Shankha
Every question on the site tagged Shankha, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
A conch, blown in worship with a structure specific to the deity being honored — its sound, like a bell's, must be smooth, continuous, and clear, avoiding broken or defective tones.
9 notes from our sourcesNotes from our sources
What are the rules for blowing a conch (Shankha) in worship?
Different conches and blowing techniques exist for different deities, with specific structures for the commencement, middle sustain, and concluding resonance; whether ringing a bell or blowing a conch, the sound must be smooth, continuous, and clear, avoiding broken or defective tones.
Should the shankha in the home temple be kept empty?
Asked whether the shankha in the home temple should never be kept empty and what should be filled into it, he answers that for the shankha which is blown there is no such necessity of filling anything into it. The dakshinavarti and such shankhas should be kept filled with rice, with kamal gatta, with the Shri-endowed substances that are symbols of Shri; you may keep coins filled in it. If one is prosperous in wealth and grain, fill it with silver coins; or whatever coins and the like you buy on Dhanteras or on some auspicious tithi, buy them and fill it with them.
Does diksha remove the need to learn?
No. In diksha it will not happen that the guru gives you such a vidya that everything comes to you without study. Bhaktaraj Dhruva did not know how to praise, so Bhagavan Narayan touched his cheeks with the shankha and all four Vedas came to him by themselves — but your guru will not have the power to touch you and give you seven hundred shlokas.
What follows the panchagavya bath?
After the panchagavya bath, reciting the Shri Ganpati Atharvashirsham, do an abhishek with raw cow's milk, made into a continuous dhara that falls upon them. If it falls from a dakshinavarti shankh that is most excellent, or if it falls from some silver vessel that is most excellent. Do their abhishek with that.
May the Devi Suktam and Ratri Suktam japa be done with a gau-shringi?
Asked whether the japa of the Devi Suktam and Ratri Suktam can be done with a gau-shringi, and whether it can be done on the arghya of the Shivling, he says it can be done with silver and the like, but do it with a shankha. And do it not on the Shivling's arghya but on Bhagavati. Let the Shivling proceed according to the Shivling.
From which vessel is the abhishek of each deity performed?
A listener says that Shiva ji is bathed with a gomukh shringi, the Devi with a yoni patra, Narayana with a shankha, and Lakshmi ji with a gajamukh shringi, and asks from which special vessel Devi Saraswati's is done. He answers that for all the forms of Bhagavati it is most excellent if you do it with a Shri-yukta shankha — a white one for Saraswati ji.
Can a householder keep a conch in the puja, or only a pandit?
There should be a shankh in every home, he answers, and a shankh and a ghanti should be in every single home. And do not keep a small tinkling little bell — keep a good bell that you can hold fully and ring well, one that fills the fist. Keep a shankh too of a kind that you should know how to blow well; everyone should blow the shankh. For women there are prohibitions at different times, because the effect on the body is different at different times; men can always blow it.
Can the shankh be blown in Shiva puja?
Why can it not be blown, he says — the shankh can absolutely be blown. What has been forbidden for him is the puja of the dakshinavarti shankh; the blowing of the shankh is not forbidden. At home Bhagwan Shiva is worshipped in the grihastha svarup, and at home you do not do Shiva puja alone but panchayatana puja. You are a householder — you have not gone off into the Aghor parampara; there you would have to blow the shankhini instead, and by the blowing of the shankhini all the negative shaktis that there are come.
Can women blow the shankh?
Two views are current, he says. Somewhere it is said they can, somewhere that they cannot; the reasoning given for not blowing is that an effect falls upon the garbhashay. But the truest thing here, he says, is this: if it were so, then in the region of Bengal it is the women who blow the shankh most of all. His own view is only this — that a pregnant woman should never blow the shankh, because an effect, a pressure, can fall on the garbh. For the rest, ordinarily anyone can blow the shankh. And for the Panchajanya and such, the prohibition does stand, because in that more force has to be applied.
No notes match "".