Homaanushtana Chandrika

Pranaamam Sreeramagaru,

I was searching for a articles on Keralacharam when this old article of Sri Shreeram Balijepalli came up before me on internet, thought I will share with the group members.

Homaanushtana Chandrika - 12-29-2005, 01:35 AM

Swami Dayananda I finally found time for your long pendingdesire to know more about Homas and their efficacy.What you have asked is a huge science and I might write a big tome on the subject later! Homa is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Soma'. I verified this with one scholar by name G.Vijayaeeshwara sharma of Chennai. He showed me a few ancient books and was surprised that a young boy like me was interested in such thingsand spared his valuable time (nearly 7 hours!) for this single topic. (Soma Kunda being given..homa kunda comes from this)....(Many think soma means just wine...actually it a liquid which looks fiery)

I had many insights into the Homa vishaya gnaana. A few techniques he told me under oath, so unfortunately I cannot reveal those but the others I can. Homa is called Havan in the north.Now a days Havankunds and Homakunds come as 'electric homakundas'. While I appreciate the creativity in the design and concept, I do not think that making Homa a mechanical thing and a 'jolly-convinience' is to be sought after by spiritual aspirants. Maybe tommorw we will have digital/collapsable Mahamerus and Lingas! But one thing here though the above sounds funny...faith is to be there in everything we do. If we do something with faith one can really move moutains and ignite fires so to speak. The connection with soma is remniscentof the vedic times when homas was a regular feature. The Gurukkal from whom Iam learning my Navavarna puja elaborately does a nithya samidhadhanam for gruhasthas known as Avapausanam and then sthaali homam once in a few days.There are however many conditions and Niyamas to be followed. ( Typical Keralachara homa with Tantreeka rangoli, Malayala Muggu) Fire is sacred energy.

As, I have said so in my past postings. It is the only element which natrually goes up. Symbolizing the union of the atman and the Paramaatman. The fire/Homaagni is a visible manifestation of the divine energy in our souls. Always the principle in Vipareetha Shakthais First externality and then internality. This is in consonance with the working of our sub-conscious and cosmic conscious minds. I was once invited to do a Chandi Yaaga and the people there requested me to speak on the Homa vishaya. After finishing the homa laong with my Veda master, I was blasted with a surprising event-one gentleman there asked me how does an external fire help the inner process.I was happy as the people there had been sleeping during the lenghty homam and thus his question sort of woke up people! I just told it in his idiom as he was a psychologist and an NLP practioner. "It affects your subconscious with a positive affirmationinvolving the Kinesthetic,visual and auditory senses ". He was immensely satisfied and has become a Homa enthusiast these days! The Kinesthetic --Yes, with your hands doing the swaha mantras with the Homa-ladle pouring ghee or unguents into the homaagni The visual--Yes, very much seeing the fire and feeling that something divine is happeneing The auditory--Yes, hearing the mantras and impinging the positive vibrations onto your inner psyche.

But there is more to Homa than NLP Homa shakthi energises the soul.It is verily divine and goes beyond the realms of logic or mind. Homaagni is the mediator between your soul and the bening entitites above. Homa is performed either in a Kundam(Homa Kundam) or a built platform. However since the homakunda is an inverted pyramid it is important to make it perfectly else detriments will follow. One interesting thing I came to know Prasanna Gaaru , from Vijayaeeshwara Sharma is that an inverted pyramid is representative of the evil in us.No one has ever heard about this before anywhere and Iam revealing this to the modern world now in this posting. The inner evil is represented by the inverted pyramid and this when ignited by theholy fire(it becomes holy with proper mantric chants) is transmuted to the ordinary pyramid and thus the evil in us is burnt. Vimalandana Aghori(his name was different) in Aghora series of books says that "In this kaliyuga only fire can be easily done a sadhana upon. And only it can burn the sins faster and give accelerated results". I believe this. There is no refuting this statement. PERIOD. That is why I do the violet fire invocation in my heart withsome mantras. Whatever sins and bad karmas I have commited in the past lives and also this life will be reduced. I can actually see sometimes a black 'paapa purushaa' going out from my body. In the aavarana puja before you start you actaully do a Shushkam, dahana and then amritadharanam of tthe papa shareera with the syllable "Ram...etal) and then pour amrita on to it with"vam"etal. Infact I do this powerfully with the violet fire. I was watching the Baygon advertisement in India and suddenly I got an idea when I saw that the Baygon spray sort of blasts the coakroach with a violet fire! I was just then thinking of how better I could visualise and then causally flipped the news channels (i rarely watch the idiot box)and then this ad came up and since thenI use that powerful idea for my visualisation. I also do a antar yagna with the violet fire with golden streaks. Rm Swarna udaanagnim swaha(udaanaha is violet in sanskrit) The homa samithaani(samvithaha...that which which a connection is sought to be made) are of different types...it can be from Bel tree, Homatree, Pulasa, Pippala etc. Mango tree wood is popular in Northindia. Samagri or the powder put into the homaagni with ghee is of different types too fordifferent purposes. There are 36 types of herbal ingredients used to purify the atmosphere and increase good vibrations.

It is beleived that one person in Chennai over did the Varuna Dhanvantiri homa and thus chennai is now in spate of floods. He had to appease it with other prayaschitta. I do not know thetruth of the story but one point which I want to drive home is that "Never play with Homa-fire" In other words do not over do things. The ghee should be preferably from cows and that too fresh. The homagani produces the homadhoopa(the holy smoke which comes from the homa), this purifies the doer of the homa, and impacts certain areas of his body and clears certain channels for higher spiritual growth.The devas present in those body parts are pleased and accept the dhoopa and the offerings into the fire etherically and give benfits to the doer). Also the enviroment is purified with the smoke because of the maantric content. Normally if one burns a mango tree the enviroment is affected but if the same is done in a Homa with the mantras then the case is different. I have a copper kunda in my house which I take with me if I go out and I do all types of mantra ahutis in it. I clearly remember when I got first interested into the Homa. That was when I was in seventh standard and I had obtained the Mahashodasi mantra. I then playfully tried to experiment it with a homakunda and then did some homa mantra ucchatana ahuti into the sacred fire and that night. I saw a fire burning in the place where I did homa in the dream. It was so surrealistic that I ran in the dead night to see whether the house caught fire! From then on I stopped playing with fire. Amba was compassionateelse my house would have been burnt down! That was Her way of warning not to be 'funny'.

There are popularly two main bifurcations in the Homachara...Tantreek and Vaideeka. Both are powerful if done with shraddha but Tantreeka is more powerful but is fraught with dangers. For example while doing a tantreeka homa (during the days) if there is a night fall for men or white discharge for females then the repurcussions will be heavy.I know one person had a Homa-bhanga(break in the homa with the nightfall) and he dies the next day! I still remember vividlyhow Swaprakshananda(my father's guruvugaru) warned him not to do the homa because of the heat it generates. Homa vedhi(fire place) must also fit some critera for a successful homa.

The success of the homa is said to be in full fruition if a rain comes immidieately after the homa. I also had fruitful talks with Pranav Pandyaji of Haridwar kunj-Gayathri Pariwar. He showed me amachine which measures the benefit of doing a gayathri homa. Please visit his website and also Haridwar if posssible to know more. I purchased some Hindi books on the subject and also about Gayathri Tantra and Yajur veda samhitas.It all made a good reading and was a wonderful divine experience. A posting on Homas will not be complete unless I mention about Homasapthamam Homa Sapthaham is a powerful ancient vedic fire ritual.

Danvantri Homa to cure physical ailments that could not be diagnosed by medical tests. A special distance healing for the participants.

Navagraha Homa to correct horoscopic doshas and to reduce the negative effects of planets Saturn & Mars.

Vidhaya Homa to improve intelligence, knowledge,concentration and memoryretention.

Kubera Homa to remove negative energies and curses, which blockproseperity and finacial growth.

Mangala Samskarana Homa to succeed in our efforts, to be blessed with children, to attain Moksha.

Gayathri Homa to liberate us from negative karma and past life vasanas, to set rightrelationship, to achieve high goals, to end all negative fate that has ruled our life so far.

Vishwa Shanthi Homa to bring peace in all relationships,to bring sacredness to our mind, body & soul, to maintain brotherhood, to bring eternal peace & harmony to thewhole world.

The nanganallur temple performsunder the auspicies of Swami Rajagopala all the seven homas for those who desire. The contact information of the swami and the temple are to be found in the first file of our group. In this connection the now-popular Navagraha homam draws my attention.Many a times we hear people say our time is running bad. These bad times are attributed to the different Grahas (Planets), and their position in the current time. These Grahas can be appeased by performing the Graha shanti Homam. However, I am not unaware of the nefarious uses of Homas too like Marana Homa,sthambhana Homa etal.

One chettiar near Maasaaniamman koil in Tamilnadu did a marana homa. The target/victim dies but the chettiar became insane and committed suicide by poruing kerosene and immolating himself. See, this is the working of karma--you kill by fire and fire kills you.

Also some people think that by doing a Prathyangira Ugra kritya Homa they can vanquish their enemies. Yes, they can but first three thumb rules must be followed. Prathyangira devi wants utmost devotion to Her. The enemy must be really evil (one must learn to forgive even Hitlerfor what he has done, though it is very hard) The doer must take the reponsibility of the bad karma involved in the krityaa(which is actually a homa emnating energy of prathyangira whcih can take any shape from a one-eyed etheric man to a lightening bolt...at the whim and fancy of the Devi at the Homa and attack the 'enemy').

Actually if you see Prasanna gaaru, there is no 'enemy' nor 'friend' in this jagath. Everything happens by the workings of Karma -Who knows what the person has done to the 'enemy' in his past lives? One place which I can recommend apart from Nanganallur temple, where they do proper homas (however the cost is on the higher side) is Bhuvaneshwari Ashramam. Thepontiff of the mutt is no more but his son too does a very good job. Bhuvaneshwari Swamigal of Chennai There are many many types of Homas the most popular being Mahaganapathi Homa Kubera Homa Avahanti Homa Dhanvantari Homa Sudarshana Homa Navagraha Homa Rudra Homa Gayathri Homa Vasthu Homa Durga Homa Loka Kalyana Homa Vidya Homa Mrityunajaya Homa Lakshmi Homa Ganapathi Homam is very popular in Southindia and I had given an earlier posting on the same at the request of Aparna Ma. Please chek all my postings on Homa for more 'Vishayagnaana'. GANAPATHI HOMAM ( GANESH HAVAN ) Lord Ganesh orGanapathi is the deity which every hindu worships, before starting any new thing. The Ganapathi Homam is the homa or havan dedicated to lord Ganesh. By doing this homa, the devotee gets blessing from Lord Ganesh which improves family relationship, overcomes disease , attains once goal without any hindrance,overcomes the enemies, and overcomes all life problems.

MRUTYUNJAYA HOMAM ( MRUTYUNJAYA HAVAN ) This homam is done to get the blessings of almighty god " Shree Shankara ". By doing this homam one gets the blessing of living longlife with good health and overcoming untimely dangers.

NAVAGRAHA HOMAM (NAVAGRAHA HAVAN ) This homam is done to worship the nine planets i.e. The Sun, The Moon, The Mars, The Mercury, The Jupiter, The Venus, The Saturn, The Rahu, and The Ketu. Every planet has its own importance. Sun is the king of planets which gives health. Moon is the planet which rules over mind and gives success. Mars or Mangala is the planet which gives prosperty and wealth. Mercury is the planet which gives knowledge, Jupiter gives education, Venus gives the knowledge of art, music etc.Saturn gives happiness also teaches vairagya.Rahu makes the life stronger.Ketu prospires the family. All these nine planets are important, so in order to worship them this homam is done.

AYUSHYA HOMAM ( BIRTH DAY POOJA ) This homa is done to worship the god of life ( Ayur Devatha ). By doing this homa , one gets longlife blessings from Ayur Devatha.

SUDARSHANA HOMAM (SUDARSHANA HAVAN ) This homa is done to worship Sri Sudarshana Chakra Devata. This Chakra is a weapon which lord Krishna, the incarnation of God Shri MahaVishnu used to protect his sister Draupadi.By doing this homa, one can win over enemies , be settled in life and becomes successful in business.

CHANDI HOMAM ( CHANDI HAVAN ) This homa is done to worship lordess Sri Durga Devi.This homa is generally done during Navaratri. By doing this homa one can gain self-confidence, peaceful life and win over enemies.

Homas can be done either in one's own home or in a temple.It can also be done near a river bank,punyasthala. The Homaground must be made shubra and 'Samathala'(even). Unless one does a Kaapalika Homa in Smashana articles like skulls and bone pieces must not be there in the Homa Ground(One might recollect the Ramayana incident where Vishwamitra performs the Homa/Yagna and Lord Rama protects the Asuras from throing pieces of bones, skulls and bloodto destroy the homa.(Homabhanga). The homaground must be made 'parishubra' with Gomayam(cowdung) mixed with turmeric.(All this has a scientific basis with regard to antiseptic nature of the ingredients). Inside the homa kunda some yogis and aghoris place yantras or draw them mantrically. I will not advise this for ordinary people unless they know what they are doing. Because the 'bali'(anna or otherwise) involved will be heavy in such cases. If the meaurements of the Homakunda go awry then great 'arishthas'(misfotunes) beset the doer. Better to keep quite and chant the name of Amba or Rama or Krishna than venture into these areas ignorantly.(Telugulo cheppalante' : Bathikunte' chippakoodu traagi bathakavacchu.Edhaina anartham jaruguthe itu bathikina brathukoo ledhu atu chache chaavu ledhu!) The homa placve must be beautifully decorated with flowers and rangoli. Then Kunda samskaara(the rites for the homa kunda) with the mantras must be performed. Along with Paatraasanaadhihi and shatpatravidhi one should light the holy Homaaagni. The Indian fig tree bark is used for Dattatreya Homam, raavi for Budha Graha and Dakshninamurthy Homam. But both these tree barks are used insouth along with Mango tree bark.

One must then start the vedaghosha behind to protect the area after doing the special bhoothochatana for driving away evil entities from the place. One must select Homadravya carefully.(MDH Masala company has come with a Homadravya samagri, it is good but not for alltypes of havans/homas) I can write one seperate tome on the quality and uses of Homadravyas so this posting will not be sufficient to do any great justice to this big subject. Also, the upaangadevatas must be pleased with correct mantraahutis and jayadi homam must be done. Finally the poornaahuti must be done according to the deity. In all these matters as I always say one must atleast get the permission of one's Guru before one does Homas elaborately.

Many people these days do even Gayathri Homas reading books and some organisation's exhortations by themseleves. This will do not good in the long run. Homa is also an integral part of the mantra purascharanavidhi. There is a system, in India especially, known as Purascharana of a Mantra, which has a greater effect than the usual chantings of it. The belief is the Mantra should be chanted as many times as there are letters, in lakhs of numbers. The recitation of a Mantra, as many lakhs of times as there are letters in a Mantra, systematically with the discipline mentioned, is supposed to be a Purascharana; and every Purascharana completed is supposed to break one knot of our bondage. Some say there are three knots, some say there are seven knots, and so on and so forth, whatever they are. The knots which tie us down to earthlyexperience will be broken open by each Purascharana performed.

There was one ShreeRam Sharma Acharya, well known to many of you, who performed twenty-four Gayatri Purascharanas. He lived in Haridwar, near Saptarishi Ashram. Rama Sharma Acharya was a great saint and sage, and a very unassuming, unostentatious Sadhaka. He told people that he has done more than twenty-four Purascharanas of Gayatri. The Gayatri Mantra contains twenty-four letters, and he had to perform twenty-four lakhs of recitiation of this lengthy Mantra to complete one Purascharana, and he has completed 24 lakhs - how many years he has taken, God only knows. He must have spent all his time in doing only this. Then youyourself become a Mantra Shakti in yourself. You do not any more become a Sadhaka, or remain as a Sadhaka; you are an embodiment of the deity, a force, a strength, a power, and a fire, as it were. Such is the mystery of a Mantra Japa. Shreeram Acharyaji of Gayatri Pariwar The Maharashtras are very fond of Gayatri Purascharana. There are in Poona and other places persons who have performed Purscharana several times. Sri Pandita Madana MohanaMalaviyaji was a votary of Gayatri Purascharana. The success in his life and the establishment of a grand Hindu University at Banaras, is all attributable to his Gayatri Japa and the benign grace of the blessed Mother Gayatri. Swami Vidyaranya, the reputed author of the celebratedPancadasi, performed Gayatri Purascharana. Mother gave him Darshana and grantedVidyaranya a boon. Swami Vidyaranya asked -"Oh Mother, there is a great famine in the deccan. Let there be a shower of gold to relieve the immense distress of the people." Accordingly there was a shower of gold. Such is the power of Gayatri Mantra. Yogis and pure-minded persons only can have Darshana of Gayatri by doing one Purascharana only. As the minds of vast majority ofpersons in this Iron Age are filled with various sorts of impurities. One has to do more than one Purascharana according to the degree of impurity of the mind. The more the impurities, the greater the number of Purascharana. the famous Madhusudana Swami did seventeen Purascharanas of Krisha Mantra. He did not get Darshana of Lord Krishna on account of the sins committed in killing 17 Brahmins in his previous births. But he had Darshana of the Lord when he was on half-way the eighteenth Purascharana. The same rule applies to Gayatri-Purascharana also. After the Purascharana is over, perform Havana and feed Brahmins, Sadhus and poorpeople to propitiate the Goddess. Those who wish to do Purascharana may live on milk and fruits. This makes the mind Sattvika, One will derive great spiritual benefits. There are no restrictions of any kind when you repeat a Mantra with Niskama Bhava for attaining Moksha. Restrictions or Vidhis come in only when you want to get some fruits, when you do the Japa with Sakama Bhava. When a Purascharana of Gayatri is done on the banks of the Ganges,underneath an Asvattha tree or the Pancavrksa, Mantra Siddhi comes in rapidly. If you repeat Gayatri 4,000 times daily, you can finish the Purascharana in one year seven months and twenty five days. If you do the Japa slowly it will take 10 hours to finish 4,000 daily. The same number should be repeated daily. You must observe strict Brahmacharya when you do Purascharana. Then you can have Darshana of Gayatri easily, those who are unable to practise strict celibacy should be very moderate in family life as second best thing. The practice of unbroken silence during Purascharana is highly beneficial. Those who are not able to practise this, can observe full Mauna for a week in a month or on Sundays. Those who practisePurascharana should not get up from the Aasana till they finish the fixed number. They should not change the pose also. Counting can be done through Mala, fingers or watch. Count the exact number that you can do in one hour. Suppose you can do in one hour 400 Gayatri Mantras then Japa for 10 hours means 10 x 4,00. There is more concentration in counting through watch. There are three varieties of Gayatri pictures for meditation in morning, noon and evening. Many meditate on the fivefaced Gayatri only throughout the day. The dasama bhaga(one tenth) rule for havan in mantra purascharana applies. Kaplavruksha Mantra Homa vishyam(to give anexample): Kalpavriksha Mantra The Kalpavriksha is a celestial tree that grants any boon. In the human body, it is the Kundalini shakti in the spinal cord. The roots of the celestial tree are in the Mooladhara chakra in the base of the spine and its branches and leaves with fruits in the Sahasrara chakra in the brain. In the metaphysical sense, the roots of the kalpavriksha are in heaven and its fruits are in this world.

Jyotish teaching The Kalpavriksha mantra is given below. It is the well known seventeen syllable seven word mantra. The energies of the seventh house comprising all desires and thoughts of the consciousness that are the roots of the troubles are diverted to the fifth house of prayer and poorva punya. The Devi sits in the third house of parakrama and destroys all evils,removes troubles like sleeplessness, bad dreams and all sorts of problems paving the way for a healthy, free life towards spiritual growth. Generally, the Durgä sapta-sloki (seven sloka) is recited before the Japa of this mantra. Seven rosaries of this mantra (7 X 108 beads) should berecited everyday for 40 days for purascharana. Om hreem Shreem Kleem DurgathinaashinyaiMahaamaayayai Swaha! This is powerful mantra and needs initiation. I have just supplied this mantra to give an example.Mantra Manjari contains this mantra and homa vidhana. One must be a celibate for the mantra mandala(seven weeks) and one must do one tenth of the sankhya (number) for homa ahutis.

Below I have given a general procedure followed in Homachara by almost all. But this will be different in Tantreeka homa and srividya homas. During a homa, various rituals are performed successively in order to activate various energies and to also develop the right emotion to perform the homa. Some of these rituals are common and must be observed before every homa. After these rituals are performed, the main homa would begin wherein the rituals differ depending on which deity you invoke. The common rituals for every homa are as follows:

Pavitra Dharanam & Prarthana At this time, the performer as well as the other persons who are participating in a homa pray for the cleansing of their hearts and seek divine blessings of their ancestors and other divine beings. Having prayed thus, they wear a ring made of Darbha grass which is known to repel negative energies, on the ring finger of their right hand.

Achamanam & Siromarjanam: Specially made copper vessels called Panchapatras are kept filled with water. (Note: during a homa, iron or steel vessels are not used because of their low spiritual energies. Silver, copper, bronze, brass or clay is preferred.) Water is taken with the left hand with a special copper spoon called udraneeya on to the cavity of the right palm and sipped three times chanting the names of Lord Vishnu. This procedure is to cleanse our body and mind & is followed by siromarjanam wherein the performers take water in the udraneeya and sprinkle water on their heads with their right thumb. The mantra chanted here means, `whatever be the condition of my body, sacred or unsacred, by the very chanting of your divine names, I sanctify this body of mine in order to receiveauspicious energies.'

Sthala Shuddhi This is a ritual wherein the performer takes water unto his right palm and chants a mantra which says, ` all you negative spirits who are trying to hinder our spiritual practices, immediately be gone and give way for the auspicious energies to enter our lives.

Thereafter, the water is sprinkled all around to ward away these evil forces. Then the performer takes a vessel filled preferably with turmeric water and chants mantras inviting higher beings and sages and simultaneously sprinkles the water with mango leaves or Darbha grass in all eight directions. Sthala shuddhi is a purificatory rite. Mahaganapati Pooja In the Hindu scriptures, the elephant headed God, Ganesha is always worshipped in the beginning of any ritual, for his blessings ensure that the whole procedure would move smoothly unhindered by any external obstacles at any stage. Lord Ganesha is invoked into a conical figure made by mixing turmeric powder and water. Turmeric is considered very auspicious and is therefore used to represent roman Lord Ganesha. Thereafter, a method of worship involving sixteen steps is performed to please Lord Ganesha. This is called Shodashopachara Pooja. All these steps are symbolical representations of thevarious forms of expressing reverence like offering the deity a golden throne to be seated, washing his feet, washing his hands, offering him water to drink, ceremonial bathing with sacred waters, offering new clothes, anointing him with sandal paste and other perfumes, adorning of jewels, worshipping with flowers, offering of fragrant incense, lighting the lamp, offering food, fruits and sweet drinks, chanting his praises, offering Arati and finally prostrating to him and seeking his blessings. ThisShodashopachara Pooja is done to all the important deities in everyhoma.

Kalasha Pooja This is a very important step in the homa for it is here that we invoke the main deity of the homa. If it is a Gayatri homa, Goddess Gayatri is invoked; in a sudarshana homa, Lord Sudarshana is invoked and so on. The deity is invoked and worshipped in the Kalasha, which is a copper pot filled with water. A coconut is placed over the mouth of the Kalasha and the coconut is surrounded by five or seven mango leaves. This kalasha is further decorated with flower garlands and a cloth is draped overit. The Kalasha is placed at the North- Eastern corner of the Homa kunda or the sacrificial pit. Shodashopachara Pooja is performed to the respective deities in the kalasha. Yet another significance of the Kalasha is that it absorbs all the positive energies generated during the homa and hence the divine water in the Kalasha is sprinkled upon and distributed to the participants at the end of the homa. This water becomes charged with all the divine energies and has immense healing powers.

Agni Pratishtapanam, Dhyanam & Agni alankaranam Navami Lotus Puja. Here, the sacrificial pit or Homa kunda is sanctified by chanting mantras, before the fire god Agni is invoked. Sticks from select trees are only used for homas. Mostly, the stisks of the Pipal tree are used. They are called Samidh in Sanskrit. Samidh is burned in a vessel till it is red hot and then the main performer goes to the south eastern corner of the homa kunda and slowly pours the red hot samidh into the kunda over the pile of samidh and darbha grass which is already placed inside. Then, amidst chantings, the performer gently blows the red-hot samidh and the fire rises up. Thereafter, ghee is offered and the participants meditate upon Agni. The success of a homa very much depends upon how the participants relate to the fire god Agni , because he serves as the medium between this mortal world and the other mystical worlds. After agni dhyanam or meditating on Agni is done, the fire god is decorated by placing flowers on the eight corners of the homa kunda amidst chantings. Water is sprinkled on all the four sides of the kunda and thus Agni becomes ready to accept the offerings offered to him.

Sankalpam: Sankalpa sutram must be done.( Tanme' manaha Shivasamkalpamasthu...) This is like the heart of the homa. The entire homa depends upon the Sankalpa or the strong will of the participants. Each homa is performed for a definite purpose and it is thispurpose that the performer and participants clearly hold within their hearts asthey take Sankalpa.The Sankalpa mantra itself is a very clear declaration stating `According to the Indian Solar Calendar, in this particular year named thus (Indian astrology considers a cycle of sixty years with sixty distinct names), in this month, in this season, on this day of the brighter/darker phase of the moon, at a time when this particular constellation is ruling (each day is supposed to be ruled by one of the twenty seven important stellar constellations called Nakshatras); I am performing this particular homa to invoke and please this deity under the guidance of Sri Kalki & Amma for this individual/family, who is/are born under this sign of the zodiac and ruled by this Nakshatra.'

Pradhana homa Pradhana homa means `the main homa'. This is when the main mantra pertaining to the Pradhana Devata or the main deity is chanted 108 times continuously. Along with the chanting of the Moola mantra or the main mantra, various Ahutis or offerings like nine grains, medicinal herbs, dry fruits, rice cooked in ghee, cooked rice mixed with jaggery, silver flowers, gold flowers, black sesame seeds and various others are offered into the fire. The offerings are never the same and differ from homa to homa because each deity responds to a particular offering. All these details about the various ahutis for various homas are already stated in the Indian scriptures and have been followed meticulously over the ages by people. The common offerings for every homa are Samidh and ghee. In the scientific sense, each of these ahutis generate energies or vibrations of a particular frequency and in that frequency, that particular deity becomes accessible. So one must not mistake that how can this food be transported via fire to the deity. It is the vibrations generated that help us communicate to the deities.

Jayadi homa: The name itself suggests that this homa is for victory; for the success of all that we have done so far. During this procedure, mantras are chanted to appease the various forces of nature like wind, sun, moon, earth, rains, oceans, etc. the performer also expresses gratitude to all these forces of nature for it is with their cooperation that the homa has been possible.

Purnahuti homa The name itself speaks `complete offering', meaning complete offering away of oneself. The participants are here made to feel deep within their hearts as to how finally what they seek for must come as the Divine blessing. They can only put effortsto a certain extent in the physical realm but beyond that things have to just happen and they must only surrender to the divine will and wait in gratitude. Externally, this feeling is symbolized by the final ahuti which includes dry coconut, nine grains, nine gems, five metals (silver, gold, copper, zinc & brass), betel leaves, betel nuts, dry fruits, medicinal herbs, sandal wood sticks, saffron and any other particular ahutis wrapped up in a silk cloth. The colour of the silk cloth again varies from homa to homa. Like for Gayatr i, sudarshana, durga homas, the colour used is red. For, vidya homa, rudra homa etc., it is white and for Kubera Homa, it is green and so on. This bundle of offerings is drenched in ghee amidst vedic chantings and then offered into the Homa kunda. The offering of the Purnahuti marks the completion of the homa.

Pradakshinam, Namaskaram & Prasthanam: Thereafter, the performers and participants get up and go round the homa kunda three times in the clockwise direction and prostratebefore the homa kunda. Thereafter Prasthanam is done which is the ceremonious send-off for all the higher beings and deities who have graced the homa. Mantras expressing gratitude are chanted here and the deities are requested to return to their respective abodes. Agni meele purohitamyajyasya deva-mrit-wijam.Hotaaram ratna-dhaatamam - Rig Veda 1:1:6 We praise Agni. We praise Him Who has been present even before this creation. He is the Glorious Lord of this Cosmic Sacrifice, and is worthy of our worship in all seasons. We praise Him Who is the Creator and Supreme Sustainer of all the jewel-likeplanets that decorate the cosmic Drama.

Submitted at the Blue-Lotus feet of my GurunathaShree Rajagopala Anandanatha and my Sweet Mother Rajarajeshwari ShodasiMahatripurasundari Devi's Saffron lotus feet

Hope you are satisfied now... Prasannagaaru!

Yours Yogically, Shreeram Balijepalli