Homam vs Tarpana & Soumya Devatas vs Ugra Devatas

April 29, 2009

Dear Sundeep,

I believe that your observation is correct, but i am afraid your diagnosis is

wrong.

The five elements exist at various levels and serve various purposes. Mapping

them to horoscope is not straight-forward.

Maharsahi Parasara advised homam for all kinds of planetary problems. One can do

homam irrespective of one's horoscope and worrying about whether it will " play

up the agni-tattwa and related planets " in the horoscope. Moreover, a fire

ritual and a tarpana were an integral part of the daily ritual of learned men

not so long ago. They are safe for anybody.

* * *

Homam done to a soumya devata (gentle deity) such as Ganapathi, Lakshmi, Lalita,

Krishna, Jupiter etc has some differences in the way it works, compared to homam

done to an ugra devata (fierce/tough deity) such as Chandi, Kaali, Durga, Rudra,

Mrityunjaya, Narasimha, Mars etc. (Deities may have both forms - like Hanuman -

and it depends on which mantra you use and which form you are consciously or

sub-consciously addressing.)

Let me give an example. My wife Padmaja teaches various shlokas (Ganesha

Pancharatnam, Aaditya hridayam, Subrahmanyaashtakam, Naama Raamaayanam, Hanumaan

Chaalisa, Navagraha stotram, Ganapathi Atharva Seersham, Sri Suktam,

Lingaashtakam etc and now Vishnu sahasra naama stotram) to kids in the

neighborgood on Sunday evenings. Though she is fun-loving and has fun with

children, she is very strict and harsh when it comes to learning. When my

sister-in-law teaches kids, she is gentle and gives a lot of leeway to kids. But

my wife is tough, forceful and strict in disciplining them. So all the kids are

very alert and learn much faster with her. There may be moments when they

experience some fear or even cry when she looks at them angrily, but they

progress much faster.

Similarly, soumya devatas are gentle in cleansing and bringing transformation

and progress can be slow. Ugra devatas are strict and tough and progress is

faster.

* * *

When one does homam, the deity burns some of the blocking karmas of the person

and brings positive karmas to fruition. Over time, this results in good

developments in life and also cleansing, purification and eventual

transformation of inherent nature.

Suppose you are removing some rotten fruits at the top of a basket and throwing

them in garbage, in order to extract a good fruit stuck under them. If you do it

slowly, it will be fine. But, if you are in a hurry and do it too fast, a little

bit of rotten stuff can spill over the floor.

While soumya devatas are gentle and work slowly, ugra devatas are harsh and work

fast. Any trouble you experience when doing ugra devata sadhana is like the

rotten pieces spilled on the floor. But remember that the good fruit will be

taken out faster in this approach.

This applies to all sadhanas of ugra devatas and not just homam, but homam is an

accelerated form of sadhana.

Those who can accept anything thrown at them by the chosen deity with a sense of

surrender and without expectations can worship ugra devatas in fire and progress

fast. But, those who want to go slower may want to stick to soumya devatas.

* * *

In general, I recommend Mahaganapathi homam in the beginning for a few months

atleast, before one starts another homam. If major blocking karmas are cleared

by Ganapathi carefully and gracefully, one can think of fast track with another

deity. That is the safest approach. The importance of Ganapathi sadhana before

other sadhanas cannot be over-emphasized. It applies to homam too!

* * *

A gentle deity cannot tell Mrityu (Death personified): " go away " . Only a fierce

deity can do so. Mrityunjaya mantra is for Mrityunjaya, a very fierce form of

Shiva who scares away even Death (e.g. story of Markendeya). Even if you say

Sadashiva in the sankalpam, it will be Mrityunjaya who comes into fire if you

use Mrityunjaya mantra. He eventually makes you self-realized and immortal

(deathless), but he has his aggressive way of going about doing it.

If you were simply doing a homam to Sadashiva using panchakshari mantra (with or

without hreem), a gentle form of Shiva would come and results would be

different.

If you want to get rid of the negative effect and yet continue homam, there are

several options. One is to switch to another mantra such as panchakshari.

Another is to use a samputa to ask Mrityunjaya to *protect* while giving

spiritual progress. The samputa " om jum sah " at the beginning and " sah jum om "

at the end can be used. This version is also there in Shiva homam manual. Third

option is to do a half-hour Mahaganapathi homam for a few months and then switch

to Mrityunjaya.

BTW, your experience suggests to me that there is a spark and good potential in

you. Also, my intuition tells me that Shiva is basically correct for you, though

some more fine-tuning may be needed. I hope the Mother takes good care of you

and your spiritual sadhana.

* * *

One word on Homam vs Tarpana. In homam, you are calling devatas and the medium

is fire. In tarpana, you are calling pitris and the medium is water. Both

sadhanas are applicable to all people irrespective of whether watery

signs/planets are strong or fiery signs/planets in their horoscope.

In homam, devatas come in fire and burn your blocking karmas to purify you. In

tarpana, pitris come in water and free you from vasanas (conditioning of the

mind) that were karmically inherited from them. If you have genes from (and rina

with) an ancestor who was lustful or angry or jealous and the consciousness of

the deceased ancestor is still having those thoughts, you will also suffer from

such thoughts due to the connection and may even commit some bad karmas because

of the weaknesses. You can free yourself from the rina by working on giving a

rebirth to that ancestor. If the ancestor's consciousness is attached to a new

body, the thoughts and cravings of that consciousness will not affect your

consciousness. Thus, tarpana aims to cut off a strong source of bad karmas,

while homam burns off previously committed bad karmas. Both are very important

sadhanas for spiritual progress.

Devatas are very subtle forms of consciousness. Their self-identification is to

what is known as soul and represented by Sun. They work on your individual soul

and free it from the karmas it carries. Pitris are grosser forms of

consciousness with strong attachments and desires. Their self-identification is

with what is known as mind and represented by Moon. You may note that Sun and

Moon are associated with Devas and Pitris in the hora chart of astrology.

Devas and pitris have different ways of working and influencing us and helping

our spiritual progress. Both are relevant to all of us and have a role to play

in our spiritual evolution.

Best regards,

Narasimha

Do a Short Homam Yourself: http://www.VedicAstrologer.org/homam

Do Pitri Tarpanas Yourself: http://www.VedicAstrologer.org/tarpana

Spirituality:

Free Jyotish lessons (MP3): http://vedicastro.home.comcast.net

Free Jyotish software (Windows): http://www.VedicAstrologer.org

Sri Jagannath Centre (SJC) website: http://www.SriJagannath.org

---- vedicastrostudent <vedicastrostudent wrote:

> Dear Narasimhaji,

>

> I used your Homam manual to do the Mahamrityunjaya mantra. I have done

> this several times now over the past few weeks, early on Sunday

> mornings. The thing that concerns me is that there is an unmistakably

> negative effect on one member of my family, and that person has a very

> strong exalted, simhasanamsa, unafflicted, badhakesh Sun conjoining AK

> Mercury. I see this (the correlation between my doing the homam and the

> negative effect) over and over and over again, it doesnt seem to be my

> imagination. I dont want to go too deep in the details.

>

> I know you cant analyze anything based on such little detail, but

> clearly fire-based worship does seem to " play up " the agni-tattwa and

> related planets, no? Are there " cooler " , perhaps water-based forms of

> worship too? After these thoughts came to my head, I saw that you have a

> Pitri tarpana manual and it is water-based(!) as well.. But I dont

> understand it well. Can you please explain a bit of the astrology of

> these worships - am I mistaken in noting this increase in agni-tattwa

> based planets, and " wanting " " cooler " forms of worship? A long time ago,

> I started listening to/chanting the Gayatri mantra, and I only saw

> positive effects there (but there was no fire involved)..

>

> Thank you very much in advance,

>

> Sundeep

May 2, 2009

Dear Narasimhaji,

Thank you very much for your reply. It makes a lot of sense to me. And exactly

as you say, Shiva is correct for me (from an astrology point of view). Sun is

the only planet in 12th from Karakamsa in Navamsa.

After doing the homam a few times, I now quite clearly understand that it is

truly an accelerated form of sadhana. Your selfless effort in clearly explaining

it is much appreciated..

Thank you,

Sundeep

, Narasimha PVR Rao <pvr wrote:

>

> Dear Sundeep,

>

> I believe that your observation is correct, but i am afraid your diagnosis is

wrong.

>

> The five elements exist at various levels and serve various purposes. Mapping

them to horoscope is not straight-forward.

>

> Maharsahi Parasara advised homam for all kinds of planetary problems. One can

do homam irrespective of one's horoscope and worrying about whether it will

" play up the agni-tattwa and related planets " in the horoscope. Moreover, a fire

ritual and a tarpana were an integral part of the daily ritual of learned men

not so long ago. They are safe for anybody.

>

> * * *

>

> Homam done to a soumya devata (gentle deity) such as Ganapathi, Lakshmi,

Lalita, Krishna, Jupiter etc has some differences in the way it works, compared

to homam done to an ugra devata (fierce/tough deity) such as Chandi, Kaali,

Durga, Rudra, Mrityunjaya, Narasimha, Mars etc. (Deities may have both forms -

like Hanuman - and it depends on which mantra you use and which form you are

consciously or sub-consciously addressing.)

>

> Let me give an example. My wife Padmaja teaches various shlokas (Ganesha