The Five Offerings to Devi: Panca Upacara Puja Explained

Guruji's teaching, word for word

The Five Offerings to Devi (The Panca Upacara Puja)

If you look at the Five Offerings for Devi you will see "Lam Lalitayai satsangam gandham kalpayami namah". Lam is the bija associated with the muladhara chakra. And there is offere satsangam — association with the truth, association with the light, harmony, grace. These positive aspects are the gandham. You offer her the perfumed scents. The muladhara is concerned with security. Your security has to be purified so that it can expand to security for the entire planet. Wherever you find a flow, admiration of nature's beauty, a dance, a song, some music, discussions on truth, that is satsangam.

The next offering is Ham akashatmikayai indriya nigraham puspam kalpayami. Puspam means flowers. There are eight kinds of flowers offered to Devi, like a mala around her neck.

Then incense is offered. Punya papa visarjanam dhupam kalpayami — the elimination of kama krodha lobha moha mada matsarya (lust, anger, , delusion, pride, jealousy and all negative traits). The smoke that comes out from the incense symbolizes all these things coming out of the heart center.

You offer dipam — light. Chit kala darsanam dipam kalpayami. When you close you eyes in meditation, the lights that you see are the lights that you are giving as the offering to Devi.

You offer food, naivedyam — vasudhadi sivasanam siva sakti samarasyam naivedyam kalpayami — The nectar that is offered is the nectar from the union of Siva and Shakti. The samarasya is the state of equality, out of which our 91 identity is obtained. Here both yoga and bhoga aspects are being combined.

Yoga is where the control of the seed is practiced. In the entire puja — the man and woman are there, Siva and Shakti are there and it is in the context of ritual and it is very controlled environment. There is no loss of control at any point. There is an elevation of expression of your love to the other person. It goes more into adoration than into physical union. There can be union, but even there the purpose is not the extraction of the seed. The purpose is to control the seed and to transform it into the cosmic energy.

There is an oscillation of energy between Siva and Shakti. They say that unless 32 minutes of union is there, this energy tranformation cannot take place. But in a normal human interaction, hardly 5 or 10 minutes is all that you have. That is why for the Maithuna Rite the couple has to practice different asanas, mudras and bandhas. Gaining control over your senses is what is offered. This is the Maithuna Ritual.

In the Sri Kramam you learn to take the energy up to the Sahasrara chakra into a cosmic state. In the Lalita Kramam you move back into the duality of puja and ritual. But actually both the Bhoga (physical enjoyment and worldly pleasures) and the Yoga (union with the Supreme) are there all the time. The reality is there, one end of which is Bhoga and the other end which is Yoga. You take all this trouble to go up to the Sahasrara chakra and what you find is that the Bhoga is going on at the same time. They are all short-circuited here. The switches for the energy in the body are located all over the body, but they are controlled by the brain. And the entire brain is the Sahasrara chakra. So you are always in the Sahasrara chakra, no matter if you are in Muladhara or at the top of the head. So Bhoga and Yoga are united. They are never separated.

In the Tantra Sastra there is no rejection of your family life, being in the samsara and also learning to be above that. You are supposed to enjoy yourself but at the same time learn to be a witness to yourself, to be a little detached. Like Mr Rao #1 watching Mr. Rao #2 doing the puja to Mr. Rao #3.

From the teachings of Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati (Guruji). Original post: "USCP: The Five Offerings to Devi", 21 April 2016, https://amritananda-natha-saraswati.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-five-offerings-to-devi.html. From Guruji's book, shared on his blog and posted by Vira Chandra.