Guruji Answers: Mudras, Khadgamala, Sri Chakra

Guruji's teaching, word for word

Q: Can we share some of the mantras and practices you are teaching us, like Pañcadaśī or Prāṇa Pratiṣṭhā, Virajā Homa?

Guruji: Yes, you can.

Q: Is there any significance to the color of the āsana we sit on while doing sādhana? What color is recommended for Śrīvidyā upāsanā, if any?

Guruji: White is sāttvic. Red is rājasic. Rose, a mix of both, is sāttvic and rājasic. I suggest white if you don’t have many desires; and red if you do.

Q: Is there a mānasa Śrīcakra pūjā, or Khadgamālā Stotram itself is one?

Guruji: Video of mānasa pūjā is given; so is remembering Khadgamālā locs in Śrīcakra, building part by part in mind’s eye. Both videos are on site.

Q: This is different from the normal pattern, especially at the eight-petaled enclosure. If we are familiar with the regular pattern, should we continue to use that to form the Cakra in the mind?

Guruji: You could use any pattern in mind. Because language is serial and the whole is parallel. You can describe a picture in any sequence of its elements. Some sequences are more important and closer to our experience of time. Our experience of time is linear, goes fast in good company or slows down when bored, serial for some time and jumps as in dreams, stops during sleep. A sequence may be preferred or easier to create a mind map. All such maps are valid.

Q: Guruji, what is Śaktipāt and how is it different from mantra dīkṣā?

Guruji: Śakti-pāt is through physical or astral touch. Mantra dīkṣā is through sound.

Q: We practice Pañcadaśī without mantra upadeśam.

Guruji: It is good to have upadeśam. Where will you go if in doubt? To the person who initiated you, right?

Q: Dear Guruji, is there a particular reason/significance why the pointer in this visualization moves in anticlockwise order?

Guruji: Clockwise is the normal order. When it goes the other way, you are going back in time to the source.

Q: How can one invoke Khadgamālā Devīs in one’s body? Any particular days for particular Devīs?

Guruji: There is a file called Gandharva Tantra rendered into English by Mike Magee. It is given in one of the course study materials.

Q: Guruji, do the mudrās have any other meaning than being symbolic? Do they have to be done or are mantras enough?

Guruji: We are invoking powers into fingers through kara-nyāsa. These energies combine in different ways to produce new energies.

Q: Where is a man’s yoni? Is it around his liṅga or on his brain? This leads to another question: where is Sarva Siddhi-pradāya Cakra located?

Guruji: Both. A triangle is up or down or sideways. Is it male or female? Gender is an attribute, characteristic to distinguish one class of objects from others.

Q: Guruji, how do I invoke any particular Devī grace in Khadgamālā Devīs?

Guruji: By pūjā, concentration, japa. Example: “am āṃ sauḥ animā siddhyai namaḥ.”

Q: Can you please tell why the Khadgamālā Devīs are depicted that way?

Guruji: They are sensual energies in your nature. To access powers of creation, open genital area is needed. Nature is always nude. Nudity removes the boundary between you and all that is surrounding you.

Q: Guruji, please help me understand this. In the previous classes, you had mentioned that Devī is in everyone. If Devī is in everyone, and if Devī in person “X” has lied, cheated, etc. to me, then isn’t it the Devī in me who is upset/hurt/angry? How do I react to this? Is spirituality my strength or weakness?

Guruji: Devī is freedom and bondage, repulsion and attraction, friend and foe. Don’t react, remain cool, saying that when you love, where is the time for judgments? The world is what it is. It can’t be created without attractions and repulsions.

Q: How can one incorporate mudrās and Khadgamālā Stotram in daily worship?

Guruji: Show mudrās to Goddess / living person and get permissions. Recite Khadgamālā looking at parts of Śrīcakra where they are located. Mentally offer a flower to the Goddess there.

Q: Guruji, can Guru-pādukā mantra replace Khadgamālā deities while going around the Śrīcakra?

Guruji: Any mantra can go around Śrīcakra.

Q: Guruji, how can I reach Turīya state?

Guruji: You are in Turīya state between thoughts. Thoughts cannot disturb the fourth state.

Q: To get Pañcadaśī mantra siddhi, do we need to do akṣara-lakṣa japaṃ?

Guruji: Yes, with devotion and intensity. You must be in love with Goddess all the time.

Q: When you get visions regarding Cakra, what do you do afterwards?

Guruji: Notice, write in a diary, then let it go. If they indicate need for a particular action, use your discrimination, seek help from guru and do it.

Q: Guruji, I am a painter and have painted canvases of Śrīcakra. It has been a wonderful experience, but I saw on your website it is not allowed.

Guruji: Who said not allowed? I have been asking people to draw many, many Śrīcakras as a sādhana.

Q: Guruji, can mudrās be done at any other time than in time of pūjā?

Guruji: What is the use?

Q: Dear Guruji, once one has mastered these techniques and mastered them to a certain amount, is it necessary to continue, or can one get the silent state and just remain there?

Guruji: Yes, the rituals drop off on their own when you don’t need them. From doing, you move to being.

Q: Kindly advise me that before Śrīcakra pūjā, whether we have to conduct Pañcāyatana pūjā or we can directly go for Bālā mantra, etc., directly.

Guruji: Pañcāyatana pūjā is Vedic. In Tantric pūjā, you can go directly to Bālā pūjā. Ambā can be approached any way. Pañcāyatana includes Ambā; all are equally important for manifestation.

Q: Can you please tell why the Khadgamālā Devīs are depicted that way?

Guruji: Which way? Do you mean that some Khadgamālā deities are nude? Nudity means the state of innocence as if you are just born baby. It is the natural state of a yogī or yoginī who feels that his or her consciousness is not limited by the clothes; it goes beyond it in all directions. All nature is nude. It does not mean nature is impure or obscene. People in male-dominated cultures, however, equate nudity with obscenity. In Hindu Tantric traditions, nudity (as in naked sādhus—avadhūta, digambara) and pleasures of sex are sacred offerings to the Goddess of fertility. People are doing it all the time in the bedroom, but they do not accept that it is sacred. They think it should be done in secret, without light, and God is offended if He sees it. They forget that God/dess is in everyone and is a witness to every action, good or bad. How can you hide it from your own consciousness, the Goddess or the God or guru in you?

Q: If there is an Ānanda-Bhairava/Bhairavī Yantra and how it looks like?

Guruji: Ānanda Bhairavī Yantra is the triangle with bindu in its centre. It is Kāmākhyā, yoni-pīṭha, the matrix, source of all, the genital centre of woman. The triangle is the yoni and the bindu is the pleasure centre there. Ānanda Bhairavī is worshipped in the clit by Kaulācāra sādhakas. Her yantra is the central triangle in Śrīcakra. Her mantra is “hsraim hsklrim hsrsauḥ,” which represent the three sides of the triangle.

From the teachings of Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati (Guruji). Original post: "Q&A on Mantras, Mudrās, Khadgamālā, and Śrīcakra Practice", 25 April 2016, https://amritananda-natha-saraswati.blogspot.com/2016/04/q-various.html