Guest guest Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Hare Rama Krsna Sri Narasimha garu, Namaskar. Deep gratitude to have reassured me/us. I had started the Navaratri Puja of The Mother with Kalasam. As I have not been initiated into the pooja vidhanam and only had the fortune of witnessing the ritualistic pooja done by my mother-in-law according to Sri sooktam. Unfortunately I was not a great fan of rituals then. I live abroad and downloaded the pooja vidhanam according to sri sooktam and started my pooja. I found that it was pertaining to Durga and the shodasopachara pooja and the pranapratishta. The Devi Kavacham and the Sapta sloki are also included. When I started the pooja I wondered if I could chant and perform the pooja as it was a part of Saptashati. My father-in-law advised me not to do it as I was not initiated. But having started and I also strongly believe that Mother would not 'harm' her child I have continued with Her Grace. I have always wanted to do SaptaShati parayanam during the sarannaNavaratras. How can I correct my swara? As I am not very familiar with Sanskrit and afraid of not doing it properly, is there a way? Have you a recorded version of the Chandipath (by you) on your website sir? Thanks and regards Nalini Narasimha P.V.R. Rao <pvr Cc: sivacharya Sent: Monday, 6 October, 2008 4:52:54 PM Re: Navaratri... Namaste, There are 11 days instead of 10 from Pratipada to Vijaya Dasami this time. If you look at the nights before Vijaya Dasami, then there are ten nights instead of nine this year. This happens sometimes. If you live on US east coast, then Chaturthi comes twices on Thursday and Friday (Oct 2 & 3). It lasted the entire Thursday and extended into Friday. Panchami was on Saturday (Oct 4). Shashthi was on Sunday (Oct 5). Ashtami is on Tuesday (Oct 8). Navami is on Wednesday (Oct 9). Dasami is on Thursday (Oct 10). If one's parents did not do a proper "anna praasana" ritual (the ritual of first feeding of solid food to a baby) to one, should one consider oneself not entitled to eat any solid food? Not doing a mantra because of no initiation is basically like that. Getting initiation is good, especially if the one initiating has some level of sadhana in that mantra. But it is neither necessary nor sufficient for making progress in your own sadhana. If you see my homam document, I gave an analogy for this. A millionaire may open a bank account in his son's name with a starting balance of a million dollars. This is akin to a good guru initiating a sishya in a mantra. Sishya starts off by getting some of guru's attainment. But the son may waste those million dollars and end up with nothing. Similarly the sishya may fall and not achieve anything. Another person may not have anyone to give money and may start off with a zero bank balance but accumulate millions of dollars with own effort. This is akin to a person doing sadhana with a mantra without guru and attaining some level in the mantra. Some people hold the view that mantras cannot be chanted without a proper "initiation" . This view is especially prevalent in some sections of society w.r.t. navarna mantra. However, I disagree with that view. If you know the mantra (!), just chant it. What would an initiating guru have done for you? Perhaps he would've given some of his attainment in the mantra to you. Well, you can do it yourself if you work hard. Or a guru would've taught you the right nyasas to be done before the mantra. Well, you can get the nyasas from books too. Moreover, what most people do today for nyasas is anyway just a ritual with no meaning. Nyasa literally means placement. You place various sounds in various body parts (like the tips of various fingers, heart, top of head, eyes etc). People merely act out some signals while saying the sounds. This "placement" is actually supposed to be an internal act and it creates an ideal environment for the repetition of mantra. Due to the external actions, what is supposed to occur internally does not occur in most. So the sounds end up not getting properly placed in the body. In other words, what I am trying to say is that most people do not know how to "place" various "sounds" in various body parts. They merely perform meaningless ritualistic actions. So, if you do not know nyasas, you are not really missing much compared to others who were initiated. In my humble opinion, the most important qualification is to have devotion and sense of surrender to Her. If you have them, you can consider yourself "highly initiated". Best regards,Narasimha------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------Do a Short Homam Yourself: http://www.VedicAst rologer.org/ homamDo Pitri Tarpanas Yourself: http://www.VedicAst rologer.org/ tarpanaSpirituality: http://groups. / group/vedic- wisdomFree Jyotish lessons (MP3): http://vedicastro. home.comcast. netFree Jyotish software (Windows): http://www.VedicAst rologer.orgSri Jagannath Centre (SJC) website: http://www.SriJagan nath.org------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - Chandra Prakash Sunday, October 05, 2008 11:16 PM Navaratri... Dear Narasimha,When does Navratri end? It started on last Monday, September 29, 2008 and should therefore end on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 (Nine Nights)...yet the panchang shows that at sunrise on Wednesday, October 8 starts with Navami, so should we continue our Navratri on Wednesday too even though it is technically the 10th day? (All these times are based on US EST)..Also, can anyone do the Navarna mantra, "Om Aim Hrim Klim Chamundayai Vicche" or does this require initiation?Thanks,Chandraprakash Get the latest headlines with Xtra News Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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