell it, or who do not have the knowledge of it, cause suffering later to the whole line of descendants, who become bound — and this becomes a matter of a great deal of difficulty.
How does a vachan change the daily routine of a householder?
Doing all this, a shakti is taken in trivacha. Now the siddhi has happened; but when you come into householder life, earlier you used to wake from sleep at ten o'clock. Until the siddhi had not happened you woke at ten. Now the siddhi has happened and you have given a vachan — and according to the vachan the first bhog, the first food, ought to be offered by seven o'clock in the morning.
A bound atma that is loosed strikes the tantrik himself and his disciples' families
And whenever, from some cause, some yukti is applied and the vachan breaks — if it becomes free of the bandhan and is loosed — then it will do a deed to the tantrik mahashay himself, and through those who have become his disciples, or any other person who has taken a siddhi of this kind, it will also lay their families to waste.
Diksha taken from such people brings ill effects into householder life
So keep it in mind, he says, that by taking diksha from people of this kind, from anywhere at all, save your own householder life from ill effects coming to it in this way. Do nothing without knowing things.
What happens when a yakshini is perfected in a wife-form?
Then, if you are going to perfect her in the form of a wife — though it does not happen in the manner in which the confusion has been spread, he says — after that the situation becomes a good deal different. The reason behind it is not that the yakshini will kill your wife because she has been taken in vachan.
Why does the vachan break in householder life?
And when you go into householder life, he says, then somewhere or other there will be obstruction in your sadhana and tapasya; somewhere or other things of that kind will come. Because of that there will be a depletion of prana urja, you will not be able to give time, you will get a weak body, and then the vachan will break there — and when the vachan breaks there will be difficulty.
Can an atheist in the household be made a believer?
If there is some nastik in the house, that he should become astik never depends upon you and me at all, he says. Until there is a change in his own mind this is not possible, and so long as it is written in prarabdha that he will not change, until then he will not change; he will have to undergo his own, and only after that will it happen. Look, he says: those who are very good teachers — their son turns out the most spoiled of all, a lampat of the first order. This is the reason behind it.
How should the mind be brought to full focus?
Asked how to focus the mind completely, he tells the listener by name to keep this matter in mind: whichever family we take birth in matters. When any person takes birth in some family and goes to do sadhana — either his own mind made him do it, so he is going to do sadhana; or his circumstances are such that he is moving toward sadhana, saying that from the troubles in my life let me get release.
Whose prarabdha is borne when you begin sadhana?
And this depends on the whole family, he says: when you have begun to do sadhana, then it is not yours alone there. There the prarabdha of the people of your family too has somewhere or other to be undergone — because you never take a sankalp for yourself alone; you are doing it for the whole family: that my mother and father may become well, that my wife may become well, that my brother may become well, that my sister may become well, that her marriage may take place. So you will do it in their stead as well.
What is the story of Ashok Sundari and her husband?
Ashok Sundari, about whom this matter came, he says: when Bhagavati asked for her from the Kalpavriksha, her name was set as Ashok Sundari precisely because she had removed the shok of Bhagavati. And the one who was the husband of that same Ashok Sundari was cursed by Agastya Rishi and made into an ajgar. Even today there is a place in Indonesia or Cambodia where this is spoken of.
What can be done when family members do jhaad-phoonk without diksha?
A listener says that at his house, even without initiation and without fitness, relatives are carrying on jhaad-phoonk in an arbitrary way, that nobody listens to him, that he is undergoing suffering and feeling very helpless. This thing, the speaker answers by name, is the worst thing of all. He understands what he is saying: that the people of the house are doing jhaad-phoonk and none of them is initiated — and if a shakti of that kind is established at the house through which work of this sort is being done. There is a playlist called Bhagatvaal Grameen, he says, in which they have explained each thing: what troubles arise when you do jhaad-phoonk; what falls upon the one doing the jhaad-phoonk and what falls upon his family; how to be saved. In this, he says, you can do nothing. If the people of your house are not listening, then pray to your ishta and aradhya that they may be given good sense.
What has he seen happen to those caught up in jhaad-phoonk?
But he has seen this, he says — it is his own personal experience of life — that those people who get caught in this do not understand until they are punished in the right way, or, to put it another way, until the family is well and truly scattered. It is a kind of intoxication.
The head of the household needs the bandhans that keep visitors' burdens off the family
All right — they are shaktis; according to themselves, what they are saying is their own maryada, and they are saying it, right in their own place. But if you are the head of the household, he says, you should have this knowledge: that if ten people are coming to your house, bringing ten kinds of malaamat, then so that its effect should not fall upon the members of your family, and should not fall upon the one on whom the sawari is coming, what precautions you have to take, how you have to be saved, what bandhan has to be made and where.
Should a householder hold such a darbar at home at all?
Now according to him, he says, brother, householders should not do all this at home. In this very thing somebody brings something, seats it and goes away, and then the sawari people begin to play at something else entirely, and sometimes it is never properly found out.
What is the best upay for making relationships good?
Asked for upays for making relationships good, he answers: sweet speech is the best for making a relationship good. If a relationship is to be spoiled, then by that same speech you can pierce anybody's heart thoroughly; and if relationships are to be made good, then speech is the best upay. For the rest, he says, if you wish to go into tantra, then that is a different matter.
Why does a newly married sadhak feel dryness in his japa?
He tells a listener by name that the matter is this: at present you are newly married, and somewhere or other you are in adhyatma, so this dryness will keep coming and going. When you have completed all the works of your householder life, then the vairagya that comes after that will be the best of all.
When were tantrokta objects like siyar singi formerly given?
In former times, he says, if elders are alive, find out from them who used to keep siyar singi and hattha jodi. It was when progeny had increased, when vansh vriddhi had taken place. In the same way as, when a new bahu comes into a family, the saas looks over the bahu's fitness and only after some time gives her the keys — in that same manner, after the birth of a child, when a second child had been born and the second child had reached at least three years of age, or, if there was only one child, it is said, twelve years of age, then the tantrokta objects were given. Today, he says, a man is going about carrying siyar singi and hattha jodi from childhood. And who observes these things, he asks.
Is there an upay for a husband who drinks heavily?
Asked for some upay to get a husband who drinks a great deal to give up drink, he says that a vidhi of Holika had been told; at present, when such a time comes, it will be told again.
What happens if one stops a bhog one had begun oneself?
A listener writes that she had begun of her own accord to give bhog to devi-devatas, that she has been giving it continuously, and that she wishes to stop. According to him, he answers, if you now stop of your own accord, then the trouble and difficulty will increase.
The girl is only the route; the target is the whole respected family behind her
No. He says the aim is not merely to remove the girl but, through her, to break the whole substantial and respected family. Through her, the programme of mixing things into the food of that household had already been completed, and its effect had already fallen on the house.
Take the case of a wayward member of the household who met an akal mrityu
Suppose, he says, there was in your house a sadhak, or some wayward boy who ate and drank everything — chicken, fish, liquor — and suppose that by Bhagavati's kripa he met an Akala Mrityu, whether by a tantra strike or from any cause whatever.
No panchbali, no chaukhat, no gau seva and contempt for elders make such protection impossible
If you have never done panchbali in your life, have no chaukhat at all, never do gau seva, never water plants in the heat, speak badly to your wife or husband, abuse your in-laws, do not respect your elder or younger brother, have no respect for the learned, abuse Brahmins, call Kshatriyas impotent, call Vaishyas looters, and use SC-ST language about Shudras — if no one in the world is right for you and you alone are the great one — then such a being will never help you.
With conduct that bad he will drink the blood of your throat after death instead of standing guard
Instead of standing with you, the speaker says, after death he will then drink the blood of your throat. All this is possible only when there is at least one person in the house who walks the path of dharma and is dharma-nishtha, and when there is a place in your house where such a being can be given room.
The kula vadhus should cross the dehri only with the head covered
When you have fixed a dehli or dehri at the door of your house, he says, then in accordance with the maryada of that dehri the kula vadhus of the house should always cross it only with a dupatta kept over the head. He notes that saying this will bring a woman card played against him, that he is of old thinking, and answers that this is the cause of their ruin, that it is his duty to tell and he will tell.
Should dogs and cats be kept in the house?
He says he will tell how people become characterless: look at those who keep dogs and cats in the house. Those whose threshold dogs and cats begin to cross, who go about carrying them in the lap, and where the dog or cat begins to eat from the same plate of food — their character too becomes like that of a dog or cat as time goes on. He says this is his own experience and that he is naming no one personally.
Every member of the family must be brought to sadhana, and that is the sadhak's responsibility
The fourth thing is every member of your family: if you are a sadhak, that is your responsibility. Your doing it alone will not work. Gradually have everyone perform sadhanas, even for half an hour, he says — and if in twenty-four hours you cannot take out even half an hour, then dhikkar upon your life, and you have come here by mistake.
Bhagavati reckons the consequence, and the samarthya you gain stays yours regardless
Bhagavati will see it, he says: whatever the punishment or the result, good or bad, that will remain between you and us. But the samarthya you obtain — there is no telling to what level you will become capable of doing good to your family with it.
After the house is secured, the next stage is japa in the temple near it
One more matter after this, he says: first you secured the house, you did japa and tapa in the house, which is the whole subject discussed. The second subject that comes after it is japa in the temple — whatever temple there is near your house.
This generation has seen the old ways and borne the tragedies, and the future rests on it
You are a generation, he says, that has seen all the things of earlier times and has borne great tragedies, and the future rests on you. If you dismiss these things as superstition and walk away with abuse, then when your next generation suffers it will abuse you; and if you prepare it today, that same generation will thank you tomorrow and call you my great grandfather.
The sankalp to take is that Bhagavati give sadbuddhi to a wrong-minded member of the house
He is not saying, he clarifies, that you should take a sankalp that Bhagavati manifest before you. Take a sankalp: if there is someone in your house of wrong understanding, then perform puja taking a sankalp for his sake — that Bhagavati, give him sadbuddhi. Unity will come into the family, and only then will you be able to fight those who wish your destruction.
Society once held up the charitra of Ram, Lakshman and Bharat as the example of family conduct
Without deva kripa the family too will not survive, he says. Formerly the charitra of Bhagavan Shri Ramchandra ji Maharaj was shown, and the charitra of Lakshman ji, and people used to give that example in society — these two brothers are like Ram and Lakshman; the younger never sets aside the word of the elder; if this one is Ram then that one is Lakshman, and that one is Bharat in person, who never speaks to his elder brother meeting his eyes. Today, he says, it is Spiderman and Hulk; the world of Marvel is running.
The child made Bal Mukund at Janmashtami is made a joker on 25 December
There is no discussion of Krishna and Balaram at all, he says. When Janmashtami comes, all the boys are made Bal Mukund and the girls are made Radha ji, and that is that. Then 25 December comes, and on that day the same child who had been made Krishna becomes the Santa uncle, a joker. Can Krishna ever become a joker, he asks — the very child you make Bhagavan Shri Krishna you then make a joker again.
The kathavachaks taught ras leela and Krishna the rasiya in place of paurush
Had you known this episode and taken it seriously, he says — not merely as imaginary tales for entertainment — and had the kathavachaks explained this subject to you, this ruin would not have happened. If they had leisure from showing ras leela, from making Bhagavan Shri Krishna a rasiya and going on with rasik, rasik, and if they had given that kind of message into society, then today you too would have made your child possessed of paurush.
A child dressed as Krishna should be made to recite eighteen shlokas of the Gita
Krishna ji, he says, had the whole eighteen adhyayas of the Bhagavad Gita by heart — so recite eighteen shlokas to us; now sit. Recite Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre, the first shloka; sit down. Have the child memorise shlokas in the sitting room: you had become Krishna, so now you will have to memorise shlokas, and along with it you too will come to know them. And where the Bhagavad Gita has been memorised, kalyan is bound to happen — whether laukik gati comes or not, paralaukik gati will certainly come, since there are so many subjects in the Gita mahatmya.
Teaching that the family is only this birth's debt is meant to ruin a householder
These unrestrained upadeshas, he says, in which there is talk of leaving the family, of dishonouring one's parents — that we are one jivatma, that there is only this birth's rin between my body and your body, that for this reason we are your son but you are nothing of ours — all of this, if you are inspired by it, is only and solely to ruin you. Your condition, he says, is simply not such that you should take up these things.
How much protection do five or ten malas a day give a family?
When you analyse all this, he says, you will understand how deception has kept being done with you. It is the same today: if one person in your family is doing sadhana, a japa of ten malas or five malas a day, and there are seven members in your family, or five — then when a tantric prayoga occurs, five or six of them are bound to be broken. How many people, he asks, will a japa of ten malas protect?
Once the family's one sadhak is occupied elsewhere, the tantric gets his chance
And within that, he says, the sadhak's marriage takes place and the sadhak becomes engaged with his wife in a different sadhana. The story ends there. The tantric has got his chance and will perform his own sadhana. If you will not do it with your wife, he will do it with your family — and after that you may keep weeping.
When the one member who did japa becomes occupied elsewhere, no energy is left for the family
When the members inside a family are simply not prepared, he says, and the one member who used to do japa and tapa has for some reason now become involved somewhere else — then what energy is left there for your protection, for the family? From where will the protection come?
My eating does not fill your stomach — the complaining member must take up a mala himself
Learn to stand your family up along with yourself, he says. When family members are struck they begin weeping that this has happened to me, and when all goes well for them they have no concern with the devi-devatas. When such people say, we were doing so much puja, why has this happened to us — then, he says, give them two slaps and say: we eat food; you stop eating, and see how much strength you get from my eating. If you want protection for yourself, sit with a mala yourself and do it.
Men who have their clothes washed by mothers and sisters end up Lakshmi-less, however rich now
He says he sees many in this condition, having their clothes washed by their sisters while the mothers wash the clothes; and that some are of so low a disposition that they have even their undergarments washed by their sisters. People who commit such misdeeds, he says, are like the mlecchas, and one day they are left without Lakshmi, however rich they may be now.
From what age should a child wash his own clothes?
When a child becomes eight or nine years old, he says, teach him fully to wash his own clothes himself. It is not only the duty of girls that a girl, being a girl, should wash everything, that the sister will wash — the brother will wash, the brother will wash his own, and the sister will do her own.
No one should wash another's undergarments, machine or no machine
If you do not wash your own clothes yourself and your mother is washing them — a washing machine is a separate matter, he grants — but as for what is washed by hand, and even in a washing machine, no one should wash another's undergarments. Each should wash his own with his own hand and keep his own things.
Taking service from the mother you should be serving attaches a dosha that must be undergone heavily
Such a dosha attaches, he says: understand at any time what you are doing, at what level you are doing a debased act, having your sister do it. It has to be undergone heavily. You are having your clothes washed by your mother — where you ought to be doing her seva, in place of that you are taking seva from her. Does shame never come? And you expect that our kalyan should occur: from where will kalyan come?
What must come before expecting improvement?
First make an improvement in your own life, he says. Only then will there be some chance of the things you hope for in your life — that this should turn out well, that that should turn out well — actually happening.
A sadhana for a good wife is entirely permissible, and applying the Devi Pranava is right
Reading a listener's comment, he says: absolutely do it, brother, for a good wife — there is no difficulty in this. And to another he says that applying the Devi Pranava is right as they have said; it can be done in that way.
How can one find out one's kuldevi from the gotra?
A listener of the Bharadwaj gotra, a Chaturvedi, asks how information about the kuldevi may be obtained according to gotra. The speaker says many granths are published for information according to gotra; among the granths of vanshavali and gotravali and the like, look through some learned granth once, and the matter will be settled.
What should be done about long-running illness, blocked business and repeated miscarriage?
A listener writes that his parents' and wife's health is often unwell, that nothing new can be done in the business for eight years now, and that the womb has fallen three times. The speaker says there should be a full discussion about this once, along with the janma kundalis — only then will it be known what the subject is. It is a matter of the house and the janma kundali, and a matter of the members of the family.
Does sutak apply to a distant branch of the family living away?
A listener asks whether pujan and path stop for thirteen days when sutak-patak has fallen in the family of his grandfather's other brother, four generations back, since they live outside and there is no coming and going. The speaker says that if there is no coming and going and no eating and drinking together, then so far as sutak is concerned there is no thirteen-day sutak — but a niyam should be made: at least the niyam of the first day, and all the niyam of the last day, the thirteenth day on which the dashkatar happens, should be made by you people too, if it is within your knowledge.
What does keeping niyam with nishtha actually build?
The speaker says that by doing what is ashastriya and wanting good to come of it, good will surely come — but you should then think about when that bhala turns into a bhala, a spear. When someone walks with nishtha, by niti and niyam, then along with himself he somewhere constructs a foundation for his future and for his coming generations. Those foundations are very strong, and when he advances in progress in a tremendous way he does not advance alone: his generations advance.
How does a family lose its practice over three generations?
The speaker traces it. The father performed sandhya; he was of the Vaishya varna, he had learnt sandhya, he had his guru ji, he wore the yajnopavit and kept the shikha, he had knowledge of everything, and he did havan from time to time as well. As soon as the next generation came, you became a great champion of the corporate world and a shortage of time arose — but you did not say you were acting from shortage of time. You said all this is show, it is hypocrisy, we will not fall into karmakand, we will not fall into this ostentation, we will only do naam japa and by that alone my welfare will come about; and saying this you abandoned everything. Now when the third generation comes, it will have knowledge neither of sandhya nor of naam japa. They will do yo-yo dude, and then they will get you to do yo-yo. Nothing else — this is what will happen.
What should one do when marital trouble is pushing one toward vairagya?
A listener writes in English of much trouble in his material and marital life, asking for his kundali to be checked. On account of all this trouble you are going toward vairagya, the speaker says. Know one subject: very well, you are going toward vairagya and you also want to remain in married life; in your own place you are right. But there is a divyata here — do not take what follows upon yourself.
What should be done if the wife does not stay with one on this path?
They ask, suppose the marriage happened and the dharmapatni who came did not stay with us — then what? The speaker says: if the wife came and afterwards it did not go well for you, then just become a vairagi like this and come into this very path. Come along, we will take a kamandal and both brothers will sit happily on the bank of Ganga ji — Har Har Mahadev, what is the difficulty? And if a good wife has come, bring her along too; she also Har Har Mahadev, she will do japa and you will do japa. If she turns out good, come; if she turns out bad, come alone. In every condition look at your own condition and how you are to get through.
What is the first step when married life brings trouble?
In my view, in such a circumstance where trouble is coming in married life, the speaker says — though he has digressed and said many things, it is necessary to look at this subject too — everyone should understand that when trouble and difficulty related to married life comes into life, then first of all, brother, if you have not had the janma kundalis matched, get that done first, without fail.
What if the wife's birth details given at marriage were not the original ones?
The speaker says one should ask her plainly: was this your original birth record, or did you give a separate one from the marksheet? Kindly tell us the correct one, whenever you were born — even if you are two years older than me, the marriage has now happened and we cannot leave it now. So obtain the original first. If the original cannot be obtained, then from the hand lines and the forehead lines, if there is some learned person, get out from him as much information as can be got. Otherwise, if the correct birth details are obtained, get both matched properly according to a janma kundali and see what doshas are present.
Which points in the kundali should be examined for marital trouble?
Whatever the nineteen-twenty is, the speaker says, get the whole examination made from the saptamesh. Certainly see the position of the saptamesh. A man should also see the position of Shukra. Also see the position of the sasural. And two or three things — rin parihar, certainly see the rin too, what rin is forming with the wife on account of which she is making quarrel and strife. After seeing all the subjects, make the arrangement of a proper parihar. Do the parihar; whether change will come in her behaviour or not, leave that to Bhagavati.
Is it proper to abandon a wife who turns against the dharma of the kul?
A listener asks whether it is proper to abandon a wife who becomes vidharmi to the kul and the dharma, or who deliberately behaves so as to suppress and harass him, since the arguing is beyond bearing. After making the proper arrangement, yes, the speaker answers. But keep this in mind: once the panigrahan samskar has taken place, then as far as possible, however much she may be dishonouring the man, she is making and marring her own. Applying sam, dam, dand and bhed from your side, make the effort that she come onto the dharma path — this is your responsibility. By explaining with love, by taking the help of the family, taking the help of relatives, through the devi devatas, by describing the subjects of the shastras — make the effort in every way that she become favourable, especially when you are walking on the dharma path.
Is tyaag of a wife proper when she will not walk together?
And if even then she does not agree and it is not possible to walk together, then even in such a circumstance, if you want to make her tyaag, in my view, brother, the speaker says, tyaag is not proper. The responsibility, the duty of bearing her yogakshem is yours. So if tyaag is to be done at all, it should be such that the whole arrangement for her is made, and that the tyaag happens from your heart. Since you have asked according to the shastrokta view, he adds, he cannot give the modern answer of today; that will be your decision, whether you will give a divorce and how you will act. But according to a sadhak, what should a sadhak do in such a circumstance?
On what condition is tyaag permitted at all?
However difficult the circumstance may become, the speaker says, the tyaag of one's own wife cannot be made while leaving off the duty of her maintenance. So let the whole arrangement of the duty of her bharan-poshan be made for her for life, or for as long as the body can manage, and according to that maintain her. For the rest, keep no desire from her. Nor does tyaag mean that you are now not even to take food and drink from her hand. So after making the proper arrangement you can certainly do tyaag; there is no dosh in it.
Who the eclipse guru sadhana is for, and why a guru is not easily found
The speaker says this sadhana is especially for those who have no Guru and want to come onto the sadhana path, and also for ordinary people who want to do sadhana for the protection of their home, family and themselves. If a guru, or a guru to one's liking, is not being found, there is no need to wander: do this sadhana until a guru is obtained, and awaken these mantras for that time. Gurus are not found so easily, he says; it is the Prarabdha of some of our karmas that a guru is not being obtained. When that prarabdha is cut, Punya increases, strength comes into the Jivatma, the energy of tapas grows and punya accumulates, a guru will certainly be obtained. This sadhana, done in this time, he says, will certainly raise one's tapas and Tapo-bala.
What happens when the household's weakest link starts mocking your worship?
If the enemy sees that the chief worshipper is not accepting defeat, then the weakest link in the household is used — the one who opposes puja paath, who mocks you when you worship, and who says again and again: you do so much puja paath, what have you obtained in life? When such a person speaks like that, the speaker says, know that if your household is affected by tantra he is not speaking of his own accord but is being made to speak through tantra.
What is the remedy when abuse escapes the mouth during worship?
Whenever a wrong feeling comes into the mind at the time of pujan paath — and this is for everyone, the speaker says, it happens with him too sometimes, since worldly people living in the householder state have this problem — then in that state become quiet and take the name of Bhagavati Ganga again and again. If abuse has escaped once, take the name of Bhagavati Ganga eleven times.
Why should bhajan, bhojan and bhog always be kept secret?
Asked how much japa or how many malas he does daily, so that listeners may also get motivation, the speaker says it depends, and asks why he should place before them how much he does and what he does. Bhajan, bhojan and bhog, he says, should always be kept secret. Along with these, your wealth, your mantra, your guru, and — put chiefly — the bride of your kul, whether your own wife or your daughter's bride, should all always be kept secret and not revealed.
What are the rules of wearing rudraksha?
Asked what the rules are for wearing the janeu and rudraksha, and having been asked only about rudraksha, the speaker says the first rule for householders is that whenever you wear rudraksha, keep care about what is edible and inedible. If you are non-vegetarian and wear rudraksha, then at the time of eating meat — it is Kaliyug now, he says, and he knows the rules will not be fully kept at the beginning — still, if Shiva's grace has come, make the effort that meat-eating does not happen. And if the eating of meat and liquor still happens, then whenever you do it, do not do it while wearing them; after bathing you may wear them again.
Rudraksha must not be on the body during grihastha karya, and must be covered when travelling outside the house.
That was the first, the speaker says. The second thing is that rudraksha should not be on the body before performing grihastha karya. Whenever you travel outside the house and wear a mala, it should be covered so that it is never seen; at that time there is no need to separate it from the body — but again, if you consume meat and liquor, it should not be on the body. At the very least this much niyam should be observed.
Why is nine hours of Chandi Kavach recitation impossible for a householder?
He wrote back that nine hours for any woman or man who is not a sadhak — or is one, but is a householder — for twenty-one days continuously would mean mothers and sisters abandoning all their housework to sit; you would have them ordering Zomato and Swiggy, and you would make them work more than at Navratri. He added that when he does it himself, taking a sankalp of eight or nine days, it takes him thirteen to fourteen hours, because sitting continuously for so long is not possible even for him.
What Ganesh anushthan should every householder do?
Every householder should in his life do the sadhana of the Sankatnashan Ganesh Stotram, and should do a proper anushthan of that stotra. If 108 recitations are done daily from Chaturthi to Chaturdashi, by the vidhan told in the video given on this same channel, that is most excellent. If you cannot manage it, then do at least three days, five days, seven days.
How does one keep a long single-deity sadhana when festivals intervene?
He calls it a very good question. He says he repeatedly says to do the sadhana of one deity for a long time — you have begun Ganpati now, so do Ganpati's sadhana the whole year. But Navratri will come in between, Shivratri will come, Diwali will come. For that: continuous sadhana done unbroken is possible for men, not for women. So take up sadhanas of twenty-one days, of eleven days, of twenty-one days in this manner. As soon as you learn that Navratri is about to begin, then before it, whatever number of days the sadhana is, take it that far and do its purnahuti and so on; then for the remaining days go on doing the ordinary recitation of it.
After an eleven-hundred sankalp, eleven recitations daily through the pause keep the krama unbroken
As, you recite the Sankatnashan 108 times daily and have made a sankalp of 1100 recitations; taking an eleven-day sankalp, yours is complete. Then if you stop for two or three days, in those two or three days go on doing eleven recitations daily, so that the krama will remain. Then take sankalp again and do 1100 again. In this same manner, see that Shivratri is coming — so before Shivratri your whole 1100 should be completed. After that do Shivratri, and one or two days after it, begin again. Doing each sadhana in this way, if you have to go somewhere in between or some work arises, that too will be managed and there will be no difficulty. Householders should do it in this way.
When should a long sadhana be taken up?
Take up a long sadhana when you are completely confirmed that for the next three months we are not going anywhere; that there will be no trouble at all; that the vegetables and everything will be managed and you will remain sitting at home. What he means, he says, is that only if the people of the house cooperate that much should you take up a long sadhana; otherwise go on doing small sadhanas of eleven days and twenty-one days. Then there will be no difficulty either, and it will be done comfortably.
What are Shiv vaas and Agni vaas, and why are they looked at?
He tells Dheeraj Saxena ji that when particular anushthans have to be done, then Shiv vaas and Agni vaas are looked at. Shiv vaas means the situation of Shiva ji at that time — where he is, in which place he is dwelling; its reckoning is according to the tithi. He says he will make a separate video for both of these, do the reckoning and show it, so that it will be understood; though its result, the presence on that day, is given, so you can see it even without doing the reckoning. The reason for looking is that when there is a particular anushthan, Bhagavan should be present in that place, so that our desire in that anushthan may be fulfilled. For sanyasis there is no need of the preparation of looking at Shiv vaas and Agni vaas; it is those who are householders — because we perform the vidhi vidhans being filled with desires — for whom the need of looking at the vaas arises. Of Agni vaas: suppose the Agni vaas is in the earth and at that time we do havan, then it is held that through Agni devata the ahuti is reaching that shakti; and if the Agni vaas is not here but in the patal, then if we give an ahuti, from where would they obtain it — so it has been held.
The first kind of bandhan is binding a prosperous family's source of income
The first kind he takes is the bandhan of the advancement of anybody's family — the case where a family was earlier very prosperous and well supplied with wealth and grain, but its source of income became bound.
A jealous relative uses kshudra processes to bring kalah, klesh and vidveshan into a happy household
The speaker says that in exactly the same way, when there is much comfort, wealth, aishwarya and vaibhava in someone's house and everyone lives together well, and some jealous person — often one of their own — comes to feel dvesha for such a family, he performs many kinds of kshudra processes so that kalah and klesh arise within the family and vidveshan occurs.
The biggest negative is living on deva kripa and pitr kripa with no arrangement for suraksha
The speaker says the greatest negative is that you were living very well by the grace of the devas and the pitr, but you had made no arrangement for protection. Until such difficulty and sorrow comes upon people they do not become alert about it.
An abhicharik prayoga on a decent family leaves well-behaved children unable to live without intoxication
The speaker says people notice nothing until kalah and klesh break out and total ruin follows, and only then look for what happened. He points to families where very well-behaved children lived, who never touched any intoxicant, and then such a prayoga falls on the family that the children cannot live without intoxication and the family too is ruined and completely wrecked. That, he says, is an abhicharik prayoga.
When no brother in a kunba has a son and every marriage has stopped, the prayoga dates from the father's or grandfather's time
The speaker describes a bandhan on a whole family — if it is a family of four, four brothers, then not one of them is having a son, only daughters are being born; or many times no child at all; or the whole marriage in the whole kunba has stopped, four brothers and all four marriages stopped, all the mangalik work stopped. When it has stopped for all four or five, he says, know that this is not the effect of a tantra prayoga of this generation but of the time of the father or grandfather, which for some reason has now become very strongly effective and is at its peak.
A bandhan laid at the family's own deva sthan binds everything at once, and is done by insiders
The next process, the speaker says, is doing such a bandhan at the very place of your root deities that a comprehensive bandhan of everything occurs. And the people who perform this process, he says, are people from right inside the family — those who have complete coming and going, sitting and rising in your house. Extremely hostile people.
What should a family do when kalah and klesh will not settle?
If there is very great kalah and klesh in the family where earlier there was love, and you are trying to put it right and it is not happening, and you are even employing havan and pujan and it is not happening — then in such a state, the speaker says, let each and every member of that family make kheer on the day of Purnima or on the day of Amavasya, and let all the members feed the kheer to gau mata with their own hand, and feed it with great love.
Feed her at your own door if possible, but the animal must not be the household's own
If possible feed her at your own door, the speaker says — but attention must also be kept on this: the animal should not be one of your own house. Doing this on the Amavasya will bring benefit very quickly.
Which Gita paath is prescribed for household discord?
And along with it, the speaker says, if a collective paath of any one of the seventh, the ninth or the eleventh adhyaya of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita begins to be done, then from the very first day the effect will be visible and this kalah and klesh will at once begin to be wiped out. If there are 10 members and any five of them start doing this, the buddhi of the remaining five also becomes right of its own accord and the effect of all these things is destroyed.
Aurasa putra means a son born of one's own seed
The speaker explains that aurasa putra means a son produced from one's own virya — aurasa is the word for virya, seed.
How does one protect a house whose members have no shraddha?
The sadhaks who have shraddha will do the protection of the house, the speaker says; the members who hold ashraddha will sit quietly. If they make too much fuss, do their puja first and then your own. The unbelieving ones are surely suffering too — it is not that they are happy and only the sadhak with faith is in distress. So explain to them: sit well, in peace, you have nothing to do, let us do what we are doing and it will be protected. If they do not agree, do their puja-aarti first — what else is to be done. One person is trying to save the house, and they will not even let him.
What puja improves the relationship between husband and wife?
For the husband-wife relationship to be good, the speaker says, do the pujan of Bhagavati, do the pujan of Shiva-Shakti, do the japa of Shambha Shiva — as much pujan of Bhagavati and Shiva ji as can be done.
What to do when irritability and causeless anger have taken over the house?
If there is great irritability and anger arising for no reason, the speaker says, the very first thing to do at home is to look at the condition of the main door. It should not be dirty, shoes and slippers should not be taken off around it — set all of that right first. After that, do the sahasranama or the like of whichever deity you worship at home, sprinkle abhimantrit water through the house, and recite a shanti mantra if you can. Slowly, he says, you will certainly get relief.
Which shivling should a householder keep?
According to him — or rather, he corrects, according to the learned — a householder who holds the desire for dhan, dhanya and sukh should keep either Narmadeshwar ji or a shivling made of ratnas, whether of sphatik, of panna, or whatever is within your capacity. Sphatik shivlings anyone can keep comfortably; Narmadeshwar ji anyone can keep comfortably, and they should keep them.
What should be recited at sandhya for a householder's prosperity?
He says: the stuti made by Vishnu ji of Shiva ji, by the thousand names — recite it at the time of sandhya. It is wonderful, he says, for the attainment of dhan and dhanya, for a householder's happiness.
How should all the deities of the household be worshipped?
Asked whether the household deities should be worshipped one by one, or first one and then the next, he takes the example of Lakshmi-Ganesh ji, Hanuman ji, Shiva ji and Bhagavati all being installed. Ordinarily in a house, if you have the snan and the rest performed for all of them daily and that whole procedure is there, then do it in sequence at your own convenience. But if you do an entirely ordinary pujan — and not everyone has that much time — then this much should be done.
What is the minimum daily procedure for the household deities?
He says one should mix Gangajal and fragrant water — rose water, Gangajal, agaru, and fragrant itra. Keep all these mixed in a good spray bottle, or in the vessel used for sprinkling water, so that it stays fragrant. Every day sprinkle it over all of them, and first wipe them lightly with a clean dry cotton cloth. Apply a tilak to each of them.
What are the rules for wearing a kavach?
He says: whenever you wear a kavach — any kavach at all, leaving aside the Kamakhya kavach — if you are husband and wife, then what rule will there be for them? You can wear the kavach daily. Being husband and wife, keep it worn. You can keep it worn even at the time of sleeping.
The effect passes into the kula parampara and falls upon the coming vansh
This thing happens in the kula parampara, he says — that is, in one's own kula, in one's own svakula, as well. And because of it, an effect falls upon the vansh that comes after. He takes as an example a household in which a grandfather or great-grandfather used to do sadhana, was initiated in some kula and was learning things — who in two or three years learnt the kramagat sadhanas very well, did some purashcharan as well, five lakh, ten lakh, twenty lakh, and because of that punya attainments came into his life too, whether materially or spiritually.
Whose karma is a child under thirteen bearing?
But pay attention, he says: if that child was under thirteen years of age, then at that time he was undergoing the karmas of his own mother and father. Up to thirteen years, the body's progress or decline happens according to the parents' karma — up to five years the mother's, and after that, for the remaining years up to thirteen, the father's. So it was according to their karmas that he was suffering.
Two jivas were interfered with, and in truth the whole family behind them
Now here interference has occurred in the prarabdha of two jivas, he says — and if it be seen rightly, in that of the whole family, because if harm had come to the child, harm would have come to the whole family. Now the interference that the great-grandfather has made will fall entirely upon him. This is karma; it has to be balanced. Kaal, he says, will not let it go.
Shodhan is now waved away for the sake of growth — stay limited to your own family
But where one is not authorised, he says, your present gurus will say, oh, no problem, do it, do it. There is a problem. Those who were the original ones never said so; the original ones came walking entirely by rule. Now, because growth is to be made and these things are to be increased, people ignore all of it completely. The process of shodhan is happening nowhere. It may be happening, he allows, but from the state of things it seems they will not even have heard of it, let alone do it. And this, he says, is why he always says: do what you are doing, stay limited to your own family — but if you try to make a commotion outside the family, then the commotion will later be made with you as well, whichever field you may be in.
Whose burden is a shishya's karma?
He says this whole subject will in time fall upon one's descendants, the karma that remained accumulated, connected with the prarabdha of others — which is why Ramakrishna Paramhansa ji himself suffered it and departed; he underwent affliction. Many such sadhaks are met with, upon whom the burden of their shishyas falls: a sixth share of the shishyas falls upon the guru. If you are making someone a shishya, and he commits papa, then a sixth portion of it will come to you. To the wife half is given; to the guru a sixth is given.
Can a married daughter do upaya for a strong pitrudosha in her maike?
A listener says there is a strong pitrudosha in her maike, affecting her sisters and brother, but no solid upaya is being done there, and asks whether she and her husband may do it. He answers that after being married, if you do it without taking dakshina from those people, then nothing will come of it. The plain matter is that you no longer belong to their house; the marriage has taken place and you are now separate. You may do it for your mother and father if you wish, but then, according to the niti and niyam, give — take at least a hundred rupees of dakshina from them, from their side, so that the effect is obtained.
Why must the dakshina be taken?
One way of putting it, he says, is that we are taking our wage — because if you do it otherwise, then the relationship with them from before the marriage and the present situation are two different things. The subject of bhav-pradhanta becomes one thing and the subject of kriya becomes another. So do as much as you wish, whatever you wish; but even a hundred rupees in the month, having told them that for the sake of the japa and tapa we have done — and then let them give it, and it will be deducted from your share.
When could she have done it without taking anything?
Now in this, he says, learned people may put forward many kinds of subjects, saying no, she can absolutely do it. When could she have done it? When you had no brothers, when there was nobody else — then the whole responsibility would have been yours and you two alone would have done it. But there everybody is present, and you are doing it; so then you should do it after obtaining something from there.
Up to what age do a child's papas not accrue?
Asked whether papas do not accrue up to fourteen years, he says it does not remain up to thirteen years, brother. The twelfth begins, the twelfth ends; between twelve and thirteen take it as fifty-fifty. Up to thirteen it is still not counted; it is counted from after thirteen. But going by the present time, he says, it should be counted from even earlier.
How can a family be protected from mohini vashikaran?
Asked how to protect the people of one's family from the mohini vashikaran much in vogue nowadays, he says: if you do even the normal morning and evening seva-puja daily, as much as is told, and you keep ten malas of your own sandhya, and you have done the purashcharan of any one kavach — do the Kamakhya kavach — then no vashikaran in the house will have any effect upon you.
Who must keep the Shakambhari or Annapurna form in particular?
For those whose kuldevi this form of Jagadamba is, and for whom it is worshipped in the form of the kula swamini, this form is of course extremely necessary. But apart from them too, the speaker says, it is exceedingly necessary that this form be worshipped in the grihastha ashram: one should certainly perform the upasana either of Jagadamba's Annapurna form or of Bhagavati's Shakambhari form.
Sadhana is savings laid up for one's descendants, as money is invested for a future one cannot see.
You do not know your own future, but you keep it protected by saving, he says — you save because it will be of use in the future, you invest money somewhere because it will be of use in the future. In just the same way, learn to invest sadhanas. You will make this investment of sadhanas and it will be of use to you in life, and to your children too. You save money and give it to your children, but nobody gives a sadhana to their children, and nobody gives punya karma.
Which pushtikarak shaktis keep their grace over a lineage?
In a kula, he says, the influence and blessing of certain shaktis always remains — all those shaktis that are pushtikarak. For example Bhagavati Devsena: if her grace is obtained, if the grace of Bhagavati Shashthi is obtained, then hardly ever will any trouble relating to the lineage come into the kula, and hardly will any suffering come to the children, so long as the parents do not knowingly commit some very great offence.
How long does the effect of an Annapurna or Shakambhari sadhana last?
The effect of any sadhana relating to Bhagavati Annapurna or Bhagavati Shakambhari remains for a long time. It may be said, he holds, that they certainly give the blessing of grain, the blessing of grain and wealth, at least from one generation to the second and from the second to the third. And if you have grain then you will have wealth too; both dhan and dhanya are obtained. This is why the sadhana of Bhagavati Shakambhari should be performed.
May the Shakambhari sadhana be done while Kharmas is running?
Although Kharmas will be in force during the Shakambhari Navratri, still, if you wish to do her sadhana — since this is her own navratra — you should certainly do the sadhana given at the pinned link. There is no difficulty in that. But that sadhana should be repeated again and again, at least in one navratra or another; even doing it once or twice makes her effect and grace come very intensely and very quickly in your life.
If women do not touch Hanuman ji and Shani Dev, how can Shani be served?
A questioner writes that she had read that just as girls do not touch Hanuman ji, so too Shani Dev is not touched, and asks how Shani Dev can then be served. Every deity has some rule of its own, he answers, and to disregard those rules is dangerous for oneself. Behind the prohibition on touching Shani Dev, or Rahu and Ketu, or the child forms of the gods, or the form of Hanuman ji, there is some cause; and understanding those causes is beneficial for you.
Can women perform havan?
For the vaidik havan, he says, there is a prohibition for women. In vaidik karmakand and the rest, in the time that is running today, whatever tantrokta havan there is — that all should perform. Tantrokta havan means that whatever ahutis and so on are to be given with ordinary mantras, those should be done.
What if no man in the household will perform the havan?
The second point, he says, is that if no man in the house is performing it, in such a situation what will you do — abandon it? So if they do not wish to do it, you do it: if you have the means to call a pandit ji and have it done, have it done by him; if you do not, do it yourself.
How can a family get rid of a shakti seated in the kula?
In UP and Bihar there is an abundance of all these things, he says: in every region you will hear of a new one. The chief shaktis are in their own place, but these small shaktis have become worshipped in this form. Asked how one may be freed of them, he answers: where from? If someone in the kula will worship it, how can there be release? You yourselves do not think before bringing an ancestor in. Fathers and grandfathers bring all these things in for the sake of learning, or else out of some greed they bring them and keep them, or if they went into abhichar they give them a place in the house — who will spend money and seat them in Ganga ji, in a divine place, so they just do it this way. After that the descendants that follow have difficulty.
What should a woman do about sadhana during her monthly period?
There is no difficulty, he tells the questioner. These things happen with mothers and sisters; so if it is possible for you, cook and eat food made by yourself, if you are doing that kind of sadhana — especially if you are doing a sadhana of Hanuman ji. Otherwise there is no difficulty at all: if you are doing sadhana of Bhagavati, there is no difficulty.
A heart gone to Girnar while the body remains a householder leaves the mind unsettled and sleep broken.
He tells the listener that his information is always very strong, and that this is exactly why he remains in a state of uchchatan. The actual matter, he says, is this: the mind is not settling, sleep is not coming — the fact is that your heart has gone away to the Girnar mountain, near Bhagwan Datta. Your experiences too are tremendously divine. And now you have to remain here to complete your physical life, your grihastha life. So you are able to be neither of this side nor of that. That is the difficulty.
What should be done about a seventeen-year-old becoming withdrawn?
If a child is becoming introverted and is seventeen years of age, then first of all try to know his condition, he says. It is not necessary that it is some upari attack; there may also be something of that kind in his own personal life. Just look at that thing. Tell his mother — children are more attached to the mother — that she should find out why after all this is happening.
Who are the Satis that people are asked to install, and should they be installed?
He confirms that many people ask about Sati: she is that very woman who died by suicide in the family, or who was got killed. Many people told him too to seat them, but it did not seem the right path. If you seat them, he says, it may be that they will grant you peace for five or ten years — but you are not knowing what your coming descendants will do. If nobody does the seva and puja of God, there is no difficulty there; God can never become displeased, that is their separate way, that is the teaching of Sanatan. But if you seat shaktis of this kind in the house, and tomorrow it turns out that your son or daughter did not marry within their own kula and khandan, or something of that kind happened, then the work is done for.
What scattered problems do people bring to a guru?
The questions come scattered, the speaker says: if there is a tantra prayoga on us, tell us for that; the trade has been ruined, tell us for that; our son or daughter is not listening, tell us something separate for that. Nobody's purpose stays clear about why a guru is wanted at all.
What happens when you begin Hanuman puja against an active enemy?
A chowki of Hanuman ji is seated; you decide to do Hanuman ji's puja. You did puja on the first day, they came to know, and you will feel a little relief there. From their side they will do four or five such works — not directly on you, because you are doing it, so they will do something on somebody else in your family. You have a chowki seated at home, you are doing Hanuman ji's puja at home, but at some time you will go out; something will happen so that the body is impure or unclean even for a short while.
Somebody has done a tantra kriya in the house — what should be looked at first?
To India Vikas ji, who says a tantra kriya has been done in his house, he answers that very many remedies have been told and asks him at least to look at the channel once and then certainly to ask if he does not understand. Whenever a tantra kriya has been done in the house, the first thing is whether it has been done only on the house or whether it is on the members — whether it is on some one member or whether the trouble is throughout the whole house.
What if a family member is the one doing the abhichar?
To a listener who says the household members themselves have done such a thing that no work gets done, people are leaving the house, and poverty persists — that is, that a person of the house itself is doing tantric process or abhicharik karma on the body — he answers that if a person of the family himself performs an abhichar karma, the situation becomes quite different. If you are living in the family together with the one performing the abhichar kriya, then it becomes very difficult indeed; then you will simply not be able to do anything. How will you do it, he asks.
Will suffering ever end in physical life?
In physical life, he says he keeps saying, all of us have taken birth and there is a body of a human being. As long as we have a body and death does not occur, sufferings will keep coming. Today the cause of suffering may be money; tomorrow money will be there and there will be suffering of health. If money and health both come, then perhaps the children will not listen to you, the husband will not listen. Some suffering or other will keep coming like this.
What should be done if the mother of the house is in sorrow?
If the mother of the house is in sorrow, he says, do the seva of Bhagavati Matangi; that is the best. In an ordinary way, do not do the seva in the Uchchha Chandalini swaroop.
What should be done if one keeps falling short by one or two marks in a job exam?
To Shivani ji he says that if you are being left out of a job by one or two marks, no remedy is to be done for this. Do only this much: at the time of your job, whenever your exam is, if you sit for exams or go for interviews, go having taken the blessing of your mother and father. If there is a little trouble, the Sun and the Moon are strengthened by it; and when the Sun is strong, this little difficulty of yours will be removed. That is why the blessing of the parents becomes very necessary. If the difficulty is a little one, then this; if it is very special, then the things will have to be known.
How can you tell who is carrying an abhicharik prayoga into your house?
If you are afflicted by abhichaar and your house has not yet been brought under protection, the speaker says the first thing to watch is which person, on coming into your house, is followed by a quarrel starting. Believe it, he says, that person has had something done and carried it with him to deliver.
How does household quarrel stop the growth of Lakshmi?
The speaker says the frustration and mutual quarrelling that begin, and the kalah that builds up, have their effect mentally at the workplace, in business, everywhere — and because of that the growth of your Lakshmi stops. Where kalah and klesh keep erupting, growth of Lakshmi in the house simply halts.
A younger brother answers his elder brother's abhichaar with a Bagla Pratyangira prayoga done without guru or knowledge
He takes two real brothers of one family, elder and younger. The elder has performed abhichaar on the younger, and the younger now uses Baglamukhi, the Bagla Pratyangira, without any guru and without any knowledge — not lighting a lamp and reciting once in Bhagavati's shelter, but sitting down to 1100, 1100, 1100 paths because he has read that the enemy is destroyed by so many.
Why does a prayoga against one's own brother rebound?
Because the kuldevi of both is one, and the Lakshmi worshipped in the household — worshipped at some time through the kuldevi — is one and the same for both. First learn, he says, in what manner they are separated; where such knowledge is absent and you fire these prayogas, the binding of Lakshmi begins there too.
What is asked of the kul shakti when a prayoga is invoked at a siddh peeth?
The request the speaker reports is: you support dharma. If the elder brother is looting land and property, why are you supporting him? Bring him too onto the path of dharma. I request you for that — remain on this side. There is a method and a vidhan for this, he says.
How are the kula shaktis of two brothers separated?
If she says she will remain on both sides but you may separate, then, the speaker says, it is done as the reverse of a marriage: at a wedding the kriyas join two families, with the milan of pitrs and of the devi-devatas and kuldevi-devatas. Here two pinds are made, as the pret pind and the pitr pind are joined, and in the field of tantra the link is cut and separated.
A family separating from a joint household lifts soil from the old puja sthan and installs it in the new house at an auspicious time
The speaker points to what happens in a village when a family separates from a large joint family and builds its own house: they lift soil from the very place of worship in the old house and carry it at an auspicious time, and make a new sthan for the devata in the new house.
Can a single prayoga cut every tantra done to you at once?
When so many prayogas are happening at the deva level, the speaker asks, how can you as a human think you will use only one shakti and, in one attempt, spending lakhs, cut every tantra that has been done to you and then live an extremely happy life?
Does a repeating eighth-house pattern across generations mean anything?
A listener reports Ketu and Mangal in the eighth house in his father's chart with Kumbh lagna, Rahu and Mangal in the eighth in his own with Simha lagna, and Shani and Mangal in the eighth in his son's. This is absolutely not a coincidence, the speaker replies; the lagna may be anything, but Ketu-Mangal, then Rahu-Mangal, then Shani-Mangal in the eighth is not chance.
Does a dosha found in one brother's chart appear in the others?
The speaker tells those who practise or analyse jyotish that if the kundalis in a house are being cast correctly, and there are three or four brothers, then if pitra dosha comes out in the chart of any one of them, it very nearly comes out in the charts of the rest as well — even if it is formed by drishti rather than yuti.
Should a householder do japa of a deity alone, or in a pair?
The second point, the speaker says, is that of whomever you do sadhana, if you do a hundred or ten malas of Shiva, one mala of Bhagavati should certainly be done. Both should be there; in householder life one never does it alone — do it in a pair. Naam japa in particular should certainly be done in the pair: Sitaram, Radhe Shyam, Shiv-Parvati, Shiv-Shakti.
If the head of a house is steeped in sin, must his sons bear the fruit?
This absolutely happens, the speaker answers: if the chief person of a house is steeped in sinful deeds, then whatever sons there are, whatever later kula there is, have to undergo it. But those sons will also be undergoing that fruit according to their own karma.
Should a householder take the satvik pyala or the aghor pyala?
Asked whether to take the satvik pyala or the aghor pyala, the speaker answers that if you are a householder, take the satvik. If you are leaving householder life, then you are free to take whichever you wish.
Why is treatment so difficult when a family member has done the tantra?
To a listener saying his elder brother and aunt have done something to him and the treatment is not working, the speaker answers that when members of the family have it done, this very difficulty arises — which is the subject discussed today, of what kinds of things happen when people of one and the same family use tantra upon another.
Why are good sadhaks svapaki — cooking their own food?
This is the reason, the speaker says, that good sadhaks are svapaki and cook and eat food with their own hands. The grain that is being cooked — trouble will come from whose money that grain belongs to, from how that person earned it; that too will have its effect on the eater, for as the grain, so the mind. Secondly, what feeling was in the mind of the person cooking with his own hands at that time.
Which deity is the vrat of each tithi kept for?
Asked the difference between the Pradosh vrat and the Trayodashi vrat, and whether both may be kept together by a listener who already keeps Ashtami, Pradosh and Purnima, the speaker asks where the rest are being left, and then enumerates them: keep Pratipada too, for Prajapati; Dwitiya for Chandra Bhagavan; Tritiya for Gauri ji; Chaturthi for Vinayaka; Panchami for Mahadev; Shashthi for Chhathi Maiya, and for Skanda Mata, for Katyayani, and for Devsena the wife of Bhagavan Kartikeya; Saptami for Surya Bhagavan; Ashtami you already keep; Navami for Durga ji; Dashami for Ganga ji; Ekadashi for Narayan; Dwadashi and Trayodashi you are doing; Chaturdashi for Kali ji; and Purnima is already there. Eat and drink nothing, he adds.
From what age may children be made to perform havan after the janeu?
Asked from when children may be made to do Havan after the janeu, the speaker says begin teaching them. Agnihotra should indeed be done if you follow that much of the rule; otherwise seat them along in the weekly havan or the monthly havan and get them to practise, show them how it is done. After they have become 12 to 13 years old, you may give them the liberty of doing it themselves.
If husband and wife both do the five lakh japa, is everything doubled?
Avadhesh Pandey ji asks whether, if he and his wife both wish to begin the five lakh japa, all the materials told will be used in twos. If you wish to do the five lakh japa of Bhagavan Dattatreya's sadhana, the speaker says, then whatever the vidhi-vidhan of pujan is, it will be one only. If husband and wife are doing it, nothing is to be done in twos. Only the Yantra that is being made — the two yantras to be worn and worshipped — will be separate, yours separate and hers separate; besides that, the Mala will be separate for both of you. All the rest of the pujan, whatever bhog is offered, whatever flowers and prasadi there are, will be in one place only, not separately.
How should children be started on Saraswati sadhana?
Have them do the Bhagavati Saraswati practice that is on the channel. For the Beejakshar: once children reach about eight or nine years, Bhagavati's Beejakshar should at least be taught to them and japa of it done daily.
Does a Maran prayoga done at one brother's house affect the other's?
It depends on the circumstances. Ordinarily it should not carry if the hearth is separate. But how the three of you stand with one another, and what the further subject is, will make a difference — it will give some effect somewhere.
What can be done for a three-year-old who does not speak?
Get the medical treatment done properly first. Second, have the birth chart analysed — what the state of the second house is, and what difficulty is arising with Kantha and Vani. Only if nothing is found medically, use the Saraswati mantras of the eleventh chapter and give the child water consecrated with them.
What should someone do who gets no support from their own kin?
Praise Bhagavati Annapurna through the Annapurna Stotra and worship her — take refuge in the Ishwari and Puradhishwari of Kashi, reciting Kashi Puradhishwari Annapurna Ishwari Bhiksham Dehi at the evening Sandhya. And read the Bhavani Ashtakam once with feeling, so that the truth of that loneliness becomes known to you.
What can be done for autism, ADHD or a learning disability?
By the speaker's reckoning, the best and fastest is the prescription of Bhagavati Renuka's Kavach — her manifestation, her glory and her whole prescription are on the channel. If you can have that Kavach performed, an auspicious effect is seen quickly, in mental difficulties of any kind.
What is the remedy for depression?
Not a remedy, the speaker says. Look for the cause of your depression in the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, whatever that cause is. Arjuna had to kill his own Guru and cut down his own brothers — what depression is greater than that; and when he was freed of it through Krishna, yours and mine will certainly end too.
With Vivah Panchami and Margashirsha Chaturdashi both gone, japa of the Argala's second-last mantra at a Bhagavati temple is prescribed meanwhile
Vivah Panchami and Margashirsha Chaturdashi have both gone, so wait for now; the prescription for Vasant Panchami will be given at that time. And meanwhile, do japa as far as possible in a Bhagavati temple of the Durga Saptashati Argala's second-last mantra — Patnim Manoramam Dehi.
Who in the household may perform the kul havan
The speaker says the prayog may be done by the eldest son of the house or by the head of the house. In special circumstances the daughter of the house or the daughter-in-law may also do it, but he says one should try to have the eldest son or any son do it, because that is better. He asks that care be taken about who gets priority.
How should a householder conduct himself in a Gupt Navratra?
This much is certainly so, he says: when you wish to do sadhana while living in household life, or go into it, then in the time of the Gupt Navratra the sadhana should be done while keeping some special rules — or else ordinary pujan-paath should simply be done.
What goes wrong when such a thing is given for the wrong reasons?
This happens a very great deal, he says. When such a task is done out of greed for money, or for one's own safety, setting all these things aside, then the person on the other side will carry it happily for six months or a year at the start. Afterwards there is very great difficulty, because if the intellectual level required to carry so many things is not there, great difficulty comes.
Should a householder keep away because the word Aghor is attached?
This is a very important night for Bhagavati Tara, he says — and we who are householders should never think that because the word Aghor has become attached to this Amavasya it is therefore not for householders. It has very great importance of its own for us too.
The days a woman must miss cost nothing, and the Tantrokta Ratri Suktam is added at the night hour
You are a woman, he says, and two, three or four days in between will be missed — for that there is no difficulty at all; becoming pure and clean again, after bath and dhyan, you will do its paath again. Do the paath in the night hours only, after nine o'clock. And if possible, along with it do the paath of the Tantrokta Ratri Suktam as well. Continue this much and by the completing of one paksha a difference will begin to appear to you.
How should one do the bandhan of one's own house?
Asked how to do the bandhan of the house oneself, he says it has been explained on the channel. The best thing for householders is the bandhan of the house by the mantra related to the Argala; its information has been given there in full.
It is meant for the ordinary householder who cannot recite Sanskrit
If you are an ordinary householder, do not know how to recite Sanskrit, and do not know any very special vidhi-vidhan — or if you wish to do it for some other devi or devata — then it is on the Aghor Amavasya, that is the Amavasya of Bhadrapada, on the day on which it is present at night, that you have to do this thing. It will fall on the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh, he thinks; he has not looked, and will put the date in the group later.
In the Maya beej and Lakshmi beej, is the anusvara makar or the one with nada?
Asked whether the utterance of the anusvara in the Maya beej and the Lakshmi beej is correct as makar or as the one with nada, he says: look, if you go along taking makar, and you are a householder, then it is exceedingly good.
A woman says her husband drinks heavily and suspects a badha — what does he answer?
She writes that her husband drinks a great deal, that she feels there is some great obstruction, that the problem has now grown very large, and asks what can be done if it is from outside. He says she has probably messaged on Telegram; in such a situation it would not be right to say anything at all without seeing it.
The concession is for sadhaks of a very high order; a householder must keep the sattvikta
According to him this is for those sadhaks who are of a very high order. For the rest, the mental level of ordinary people does not become such that you can come from eleven malas down to eleven repetitions at one stroke and such a state can be reached. When you go out, purity of eating and drinking will be affected. If you do an anushthan, householders should do it only with sattvikta — you will not do it after eating meat and fish. When going outside, keep it up as far as it is possible, if such food and drink is obtainable in such a place.
Does the energy of one's japa decrease when guests who eat outside come home?
A listener asks: we eat pure sattvik food, but when other people come to our house, does the energy of our puja and japa decrease or not — that is, if people who eat and drink come to your house. Look, he says, if some person from outside comes having eaten and drunk, or some relative of yours comes having eaten and drunk, then keep in mind that the person should not enter your pujan sthan.
What should not be done to please a guest, and what should a guest do?
When he stays in that house after bathing and in a pure form — but to please him, saying that the son-in-law has come and so serving him fifty-six kinds of meat and fish, none of this should be done for anyone, however near and dear they may be. And whoever goes as a guest to someone's house should also have this rule, which is as per the shastra: that whatever tradition of sattvikta belongs to the house we are going to, we should live according to it; we are to eat as we are given, and whenever pujan-paath takes place there, we too are to fold our hands and make pranam to the devatas.
A death has occurred in the extended family — should the household puja stop?
Motivation With Bhakti ji writes that her grandmother's brother-in-law has died, so puja-paath at home is stopped, and that she had made it a rule to give water to Surya Dev but the household people are forbidding it. Follow the rule that belongs to sutak-patak, he answers; the rule of sutak-patak should run in your house.
There is strife at home and money does not stay — what should be done?
First of all, the abhishek of Shiva ji, he says; and there are two or three videos related to kalah on the channel. Is that the situation in your house? Search once on this very channel, or look in the playlist, or look at the videos on the channel — there are videos related to household kalah; there will be three videos. First listen to all three. He thinks that in them itself you will come to know and will reach the root cause; and when you reach the root, you will solve the problem yourself.
What does Ganpati's pujan do for the oots of a house?
And the commentators comment in such a way that the mind gets spoilt, he says. So there are many such things which are obtained in a guru parampara, and it is according to that that he is telling you: when you do the pujan of Bhagavan Shri Ganpati, then by that the oots of the house — those that may be of your house — become very pleased, and Ganpati, doing grace, provides them with capacity; their condition becomes right for the house.
Why does a shop run when the husband sits but not when the wife does?
A listener asks why bad and frightening dreams come, to which he says there can be very many causes. Another says that when her husband sits in the shop it runs, but when she sits not even one rupee comes, and asks whether a kriya has been done on her. He says only this much: do not sit. Let your husband sit, who does sit. Or do this other thing: if your husband has gone to buy goods and you have to run the shop at that time, then do not sit on his gaddi. Never use his gaddi. Let the gaddi on which your husband sits in the shop remain as it is. Do not sit on his gaddi; lay your own gaddi beside his and sit.
The apsara is already in the house, and the siddhi costs more than it is worth
Akash Vishwakarma ji, he says, we were just about to close and saw your message last of all. When you have already married, why do you wish to call another? Answer this first. When you have already married, then as for calling an apsara — the apsara is in the house, is she not; make her pleased and siddh. If you wish to attain special grace, then he will say clearly: to make something siddh is in itself a very great thing, not a small thing.
May a broom be used at night?
The speaker first says a broom should not be used at all at night. A friend who was sweeping at night told him it may be done as long as the rubbish is not taken outside the threshold, and he accepts that this is right: rubbish should not be taken out past the dehri. Sweeping can be done. There is also a rule in many places that the broom should not be touched after evening falls. But the main point, he says, is that the rubbish should not leave the threshold or go out of the main gate; cleaning inside can be done.
Can puja be done for only the first three or five days of the Navratra?
Yes, it can absolutely be done, the speaker says.
What should be done if the kula Brahm baba's sawari comes of its own accord?
If they come of their own accord, then they should be entreated, the speaker says. If the kula's Brahm has begun coming and you wish it not to come upon the body, then have the elders of the house entreat them; only by requesting can they be stopped — please do not come upon the child's body. If they are coming upon dharma, that is, no one has driven or goaded them wrongly, no oath has been laid on them, and they come of their own gladness, then do not stop them harshly. Say it not in anger but in gladness, and ask them to come only once a year on the day of their annual puja, and otherwise only when there is some very great calamity, when life itself is in danger.
Can an anushthan be done when an aunt died a month ago?
If in the following moment the varshiki has been completed, and the matter of sutak does not apply in your household, then it can absolutely be done, the speaker says. If the varshiki has not been done and you had to observe the full thirteen days of sutak, then take the full information about the further matter according to your own custom, there, and only then decide whether it can be done or not.
What should a vegetarian family do whose kuldevi takes a goat bali?
See who can be the receivers of that bali, the speaker tells Vashishth Yadav, and give it to those people after the bali has been offered. Ordinarily the bali prasad of a kuldevi or kula devata should be taken only by the people of the kula parampara — but if you no longer eat it at all, then there is no question of compulsion. Perform the bali at such a place where such people are present and have the right, so that they can eat it. It is not quickly possible to find a middle way in this. And if the kuldevi has a laag attached to her, then it will attach to those who eat it as well, and then a puja will have to be offered there too before they are pacified.
Protection from tantrik attack is in your own hands: the naysayers and the unbeliever
The speaker asks whether you are safe from Abhichara and tantrik attack, and says the very people whose household deities are strong and who hold a protective Kavach are the first to call you a fraud, hypocrite or superstitious for merely raising the subject; if a relative or close friend is the loudest opponent of puja-path, understand that he is himself secretly protected somewhere and does not want you to know, understand or practise these things. So your protection is in your own hands. He adds that an ultra-modern person accepts none of this until he or someone very dear to him — wife, lover, child — suffers badly from it; till then it stays imaginary and a matter of superstition for him. When someone flatly declares kavach, sadhana, mantra, siddhi, havan and puja useless, it is one of two things: either he has never seen it (such people are now few), or he is very clever, has protected himself, envies you and would rather see you fall someday than let you be safe. The speaker's plea: take responsibility for your own, your children's and your family's protection into your own hands.
Keeping distance from the people who make you negative about sadhana
The speaker tells listeners to stop listening to such negative people. Whoever makes you negative — people around you, relatives, colleagues at work, friends in the market, the people where you sit for tea, those you meet at weddings — keep a distance from them. Otherwise, he says, you will not be able to progress even in material life, and spiritual life you can forget altogether.
Whose fault is this insulting of scholars?
He says the fault is not the commenter's own: as the parents give sanskar to a child, so the child will act. You insult them because you have seen your own parents do it.
A mantra remedy has limits where a husband is fully addicted and neglects the family.
Asked by a listener whose husband drinks daily, does not look after the children, is in government service, gives no money at home and creates great strife, the speaker says he will discuss the whole subject of drink separately in a live and a video. For the present he says only this: some prayogas given at the time of Holika did work for many people, but for those who have fallen into full addiction it is not possible at once — even if it is released by mantra bala, the body begins to suffer, one habit goes and another takes hold.
Where a thing is being forbidden, it is proper not to do it.
The speaker answers that if it is being forbidden then it means it is not to be done, and that will be proper. On matters of marriage he says he speaks very clearly, especially for women; but even so, he adds, it is your own personal matter.
May one do an anushthan for a married sister?
The speaker says one may absolutely do it for one's own sister, there is no problem in it. But the direct problem relating to her field should be tackled properly. The subject here is of wealth, since her money-related problem is very great; and this has arisen after marriage, with in-law troubles, so it will not be her problem alone — there must certainly be some problem of the house into which she has been married. So the whole root should be examined there.
What should be examined in the house a sister has been married into?
The speaker says that if it were a matter from before the marriage it would be different; since it is after the marriage, the subject there belongs more to the brother-in-law than to the sister. So first examine the whole root of that house — what puja they do, what they have abandoned, what offences they have made, and look at the kundali of the brother-in-law who is the head of the house, and matters relating to vastu. Then gradually correct whatever deficiency you find.
Is one person's effort enough to change another household?
Much will not happen by your doing it alone, the speaker says; they have their own prarabdha and karma too. So do that much, and along with it let them also do something — at the least let them do deepdaan at Diwali, let them bathe every morning, let them do path of the shastra names, let them do Tulsi ji's seva and path of the Tulsi Stotra and stuti. If there is a Lakshmi-related problem, let them do stuti path of Lakshmi ji and Kuber ji; then the money-related problem will gradually be removed.
What is done for rin mukti, and how does one take sankalp with a doubtful gotra?
For rin mukti, the speaker says, light one separate lamp. Asked how those with an irregularity in their gotra may take part in an anushthan, he says you will take and give the sankalp according to whichever gotra is your father's.
Fifteen to twenty per cent of the core subject stays hidden, so that the sadhak is encouraged to do it himself.
The speaker says this secrecy will always remain. From what does go before you, you may infer that fifteen to twenty per cent of the core subject is hidden, and that in what is shown your maximum is covered — so that you may be encouraged and do it yourself. There is never anything of the kind that you should stop doing it and we shall do it in your place. Sending ten lakh to him does not mean he will offer puja, flowers and prasad for you lifelong while you take your enjoyment.
How should a householder relate to a tradition's own particular rules?
The speaker points out that everyone knows that the parampara that sant belongs to does not keep the Ekadashi vrat and the like. If you are initiated in that parampara, then follow the rules there; and what is not in that parampara — a householder does best to walk within maryada, in accordance with the householder's state. He adds that they have also mocked the subjects of shraddha, and that such videos may be found.
What must a sadhika wear on her feet and hands?
And then the feet, the speaker says: if it is a woman, then to do sadhana without payal is not proper. If a woman has not worn a bala on her hand — sadhikas should wear a bala on the hand. Girls nowadays wear nothing on the hand, which he calls a different level of frivolity: a sadhika, and the hand empty. Parents too should put gold in the child's hand; the more gold there is in a daughter's hands, the more the Lakshmi of your house will increase.
What if solid gold is not affordable, and what of boys?
If you cannot make it all solid gold, the speaker says, there is the shakha-pola sort on which a leaf of gold is fixed — have her wear that kind; it stays cheap, but keep gold in the daughter's hand. Gold cannot come into a boy's hand: keep silver, keep copper, but keep something. If there is payal on the feet, then there is increase of the parents' wealth, and since she is the mistress of the husband's house, the mistress of the household, there is increase of Lakshmi.
Why is the karna-chhedan samskara done?
He says that for men the karna-chhedan samskara has today become a subject of joking; he sees many great celebrities and people of jyotish saying that karna-chheda came from where. It is one of the sixteen samskaras — the karna-chheda samskara does happen. It too has its tithi and nakshatra and the rest, and the piercing of the ear happens with the utterance of Bhadrakaran or such mantras. It is not merely a jyotish remedy done because Budh is bad or Shukra is bad, or because children were dying.
Must a male sadhak also wear gold in the ears?
The speaker says gold ornaments should certainly be in the ears of a male sadhak too — it is not for a fan of a singer who wears one to look cool; it is a rule. If you are running by the tantrokta method then have both ears pierced properly, at the right time, at the right muhurta, with the utterance of mantras, and certainly wear gold balis in them. For a woman it is compulsory. If there is no gold in the ears it is poverty; at the least let there be a small stud, but of gold, and that is most excellent. In the nose of girls and women there should certainly be gold.
Why is gold worn as Shri tattva rather than as vanity?
Without gold, the speaker says, the devatas are not pleased in all this and the mantra japa does not give full fruit, because an absence of Lakshmi is seen. There is no devata in Sanatan who is not endowed with Shri tattva; and if you are doing japa devoid of Shri tattva, that means you have gone into the matter of virakti, and if you do a thing by force it will not happen. You are a householder — take on the Shri tattvas in accordance with the householder's maryada and then do it. In gold the measure of Shri tattva has been held to be the greatest.
Should the ornaments be left at a divya kshetra, or brought back?
The speaker says do this at home; he is not telling you to go to a divya kshetra and leave it, only to find afterwards that you never got it back. He recounts that at Kamakhya, where they had gone with the payal and the rest as shown in the video, a pandit ji said to give it to the pandits, that there was no need to offer it there and it would be forgotten. He said he would give it to the pandit ji but then it would not even be touched by the Mother. Inside Kamakhya it stays wholly dark with only lamps burning; he took up the whole set of ornaments — two payals and a gold nose ornament — and placed them all below near the Mother.
What does the word tantra mean?
The very meaning of tantra, the speaker says, is to keep every single thing secret. In the household, from birth right up to death, there are a great many things in Sanatan culture that are connected with tantra — things we perform whether or not we knowingly have any information about them.
What decides the nakshatra a child is born in?
When we take birth, it is according to the pre-determined karma — whatever karma we performed in earlier births — that we obtain this birth's kundali, that is, the nakshatra we are taking birth in. And according to the presiding deities of that nakshatra, its graha adhipatis and its rashi, an effect falls not only on us but on our whole family.
Why the four mantras rather than the full Kavach?
The Kavach turns out long for you, he says: 54 to 55 shlokas come in it. If you go in the vriddhi krama it becomes larger still; some people do it additionally according to the various kinds given in the Saptashati and it grows further; the Sanskrit becomes difficult and the pronunciation does not come. So do only these four mantras. This everyone should do.
Each person of the family lights his own lamp and recites the mantra 21 or 27 times, Pratipada to Dashami
If there are five people, each should go himself and light a lamp each — light them of mustard oil, light them of sesame, light them of ghee, light whichever one wishes — and recite that mantra 21 times or 27 times. At the least this should be done from the 30th of June to the 10th of July, from Pratipada to the Dashami tithi. This much everyone should do.
Can Ganpati puja be done in Gupt Navratri, and may parents' feet be touched?
Asked about the puja vidhi of Shri Ganpati ji in Gupt Navratri, he says yes, it may be done — you may do it from Pratipada as well, and from Chaturthi as well. Asked whether the feet of one's mother and father should not be touched in Navratri, he says the feet of mother and father may be touched.
May a wife touch her husband's feet during the navratra?
If the wife is devoted to her husband, if she never makes fun of her husband, if she has devotion towards his sadhanas, towards his ishta and aradhya where he is a bhakta or a sadhak; if she respects all the devas, the rishis and munis, the mantras and your shastras, and never makes fun of them — then she may touch, and it may be permitted, and there is no fault in it. But if such doshas are present in your wife, then you yourself should greet her from a distance: O Devi, forgive me; you stay happy in your place and let us stay happy in ours.
What if election duty or shift work disturbs the timing?
To one who has election duty from the 30th and the 6th to the 2nd and asks whether he can start the protective shloka anushthan from the 3rd or 4th, he says yes — you may begin from Panchami or Shashthi. Asked by another who cannot do the puja at one and the same time because of duty whether it may be done at different times, he says yes, it may; because of duty your timings may be here and there, there is no difficulty, but do it daily.
What of ancestors who forbade worship altogether?
A listener says that in his house his forefathers used to forbid puja, saying do not do anyone's puja, they take; that if you must go, then go straight to the dham and do puja there. The speaker tells Sunil Vishwakarma ji that what he is saying is absolutely possible, that there is nothing wrong in it, that this used to happen — this absolutely used to happen, this was being discussed that very day, this thing used to happen at one time.
How are kavachs made for a whole family?
If you are having it done specially for the whole family, then for the whole family it is done gradually, he says: we too have such sadhaks, and we all proceed slowly — this year the kavach and so on was made for the mother and father, next year one was made for the brother, and so it goes on gradually. But it is not that in every matter you are told: now Navratri has come, so take a new yantra and mala in Navratri; Shivratri has come, take a yantra and mala at Shivratri. It does not work like that. In such a case you should take your decision thoughtfully.
Can both an akhand lamp of ghee and one of oil be lit?
They may be lit, he tells Ashish ji — but given his age and how much he is doing, the speaker says he has only one fear: that at the age at which he is doing so much today, when tomorrow he goes to do a job, all of this will be left behind. Today you do arti and shayan pujan four times a day, which is a very good thing — but will you be able to do it lifelong?
How much vidhi vidhan should a householder take on?
So keep the vidhi vidhan only to that much, he says. Today you give bhojan four times; tomorrow you will say, Maiya, now there is a job, so be satisfied with one time only, and the rest of the time I will take phalahar. Therefore, looking at what your future is and how you wish to proceed in accordance with it, do only as much as you can fulfil later on, or as the people of your house, your wife and so on, can fulfil in your absence.
A woman's special love for her husband alongside her respect for all the family shows how one may be loved above all
Take one woman, and take how a woman's love works in her family, the speaker says. The kind of love she keeps for her husband — in exactly the same way she gives respect and honour to the elders of her house too; she respects her father-in-law, respects her jeth, respects her devar, gives love to her son too. So her love is with everyone; but the love that is with her husband is extremely exalted, of a different kind.
Children are offering chocolate on the shivling — whose fault is it?
Children do not do it of themselves, he says. The children do not listen, and above that the grown-ups are doing the same; their guardians are giving them that sanskar. They mock the coming of the pitrs in Pitru Paksha and then go about dressed as ghosts at Halloween, adopting a foreign culture — so what will such children do? They will eat chocolate and offer chocolate. It is the responsibility of the mother and father not to encourage wrong things of this kind, and to explain to the children; explain well and show them by doing, and then why will the children not do it?
Is onion and garlic in the household food allowed during a satvik anushthan?
It is not allowed, he says. But if the household people are not agreeing, then you can do one thing: for as many days as the sadhana runs, give up the vegetable. Eat milk and roti. The household will make roti in any case; bring milk, cow's milk, and take milk and roti with it.
What is stri dosha?
Stri dosha is what is formed in the kundali when, it is said, in a past birth we caused suffering to our own wife, our mother, our sister; the cry that goes out of their heart, the curse the troubled woman gives — that is what bears fruit in the next birth.
The nikari cannot be done by the afflicted person alone, so a guardian of the household must be told
The second thing is that a guardian of her household should be spoken to, if it is ever possible, and he will tell them — because it will not be possible for her alone to do everything, and he does not know what her age is or what she does. So if she has a brother, or a father, or if she is married then her husband, and the understanding between them is good, then let that person talk with him for five minutes and he will explain to them; because the process of the nikari and the rest she will not be able to do herself, and she should not do it either, since she is herself the afflicted one.
Should one accept a relative's Laddu Gopal when they bring a bigger one?
A listener says their relatives are giving them the Laddu Gopal of their temple because they are bringing a bigger-sized Gopal, and asks whether they should take him. The speaker calls it a hypothetical question in which each will have his own buddhi, vivek and reasoning — but says it is as if, when a new child is about to be born in someone's house, the older child is given away to someone else. In his opinion this is not proper: once Bhagavan has been installed, why hand him over to the trust of another?
May Ma Sheetla be worshipped at a neem tree?
Asked whether the puja of Ma Sheetla can be done at a neem tree, he says he will not tell anyone to start something new. If it has not been done before, then do it after asking the elders of the house.
Why does a real Tantrik keep himself hidden?
Because Tantra's greatest rule is to remain secret. If a Tantrik were genuinely doing Shamshan sadhana and such things, he would never describe them. Give a discourse and show your face; be a Kathavachak and show your face — but a practitioner walking the Tantra path should keep himself entirely hidden.
Money envy as the root of abhichar done by one's own family member
The speaker says that in this case everyone knew a member of the household itself was getting a tantrik prayog done over money. He explains the mechanism: if you earn fifty thousand and your neighbour or your brother starts earning seventy, the extra twenty thousand breeds envy; seeing his happiness gives us pain, and the 'solution' to that pain becomes making him suffer — so Abhichara karma and the like are got done. Sometimes the abhichar is so strong, he says, that the family never gets out of it.
Signs of a family under strong abhichar: fixed-interval deaths, infant deaths and a turned intellect
The speaker describes the case: a family of seven with one death every five to six years without fail — old, newborn, anyone — five or six children dead within two to three years of birth, some dying in the womb in the sixth or seventh month; and the family had accepted it. They knew who was doing the Abhichara and how, yet everyone's intellect had been so turned that nobody thought of getting it countered: 'all tantriks are looters, God does not listen, we need not do puja ourselves, when we must die we will die.' He calls this a global pattern of tantra trouble: the one having it done enjoys himself, while the victim only waits for him to be punished someday, wants to learn nothing himself, and his buddhi stays in Uchchatan. One member who believed in seva-puja finally got sadbuddhi and brought the matter to him.
Special case: observing the sutak of a death in the household that did the abhichar
When a death occurred in the perpetrators' house after the partition, the speaker says the family did not want to observe its Sutak — they no longer ate or drank together. He told them to observe it anyway: 'sutak has fallen, observe it.' Though the perpetrators would not observe it, the two households were closely related, face to face, so the family too was to keep the sutak.
How should a Shiva sthaan be set up at home for the whole family in Sawan?
Make a small sthaan for Bhagwan Shiva on a separate paata, place a thali on it and establish the shivling in it. Do your own abhishek first in the morning, then leave the arrangement there for the other family members and instruct them to bathe and come. Keep a large kalash of water mixed with camphor, roli and akshat, from which they pour into a lota; if milk can be arranged, a milk abhishek too, and belpatra kept ready for everyone.
What should family members do after their abhishek displaces the offerings?
When each family member performs the abhishek, whatever rice or belpatra was offered on the head will be washed off. As soon as it comes off, tell them that after doing the abhishek they should again place akshat and the like on him. They should be told in advance that this is to be done.
Can a kavach be made for every member of a family?
You may have one made for everyone, for every member of the family; there is no difficulty. If one person in the family is of a different tendency, then separate kavachs may be made if that is what is wanted, and there is no difficulty in that either.
What should someone bound by a family custom not to visit for a year do?
He tells the questioner that according to the parampara of his house, if one is not to go for a full year, then do not go for a full year. For now, do the paath of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and do the paath of the Shiv Gita.
Father and husband are both men, yet cannot be held in one bhaav, and neither can the forms of Bhagavan
Your father is a man and your husband is a man, he says to a daughter — can you place both in one and the same position? Never. Can you carry your mother and your wife in one and the same bhaav? You cannot. Then how, he asks, can you love Bhagavan Narayan to this extent as though he were a child?
Why should Kamakhya be worshipped in every home?
It is for this reason, he says, that in paushtik karma or in the shanti karma of a house we insist so much that the pujan of Bhagavati Kamakhya must certainly take place in every household. Women should do it; men need not. It is necessary, because the life of your household, the life of a grihastha, cannot happen at all without Bhagavati Kamakhya.
May a worshipper of Bhagavati also worship Bal Krishna?
It is not the case, he says, that if you worship Bhagavati you cannot worship Bhagavan Bal Krishna Gopal, cannot worship Santan Gopal, cannot worship Lalla — of course you can. But equally it is not the case that if you worship Bhagavan Krishna you should not even remember Bhagavati Kamakhya. Everyone has a maryada; keep everyone's maryada. In a household every deity will be present, and each has his maryada.
What is prescribed for a problem of vansh vriddhi?
Those who have a problem of vansh vriddhi, whose line is not increasing, he says, should offer water at a worshipped bamboo tree — not by going to a new place associated with bhoot and pret, because a great many shaktis are seated at such places who do not sit anywhere else. If it is such a revered place, or if you have put up bamboo in Hanuman ji's dhwaja, then offering water there daily has a very positive effect; it also holds the capacity to destroy that curse, and it is a token of vansh vriddhi.
Which other shaktis does a person necessarily encounter?
So there is Bhagavati Kamakhya, there is Bhagavati Shashthi, he says, and you must certainly take the shelter of Bhagavati Saraswati. After that comes birth, and then at the time of marriage — by whatever vidhi vidhan you wish, even a rakshasa marriage — on the day you marry, whether you accept it or not, the presence of your kul pitr will be established there. And once it is established, what respect you did or did not give them, and what you will suffer afterwards, is an entirely separate matter.
By whose grace does a person get the happiness of a spouse?
If the happiness of a saubhagyavati wife is ever obtained in life, he says, it is by the grace of Bhagavati Lalita. If you have a dharmapatni or a beloved who gives you love and the happiness of her grace, it is by Bhagavati Lalita's grace — learn to respect it. And if the happiness of a husband is being obtained, one endowed with paurush, strong, walking the path of dharma, with the capacity to take up the responsibility of maintaining a household — the kind called mard in common speech — then he is so through the grace of Bhagavan Shri Hari Narayan; it is by his grace, he has given the strength of arm, and only for that reason is it so.
Can bali be offered by cutting a lemon?
Offer bali, he says — offer bali by cutting a lemon. People at home are afraid of the cutting of a lemon. If there is a professor of chemistry, he says, let him explain what potassium or whatever it is they apply to the knife; apply that, cut it, and frighten everyone — look, red blood is coming out, you people do not do puja, tantra has been done upon you. Use that kind of knife especially for the one who chatters most, so that blood comes out of the lemon. By saam, daam, dand and bhed, he says, take the sharanagati of Bhairav so that protection may happen.
What should be done on a child's birthday for bal, buddhi and vidya?
First, it should be done on the janma tithi — by the tithi system of Sanatan culture, not by the English calendar. On that day two or three things are done for the whole year. The first and best is to have special puja performed of the adhipati devata of the child's janma nakshatra. The second is to have ordinary Shiv puja performed.
How much tula daan should be done on a child's birth tithi?
Third is tula daan, as much as is possible. Suppose the child's weight is 40 kilos and you do not have the means for 40 kilos — then have even 4 kilos given in daan that day by the child's own hand. It will be very good, and shubh labh will be obtained in it for the whole year. That much at least should certainly be had done.
Tilak, a blessing, the aarti of the child and a lifelong sankalp are done on that day.
In many places there is the custom of having the child worship in the morning, then applying tilak, giving a blessing, and performing the aarti of the child — by which the negative shaktis in the child's aura are diminished. Parents should give a blessing according to the child's wish or suffering when the feet are touched, and the child should be taken to great scholars. And they should be made to swear an oath to some one good act — even a single shloka of the Gita or of the Durga Saptashati — with a sankalp to recite it daily for life.
What puja and sadhana should a woman do for her own and her family's welfare?
First of all the Shiv Parivar, the speaker answers, in which everyone is included — Ganpati, Skanda, Ma Bhagavati, Shiv ji, Vasuki around Shiv ji's neck, Bhagavati Ganga on his head, Chandra Dev, Som, Nandi. Nobody at all is left out there; when you begin their puja, everyone's puja happens of itself. Beyond that, your kuldevi and kuldevata, and the Panchayatan puja, which an ordinary householder should certainly do.
Who is blamed in a family when misfortune comes?
Those who speak ill of tantra, the speaker agrees with a listener, are the very people who go searching for tantriks when a certain time arrives. When something good happens in life it is by my own punya and my own glory; when something bad happens Bhagavan is doing it; and when something worse happens, it is because of the family member who does puja and path. A boy or girl in the family who does much puja gives the family strength, he says — but if anything bad begins, everyone starts blaming that very person.
To ruin someone's life is a very great sin, and the toxic senior who torments juniors bears it.
Before leaving the job, make one attempt, he tells Vijay Lakshmi ji. To ruin someone's life is a very great sin. Seniors of this kind, who display toxic seniority, trouble juniors and play with their careers, suffer very thoroughly when the time comes; and if not they, then their own children suffer greatly — and when the children suffer, the father is the same man. You will have seen many such people, he says: his father was a great officer, and the son turned out such a wastrel that he threw into the dust all the money and honour the father had built.
Can havan be performed without one's wife?
In a Vedic havan she is needed, the speaker says. In a tantrokta havan which people perform themselves, it has been written in many places even in the tantrokta texts that if you do it together with your vamangi, that is with your dharmapatni, you will obtain greater fruit. So if you are doing that kind, then do it with her. If she does not have the interest, do it yourself.
What remedy is there for a student whose mind goes blank at revision?
This is the problem of the students of the whole world, the speaker says, and he gives a very good remedy for it — one that also serves sadhaks who wish to commit mantras to memory and cannot, or who have recited a Sahasranama for ten years and still cannot recite it without looking. This has a special prayoga on the day of Basant Panchami, the day on which we perform Saraswati puja; that day is the specific one for making it siddh. Otherwise you may do it in any auspicious muhurta.
The remedy has to be accompanied by the student's own effort.
He tells Raj Sharma, who writes that he always used to score 80 to 90 per cent but for three years his mind goes wholly blank at revision, that he has already given the answer to his question — and asks why he commented so many times on the same thing. And the biggest point, he says, is that he has told him only what could be done; your own effort also has to be there. The rest, he adds, the questioner himself will know as an inner matter.
Shakambhari or Annapurna anushthan for a householder: purpose and who may do it
The speaker says that in daily life, and a grihastha sadhak especially, one should keep performing an Anushthana of either Bhagavati Annapurna or Bhagavati Shakambhari from time to time, because by their kripa prasad there is never any shortage of anna, dhan, vastra and the like in the house and family. On eligibility he is explicit: any person at all can do this sadhana, initiated or uninitiated, woman or man.
Who bears the harm when Sanatani media misrepresents Bhairav and the Navarna mantra as things to fear?
The speaker says the harm is somewhere our own. If our Sanatani people are becoming weak, if a split is falling within the Sanatani family, if people are becoming fewer and the population is decreasing — then, he says, you too are driving a wedge, and one day you will be surrounded; it will be your own doing. Forbidding what should be done and forcing what should not be done: the harm is one's own.
What is the standing of a kulavadhu who does the pitru karma herself?
See, the speaker says, the children are doing it anyway. And she who is doing this, who is the kulavadhu, is doing it for the sake of the pitrs of her own kula: nobody can stop her vriddhi. But those parents-in-law who are not letting it be done, saying no, all this is rubbish — see how great their mental frustration is, how much their brain has been washed that they do not wish all this to be done, or that they are not doing it. They are building it for themselves. One's own karma comes to oneself; gati and mukti are in one's own hands. Your doing and mine will not bring it about. But what is described in the shastras, the shraddh karma for one's own pitrs — whatever you can manage, that you must certainly do. You are doing nothing wrong; you have the capacity, you can do it, so do it certainly.
Loans are taken for liquor and gutka, but a cheaply arranged puja draws the family's suspicion
People will take loans for liquor, chicken and gutka and consume them, the speaker says; they will go on credit to the wrong place to extinguish their kaam vasana — but when you wish to have the greatest of pujas performed at a limited expense and to do good, then they will suspect you. Let them, he says; let it be, sir. Those for whom it is happening know; those who are having it done know; the one who is doing it knows; how much is happening is known — and Jagadamba is knowing it.
When should a pregnant woman stop going to the temple?
Asked when a pregnant woman should stop going to the temple, he answers that she should not go from after the third month. At home too she should do snan and pranam from a distance, and should do path, stuti, japa and the rest comfortably, seated at her own place.
What should be done for an ill mother, and may the Kamakhya mantra be perfected?
Where a mother remains ill, he says the medical treatment should go together with the bhajan and pujan of Bhagwan. And yes, he says, do perfect the mantra of Bhagavati Kamakhya — if you have obtained the mantra from a proper guru.
May sweeping be done while a puja is going on?
Asked whether sweeping may be done while doing puja, since many pandits forbid it, he takes the question to mean that someone else is sweeping while you sit at puja — and in that case it absolutely should not be done. At the time of performing puja, sweeping, mopping, or giving anything to anyone in alms, all these things must remain stopped. So long as the puja runs, sweeping, mopping and bhiksha must not happen.
Do women incur a dosha from seeing chola being offered to Hanuman ji?
Asked whether women incur a dosha if they see chola being offered to Hanuman ji — the questioner's pandit having given a time after 9:00, when temples are very crowded — he says he has heard such a thing, and if learned people say so then it presumably happens; but in his own knowledge it is not so, that a dosha would attach merely from seeing the chola being offered. He adds that since she has raised it he will certainly ask whether it is so.
What is the danger in perfecting a Brahm independently?
It is the most ugra shakti of the upadeva category: make a mistake and it will take no time at all to blow you away. And if it is perfected, it is capable even of stopping the increase of one's lineage. If it is of the deva category it may also give support and good may come, but the chance of that is very small, because you wish to perfect it independently. To perfect a Brahm independently, he says, means to stop the growth of your own lineage.
Should a householder do japa of Ram alone, or with Sita?
He says a householder may do as his shraddha inclines, but that for his part he would say: why leave Maiya Sita alone and do japa of Ram ji by himself? If Ram ji grows angry and gives you two slaps, who will save you? If you have made some mistake, then for the saving of you the mother is needed. So take the father's name along with the mother's.
The mistake does not stop with the one who makes it: ten other lives are ruined on his account and his own children begin to suffer it
He says: you will endure it — on your account ten people's lives will be ruined; nothing will happen to you, your children will begin to suffer it. You are making a mistake.
Encouraging such talk destroys others too, because a second or third person watching starts doing the same, and affliction comes into the family
He says that people who talk in this way are destroying others: there will be affliction in your family, and when you encourage this kind of thing, some second or third person watching you will start doing it, and that is wrong. This mistake will begin to happen, and who knows what his condition will be — what the devi-devatas of his house will be like, what will become of the poor man. You told him to go ahead and do it daily, and he goes on doing it.
Durga Chalisa chakra vidhi or the Vansh Vriddhi Kavach on Holika night?
Asked whether to do on Holika night the Durga Chalisa chakra vidhi that has been done in past years, or the Vansh Vriddhi Kavach, he says that in his own view, if the Vansh Vriddhi Kavach is needed and that is what you wish to do, then do that one — do the Vansh Vriddhi Kavach.
What must be considered before installing a tantra shakti at home?
Before worshipping such a shakti in the house, he says, think a thousand times: you are worshipping her — will your own children go on worshipping her afterwards or not? These are shaktis of tantra.
What happens when the household deities do not support a person?
Closing the session, he says that when the devi-devatas of a house do not give support, and the pitrs are pleased, then a situation is formed in which there is wrong company and the squandering of money, with no check upon it — that, he says, is one way of putting it.
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