Understanding Sri Chakra Puja: Prologue

Guruji's prologue, word for word

This book had to be written to fill a gap. There are millions of people in the world who are doing Sri Chakra Puja. But very few understand the meanings of the mantras and procedures, why they are being done, what is a good way of doing things. And there are simply no books available on this subject. Sri Devi inspired Devi Parvati to seek this information for the benefit of every devotee of Sri Vidya by asking questions to Amrita at Devipuram, India. She used to ask questions, and tape the answers. She took painstaking trouble to transcribe what was said, typed it out and Amrita edited it again. Conversational style was preserved to a large extent to preserve readability. Redundancies have not been totally removed because they are sometimes needed as reminders; but an attempt has been made to reduce them. This is the first attempt that really tries to go into the mysteries of every mantra, and every procedure in the Sri Chakra puja as described in Parashu Rama Kalpa Sutra to convey a deeper understanding of the ritual. It is the author's belief that such an attempt to open up these mysteries has not been made before in a book which anyone can read. Much of the matter presented here is being spoken from a direct personal revelational stand point, and so carries no references. It is also the first time that the authentic texts have been explained the way they are here combining the modern and ancient views. You may or may not agree with what is said here. But to hide the science of ritual from public eye because it may not be in tune with the present norms is not correct. After all, the purpose of this book is to inform about practices that were followed in olden days. To practice or not is your personal decision. To say that a book on gynecology should not be published because it shows the pictures of genitals is ridiculous. Whether it works for you, you have to discover. There is a good chance it will, if you approach the subject with respect.

It is not a cheap imitation or a pruned down version of the ritual. It is the actual stuff. It does not have the patriarchal bias to the age old traditions when woman was God. It talks openly about subjects such as use of sex in ritual and hence brushed aside by many practitioners as being accessible only through surrendering your body, mind and soul to a Guru. Each heading can be interpreted as a question about a topic. What follows is an an attempt to clarify the concepts involved.

PUJA

Parashurama is an Avatar of Vishnu. He has divided the Sri Chakra Puja into four clearly defined time slots: Lalita, Rajashyamala, Varahi and Para. Puja to Lalita is to be done in the morning in the creative center, Rajashyamala in the heart during midday, Varahi in the evening at the eyebrow center, and Para Shakti at midnight in the crown. This volume deals only with the first part, Lalita Puja.

Some people combine all these differnt pujas into one unmanageably long puja. Neither the participants nor the people watching the pujas understand what is going on. They think that the longer the puja, the better it is. They keep on adding to the puja from this book and that book, and they are then afraid to let go of this or that bit of the puja. They loose their balance and become angry with slightest disturbances to the puja like a child crying for food. For a devotee to become angry is to go down.

You find a famous example of this in the story of Ramayana. Vishwamitra was a great king who wanted to attain to the highest knowledge of God. He was doing austerities for a long time. Then Indra, afraid that he will lose his position as the ruler of Gods, sent a celestial seductress called Menaka to stop him from practicing celebacy in thought, word and deed. Vishwamitra got attracted to Menaka and spent 10,000 years enjoying her. Then he lost the power he had obtained from his austerities. He realized his mistake and he told her " No I don't want your child, and I don't want you, get lost". He pushed her away and then started again on the austerities gaining great merit. Then he went to Sage Vashishta's ashram. And he told him, "Look I have become great in austeritie. Now you have to proclaim that I am a Brahma Rishi=self realized soul". Vishishta says, "No you are not a Brahma Rishi" to test him. Then Vishwamitra got angry and cursed Vishishta. With that single curse he lost all the power.

The moral of the story is that sexual enjoyment is much less harmful than anger. Whereas lust has taken 10,000 years to remove his power, his anger removed it in one instant. That is the difference. That is why they say if you are practicing sadhana =sincere devotion, and you get angry you are not
making headway. The signature of being on the proper path is that you must remain unperturbed by anger or fear. It is then that you are really on the way.

From the teachings of Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati (Guruji). Original post: "Understanding Sri Chakra puja (1998): Prologue", 19 April 2016, https://amritananda-natha-saraswati.blogspot.com/2016/04/understanding-sri-chakra-puja-prologue.html. From Guruji's book, shared on his blog.