RE: Ishta-Devta for Mars and a Story from Uddhava Gita

May 17, 2004

Dear Sarbani,

I agree with your point. However I would like to clarify whether the mantra you

advised for Shubhangi ie., Om Namo Bhagavate Nrisimhadevaya is dwadasakshari or

not; it appears to have thirteen aksharas.

Secondly, I am also surprised when you say that generally women dont worship

Murugan or Lord Subramania Swamy...in the South, for many families, Muruga is

usually the kula devata and hence women also worship him.

Thirdly I understand from your email that worship of Chamundi is also satvik so

why not give a choice and leave it to the person to choose as per his/her

wishes. Your stand, while justified, is rather rigid and leaves no choice for

the person to choose his/her istadevata in the pantheon of Hindu deities.

regards

HariSarbani Sarkar <sarbani (AT) (DOT) org> wrote:

Dear Shubhangi (and Hari),

We are taught in our parampara that the the ultimate goal is the paramam padam

or Vishnu. In order to relieve the burden of our sins and lead us towards

moksha; to forgive and protect us at all times; the one in whom we take sharana

in our darkest hour, is the Ishta Devata. We always worship the Ishta Devata as

Vishnu in one of the dasavatar forms as only Vishnu will lead us to moksha, as

he is the ultimate end or satya. The mantras we use for Ishta Devata prarthana

is from the Bhagavat Purana with prefixes of Om Namo Bhagavate...In your case,

Mars as Ishta Devata indicates Nrisimhadeva and the Ishta Mantra for the same

is Om Namo Bhagavate Nrisimhadevaya.

Mars when otherwise indicating deities in any of the charts, can represent

Kartikeya, Hanuman or Chamunda. Usually women don't worship Kartikeya, the God

of War, although Subramania Swamy is greatly revered in the south. Hanuman is

very much worshippable as he removes all 'sankata' and removes ugra mangala

doshas. Chamunda, the presiding deity of the Devi Mahatmya, is the goddess who

sits in our hearts and who has the utimate power to deliver even the most

tortured souls roaming the universe. She is the great goddess whom Rama

worshipped with the Chamunda Hrdaya mantra (a navarna mantra which Rama

transformed into a dasakshari by adding pranava) immediately prior to embarking

on his final battle with Ravana. She is trigunatmika, very pure and supremely

divine and she is not associated with black magic. That her immense powers are

invoked for tamasik practices is another

matter. For that matter even Dakshinamurty and Dattatreya are invoked for black

magic practices. In fact the Dattatreya Tantra is one of the worst in such

matters.

Let me share a story with all of you from the Uddhava Gita. Krishna says that

there are three methods of worship. The first is Satvik, where the focus is

entirely on Krishna (read: Supreme Being in any form) and is utterly without

any purpose or selfish motivation. The second is Rajasik, where the worship is

motivated for selfish purposes be it siddhi, moksha, wealth, knowledge etc. and

the final type is Tamasik, where the worship is motivated for selfish purposes

along with the intention of harming or causing injury to another. Ishta Devata

worship can never be anything else but Satvik...and for that matter all other

worships as well.

Best Regards,

Sarbani

Shubhangi Naik [shubhangi_naik (AT) rediffmail (DOT) com] Monday, May

17, 2004 11:11 AMvedic astrologySubject: [vedic astrology]

Ishta-Devta for Mars

Dear Sirs,I have been reading all the mails on Ishta-devtas and Atmakarakas.I

have some queries and concerns regarding ishta-devta for planet Mars.I

understand that hanuman,kartikeya,chamunda-devi and narsimha all represents

mars – except kartikeya all 3 are married in their respective original

forms.All of them except kartikey are incarnations of :Hanuman - shiva Chamunda

- gauri/parvati Narsimha - vishnu Generally Hanuman is not advised because he

never married and is a celibate. If this be than even rest 3 were not married

and also the incarnation was with specific objective or purpose. I pray hanuman

as a representation of mars because know much of hanuman who is worshiped all

over India but have little or no knowledge or information about kartikeya who

is more so famous in south as Subramaniym or Chamunda-devi i know for sure that

her name is used while performing some evil/black-magic kind of and Narsimha is

the one who came to rescue bhakt pralhad.. Also except for hanuman who is also

symbolised as "das" and who assisted Rama to attain his objective..the others

are warrior gods... Generally one would advise to pray kartikeya, chamunda and

narsimha...but how is it possible to pray all for one Mars (since all of them

represents mars) and it would only mean thinking on whether we are praying to a

right devta or not.I request the members to help me clarify my doubts and

concerns.I am enclosing my birth-chart for reference if need be.Is simply

praying ishta-devta and regularly performing pooja enough or one needs to

recite mantras also? If mantras are necessary, may I request to recommend a

mantra to me?I await your response.Thanking you.Regards Shubhangi Archives:

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May 19, 2004

I agree with you totally...you do not decide to do satvik worship...you are

either naturally satvik in your attitude towards spirituality or not...but I

don't think this is the forum to discuss such matters...

Sarbani

vedicastrostudent [vedicastrostudent]

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 12:03 AM

vedic astrology

[vedic astrology] Re: Ishta-Devta for Mars and a Story from Uddhava

Gita

Hello Sarbani,

I have a question regarding your story:

> Let me share a story with all of you from the Uddhava Gita. Krishna

says

> that there are three methods of worship. The first is Satvik, where

the

> focus is entirely on Krishna (read: Supreme Being in any form) and

is

> utterly without any purpose or selfish motivation. The second is

Rajasik,

> where the worship is motivated for selfish purposes be it siddhi,

moksha,

> wealth, knowledge etc. and the final type is Tamasik, where the

worship is

> motivated for selfish purposes along with the intention of harming

or

> causing injury to another. Ishta Devata worship can never be

anything else

> but Satvik...and for that matter all other worships as well.

Do you have any interpretation for "utterly without any purpose or selfish

motivation"? I am searching for insight in this matter. I think very very

hard and seriously about such things, and try and not take words on face

value: It seems to me contradictory that any one could "worship utterly

without purpose or selfish motivation".

Consider this: you are sitting in your home one day, and at a certain time

you decide to "worship without purpose or selfish motivation".

What happened in your mind right before you started worshipping, that

motivated you to start worshipping? Something must have happened right,

otherwise how could you WILLFULLY move from the not- worshipping state of

mind to the worshipping state of mind? Any human action, physical or mental,

no matter how small, starts with a motivating factor, whether conscious

(like the actions we take using will), or unconscious (like the processes

that run in our body - a beating heart, breathing lungs). What is that

motivating factor of willfull actions if not a desire to move from one state

to another for some reason or the other. It seems to me every action (change

in

state) comes from a desire. So if you are truly desireless, then that state

of true desirelessness NECESSARILY implies actionlessness. For this reason,

true Satwik "worship" must mean a state of completely actionless awareness.

You cant "decide" to do Satwik "worship" - the decision itself is the

outcome of a motivation - on the contrary, it must be a state that is

achieved perhaps incrementally when you are truly desireless - I doubt if in

this desireless state you are either willfully chanting any mantras or

willfully focussing on any specific form of any god/goddess/ishtadevata,

because all these would be actions, and by necessity

preceded/motivated/concomitant/accompanied

with desire.

All this I conclude simply from logically and honestly analyzing "utterly

without purpose or selfish motivation" i.e. that is to say, this is not my

personal opinion, but a logical consequence of those words if taken be true.

Comments, please,

Sundeep

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May 20, 2004