Khadi Batti
Every question on the site tagged Khadi Batti, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
A standing, round lamp wick — doubled by wrapping sacred thread (Kalawa) around it, and used specifically for fierce or aggressive deity worship, or when taking a vow-bound mantra observance for a specific result such as curing illness, destroying an enemy, or countering black magic. Never used for ancestor (Pitru) worship.
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When should the standing wick (Khadi Batti) be used?
The standing wick is for two situations: worship of a fierce (Ugra) deity form, and a vow-bound ritual using an already-perfected (Siddha) mantra or hymn for a specific result. It is doubled by wrapping Kalawa around it.
A ghee lamp with a long wick; a khadi batti, the standing wick, is not to be used in this pujan.
The speaker says it should be a ghee lamp with a long wick, and that you should not use a khadi batti, a standing wick, in this pujan. The three lamps are then decorated and made ready in the name of the three devatas, the three mahashaktis, and are kindled one by one.
A lying soi wick is used, not the standing khadi batti that every ready-made lamp now carries.
Let there be a small flower garland and a lamp, whether of brass or of clay. Apply a lying wick, he says — soi batti — and avoid applying a standing wick. He remarks that any standard lamp one gets nowadays, and whatever the guruji people on YouTube and Instagram are telling one, uses the khadi batti in everything.
When is a standing wick correct and when is a lying one?
Whenever a lamp is kindled for the kula pitrs, for saumya devatas, for the pleasing of the devatas, or for one's own welfare, the lamp should be a lying one. The standing wick is for use in ugrata — where there is shatru nash, abhichar nash, rog nash, where the deity is to be made present with prachandata, which in the Shabar and similar traditions they call chalan vidya. In everything else, use the lying wick.
What should be done alongside lighting eleven lamps?
Whenever you kindle eleven lamps together, the speaker says, do one thing: light dhoop on both sides, beside wherever the eleven lamps are lit. Use the wet dhoop — the kind that comes among agarbattis, the wet one. Bamboo, he adds, should not be used.
Order of the first sadhanas for a new sadhak without a guru
The speaker says that whatever brings a person into sadhana — tantric attack, enemies, debt, illness, family strife, or simply the wish — coming in is the best thing, and for one who has found no Guru the order is fixed. First the basic vidhi-vidhan of sitting at one's place, which is compulsory before every sadhana; then the guru sadhana, done on the one form that exists chiefly for the guru, since no direct guru or Diksha is there; then, once the guru Mandala's Kripa is obtained and the Dev Deeksha vidhan is done, the Ganpati Vinayak mandala; and only after both are complete, Bhairav — the Batuk Bhairav sadhana. He says all of these must certainly be done, and that lamp-lighting basics are also essential for a new sadhak.
What kind of bowl and wick should be used for the deepdaan lamp?
Asked whether a plastic bowl will do if a clay bowl is not found, he says yes, it will do. Asked whether the lamp being small matters and whether someone else may take it down from the head, he says yes — it should be another person who takes it down from the head; and that the lamp being small does not matter. Keep the wick of the lamp thick, he says, so that its oil is finished quickly and the lamp is completed quickly.
What was the controversy about a flower forming in the lamp wick?
The speaker says the biggest negative reaction he ever drew was his subject of the deepak and the baati — that when a flower forms in the wick, devatas come. Several regular viewers who accept his other subjects said openly that they would not accept this one. His answer is that it is not his job to make anyone accept it.
May the lamp be refilled with the left hand during japa, and which wick is used?
Keep a large lamp in the first place, brother, the speaker says: if you have to do japa for two or three hours, keep the lamp on that reckoning so that oil does not have to be added again and again. Buy one big lamp. If you want to pour the oil with the reverse hand, since the mala is in one hand, you may pour it — there is no matter in it. The wick of the karma sakshi will be a soi batti. The khadi batti is used in prayoga: when we are doing the prayoga of a mantra, then the khadi batti will be used.
The two-wick lamp for the eclipse sadhana
The speaker says that if one has much wish, and to give the sadhana strength, a lamp of either ghee or Til oil may be lit. A Deepak's mouth is always towards the east, so it is placed and lit facing east. The wick is always two threads: whether Kalava, raw thread, or cotton, the cotton is mixed with kalava, because a single thread, a single wick, is never lit; two wicks are lit. The two wicks are twisted together and lit so that the lamp can burn for three hours, through the whole Grahan kaal.
Is a jodaa baati used in the Ashtavinayak sadhana?
The Ashtavinayak sadhana has been completed and shown, made as simple as it could be. One question in it was that he had not used a jodaa baati but a single wick. He answers that it is a jodaa baati — the cotton has been kneaded in such a way that it will look single to you, it is twisted so finely. How would it look double? Only if we kept the wick that thick. He had to recite for a long time, so he kept a very thin wick. The eight lamps of the eight Vinayaks are always to be kept with jodaa baati, and done exactly as told there.
How much of the Bhairav mahamantra should be done on an ordinary day?
On an ordinary day do at least one mala of the Bhairav mahamantra, he says. There is no need for a chaumukh lamp on other days: the chaumukh lamp is for when a special sadhana is done; otherwise an ordinary lamp.
Is an invitation given again in the Kalka Yogini sadhana?
The speaker says that in the Kalka Yogini sadhana an invitation is not to be given a second time — the invitation is given at the first time only, and from the next time you will do it at home. Asked separately about lamps, he says that lighting a lamp of mustard oil is also excellent; it is not necessary that only a ghee lamp be lit.
What is done with the leftover wick of an akhand jyot?
Asked whether the leftover wick of the akhand jyot should be given visarjan or put to some use, the speaker says that if it has not burnt and has simply remained over, you may keep it; and if he means the burnt khadi batti, you may also use that in a tilak and the like. Of the akshat grains japa'd upon, he says you may feed them to birds.
How should a lamp be lit?
Asked how to light a diya, the speaker refers to at least five to seven videos made at the very beginning of the channel, in which it is told which way the mouth of the deepak is to be kept, what the wick should be like — a standing wick or a sleeping wick — what kind of lamp is lit for the pitrs, when a standing-wick lamp should be lit if you light one at all, and on which side of the deity the lamps will stand.
Which lamp and wick should be used at home and in a temple?
It should be done with the long batti; the long batti should be lit. The khadi batti should be lit at the time of prayoga. At the time of aarti you may use the khadi batti, the long round one, the long one.
What is the "flower" that forms in a lamp wick?
It is carbon, he says. In a round batti the wick is a little smaller towards the top and the oil fills up; from burning again and again a soot is bound to form in it — there is a 99% likelihood that it forms. When the oil is not reaching the upper part of the wick properly, that is when the carbon begins to gather there, and that is when you say a flower has formed in the wick. There is nothing special in it. In Navratri everybody's forms, the maximum of people's forms; for those who do not clean it a big flower forms, and for those who cover it with a lid a bigger one still. Take a big lamp, keep the wick a little thin and fill it with oil, and through the whole day flowers of one kind after another will keep forming in that wick.
Can a khadi batti lamp be lit in Batuk Bhairav's puja?
You may light it, the speaker says, there is no difficulty — but use the soi batti as much as possible.
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