Title: Session 21 Dated: 29 Jun 2024 Speaker: TVK

1. Forms of Worship and the khaḍgamālā

  • The Three Methods of Surrender: TVK details the core actions used in worship within the siddhanta:
    1. namaḥ: The act of complete mental and physical prostration, surrendering the mind, body, and intellect.
    2. pūjā: Offering physical items, such as flowers, to the divine.
    3. tarpaṇam: Offering liquid oblations, understanding the deep conceptual meaning behind the action.
  • Tantric vs. Standard Worship: Pure tantric worship intricately combines all three actions along with mudrās (hand gestures of direct communication) and homa (fire rituals). Engaging in tantric pūjā requires proper initiation (dīkṣā) from a guru to understand the intrinsic, secretive meanings. For those without initiation, standard pūjā or chanting is adopted.
  • The Power of khaḍgamālā: To safely perform the profound śrī cakra pūjā without complex tantric initiation, a jnani can use the devī khaḍgamālā. This text is perfectly structured to mentally guide the jīva step-by-step through all the physical levels of the śrī cakra (2D surface) or meru (3D structure).

2. Preliminary Preparations for śrī cakra pūjā

  • Consecrating the Temple of the Body: Before invoking devī, the jīva must purify their own physical body, making it a sacrosanct vessel. This involves deha śuddhi (cleansing the entire body) and ṣaḍaṅganyāsa (installing divine energy into six specific parts like the hṛdaya or heart).
  • The Lunar Dieties (tithi nityās): The jīva must offer salutations to the 15/16 nityās (kāmeśvarī to citrā). Because the moon phases change daily (waxing in śukla pakṣa and waning in kṛṣṇa pakṣa), the exact directional sequence of these deities mathematically changes every day. However, the khaḍgamālā offers a simplified, fixed sequence for the devotee to follow easily.
  • The Unbroken Lineage (guru maṇḍala): Worship cannot proceed without taking permission from the guru maṇḍala. The jīva mentally salutes 19 distinct gurus, tracing the ultimate lineage back to śiva acting as the parameṣṭhi guru.

3. Navigating the Divine Enclosures (āvaraṇa pūjā)

  • The Outer Gates (bhūpuram): The worship moves through nine distinct enclosures (āvaraṇas) housing 130 to 154 specific devatās. The first enclosure consists of three concentric squares:
    • Outer Square: Houses 10 siddhi devatās.
    • Middle Square: Houses 8 mātṛkās (fierce female forces like māheśvarī, brāhmī, kaumārī, vaiṣṇavī, māhendrī, and lakṣmī).
    • Inner Square: Houses 10 mudrā devatās (like sarvasaṅkṣobhiṇī). These mudrās esoterically represent the crucial connection between male and female (positive and negative) elements required to create anything in the universe.
  • The Magic Number: By systematically performing tarpaṇam at each gate through all nine enclosures, the jīva perfectly reaches the sacred Vedic total of 444 oblations.
  • Enhancing the Power: Advanced seekers expand these salutations by appending specific mantras.

    Sloka or Mantra in Sanskrit. ऐं क्लीं सौः

    Same sloka or mantra in IAST English. aiṃ klīṃ sauḥ

    Explanation by the speaker. TVK notes this is the foundational 3-syllable bālā mantra. Seekers embed these specific sound syllables alongside the names in the khaḍgamālā to immensely increase the cosmic power of the pūjā.

4. The Human Animal (paśu) and Cosmic Duty (dharma)

  • The Bound Creature (paśu): In the siddhanta, a paśu is any universal creation (from brahmā down to a human) whose primary drive is thirst (pānam) and hunger (kṣudhā). This constant need binds them in deep affection and material attachment (pāśam).
  • The Ultimate Sustenance:
    • Quote from devī gītā: TVK quotes her direct promise: “I am the bones. I have descended the whole universe in this form where you do not have to really depend on your thirst and hunger. You have everything in this world for you to feel self-sustained. Which means you be submissive to me… You don’t need the thirst and hunger to suffer.”
  • The Law of dharma: devī removes this base hunger by establishing the jīva in the Vedic form of dharmam.
    • Anecdote of the Butcher: TVK defines dharma simply as following one’s designated cosmic livelihood. For a butcher, killing is their specific dharma; for another jīva, not killing is their dharma.
    • The Absolute Rule: “Whomsoever protects dharma, dharma protects him.” Conversely, she systematically destroys anyone who fights against or obstructs dharma.

5. The Three Miseries (tāpatrayam) and the Cooling Moon

  • The Burning Fires: The jīva constantly burns from three distinct types of miseries (tāpams):
    1. ādhyātmika: Suffering created internally by one’s own senses and mind.
    2. ādhibhautika: Suffering caused by interaction with the vāsanās (traits) of others.
    3. ādhidaivika: Force majeure; suffering caused by acts of bhagavan (like earthquakes or cyclones) completely beyond human control.
  • The Moonlight of Compassion (candrikā): She is described as the moonlight (candrikā). Just as the moon provides ultimate coolness, her boundless compassion completely subsidizes and extinguishes these three burning fires in the jīva.
  • Eternal Youth (taruṇī): She is forever young. Because she has no physical birth or death, she is immune to human growth and decay. She is also described with perfect form, possessing a very thin waist (tanumadhyā).

6. Thou Art That (tatpadalakṣyārthā)

  • The Great Saying (mahāvākya): The syllable tat directly references the mahāvākya (great saying) tat tvam asi (“Thou art that”).
  • Absolute Oneness: This represents the ultimate realization where the jīva subscribes to the fact that everything happening in the universe—the creation, the maintenance of the intellect, the daily routines of all beings—is fundamentally her. There is nothing outside of her. She is bhuvaneśvarī: the sole creator, ruler, and maintainer of the contained universe (bhuvana), operating it strictly for the jīva‘s upliftment.

7. The Scale of Ultimate Bliss (ānandam)

  • The Tiny Drop of brahmānandam: Humans often consider brahmānandam (the bliss of brahmā) to be the highest joy. TVK clarifies that brahmā‘s bliss is actually a microscopically small droplet compared to the infinite bliss of devī (svātmānanda).
  • The Mathematics of Joy (ānanda vidyā):
    • Upanishadic Anecdote: TVK recounts the taittirīya upaniṣad‘s calculation of bliss. A perfectly learned human who follows dharma and has zero unfulfilled desires enjoys 1 unit of ānandam. A gandharva (a celestial being singing praises to bhagavan without attachment) enjoys 100 times that bliss. An inhabitant of pitṛ loka enjoys 100 times the gandharva. This scale multiplies exponentially by 100s up through indra, bṛhaspati, and finally brahmā. Yet, even this staggeringly massive calculated bliss is negligible compared to hers.
  • Attaining the Bliss: TVK notes this ultimate position is available to any jīva who accomplishes two things: acquiring ātmajñānam (knowledge of the self) and utterly abandoning all desires and material relations.

8. The Four Stages of Speech (nādam)

  • The Journey of the Spoken Word: She resides in us as nādam (sound). Every word we speak takes a highly complex, four-stage divine journey before leaving the mouth:
    1. parā: The absolute, undisturbed origin of sound starting in the mūlādhāra (rectum/base). It has no shape; it is merely intent and content fused together.
    2. paśyantī: The sound travels upward through the svādhiṣṭhāna and maṇipūra chakras, taking shape and locating the specific message.
    3. madhyamā: Reaching the viśuddhi chakra at the throat, it picks up the exact sounds, syllables, and lengths. (TVK explains the intent travels the front of the body, while the content travels up the spine to the sahasrāra to grab the required “intelligence” from a cosmic library, before both merge perfectly at the throat).
    4. vaikharī: The fully composed sound is finally expelled from the mouth.
  • The Divine Dam of Teeth:
    • Anecdote of the 32 Teeth: Why do humans have exactly 32 teeth (16 on each row)? TVK explains that these 16 teeth perfectly represent the 16 nityā devatās (the ṣoḍaśī mantra). They act as a strict divine dam holding back the chaotic flow of speech. Their cosmic duty is to ensure that whatever syllables spill past them are filtered into absolute truth.

9. List of Lalitha Names Mentioned

The following nāmas and divine titles of devī (as well as her specific manifestations/consorts and āvaraṇa deities) were mentioned either individually or in a cluster during this session:

  • kāmeśvarī
  • māheśvarī
  • brāhmī
  • kaumārī
  • vaiṣṇavī
  • māhendrī
  • lakṣmī
  • bhuvaneśvarī
  • candrikā
  • taruṇī
  • tanumadhyā
  • tamo’pahā
  • tatpadalakṣyārthā
  • parā
  • paśyantī
  • madhyamā
  • vaikharī