Shri SatyaNarayana Pooja and Vrata - Contd

In my last post I talked about organizing the Peetha for the ritual. During the organization of the peetha, we invoke various gods and worship them in an order. The question thus arises, why do we worship them and why the order? Let’s see below the different actions performed in the worship ritual –

1. Achmanam – Purifying with water. This is also offering the water to Vishnu inside one self
2. Remembering Ganesha – Ganesha is personification of our consciousness. Remembering him makes your mind conscious. Being conscious helps avoid and overcome obstacles. Remember Ganesha is also known as “Vighnaharta”.
3. Pranayam – Restraining the life force. A calm and relaxed mind can concentrate and focus better, compared to an agitated or tense mind. Breathing and mental state have a correlation. When mind is agitated, breathing is irregular and labored. When mind is calm, breathing is regular and smooth. Pranaayaama is a method of controlling the breathing and hence regularizing the life force that fuels mental activity. One should calm down mind before any important activity such as praying, eating food, learning, reading, writing etc, for a higher efficiency. That is why praanaayaama is done before any ritual.
4. Sankalp – Taking the vow – Declare your intention for pleasing Shri SatyaNarayan. Every vrata or a yagna is equivalent to a business transaction. You please the god to ask for their blessing in return. If you perform your deeds (ritual) properly, the pleased god shall deliver what you request from him. At the same time, it is important to understand that the return is only and only applicable to those who took the vow or invested themselves. This is why the person taking the vow is referred to as the “Yajman”, the owner of the yajna.
5. Kalasha Shuddhi – Water purification – purification of the vessel and water which shall be the seat of the God / gods
6. Ganapathi Pooja – Invocating Ganesha in an idol or coin or a wet turmeric mound
7. Varuna Pooja – For the perseverance and purity in the rest of the ritual. He represents an aspect of our consciousness that makes us persist and persevere in work. He can be invoked in the water in the kalasha or the vessel.
8. Parivara Devata Pooja - In the field of duality, our consciousness operates due to three aspects:
a.     Astitva or identity – sense of “I exist”, 
b.     Bhoktritva or experiencing – sense of “I experience”, 
c.      Katritva or doership – sense of “I do”.


Thus the order of worship here is –
A.     Lokpalakas - We exist due to the five elements – earth (solid state of existence), water (flexible state of existence), fire (transformatory state of existence), air (expansive state of existence) and ether (existential space behind all existence). These five elements are ruled by Ganapathi, Brahma, Lakshmi & Vishnu, Rudra and Gouri. We pray to them as they control our astitva or identity.


B.     Grahas – follow the order for each graha
                                               i.     Graha
                                              ii.     Adhidevata
                                            iii.     Pratyadhidevata


Literal meaning of “graha” is one that grabs. We experience things as grahas or planets grab our consciousness and make it experience the results (reactions) of various actions performed by us in the past. Grahas are the agents of karma phala (fruits of previous actions). Thus, grahas control our bhoktritva or experiencership. We pray to them with ruling and co-ruling deities.


C.     Dikpalakas – Ten dikpalakas rule the ten directions (eight 2-dimensional directions, up and down). They not only rule the physical directions, but the direction one takes in life with one's work. For example, in Vedic astrology, a chart called dasamsa shows one's work in society and the ten parts of that chart are ruled by dikpalakas showing different kinds of work. Indra, for example, shows work that asserts authority and control over others (e.g. political leaders, managers). Agni, for example, shows work that transforms things (e.g. engineers, designers). Yama shows work related to enforcing rules (e.g. quality assurance, police). Nirriti shows work that breaks barriers (e.g. mafia, cutting edge innovations). And so on. It is dikpalakas who control our kartritva or doership and make us perform different types of actions. We pray to them.
The important thing here is that we invoke life in all the deities together
9. Prana Pratishthapana – Invocation of Shri SatyaNarayana – The main God is now invoked in the kalasha and the idol. We invoke the God in the forms represented during the ritual and pray to him to stay with us during the ritual. A proper ritual would require chanting of the mantras and making the appropriate mudras or gestures with your hands and face.

The pooja now is done in the following manner –

• Shodashaopchara pooja – 1 – Welcome the God, give him a bath, offer him what you may to dress up – Imagine him arriving from a long journey
• Anga pooja – worshipping the limbs of the God
• Main mantra – Chant the mantras for the God
• Katha (Story) – The importance here is to understand the message in the story and follow it in actions and thoughts
• Shodashaopchara pooja – 2 – Offer the God something to eat, perform aarti
• Extra Upchara – Making the God comfortable – be a good host!
• Prarthana
• Poorna phal – Offering a full fruit – symbolize offering one’s head or full surrender to God. By surrendering yourself to God, you are closer to him and start understanding yourself
• Winding up and Meditation – Meditate as long as you can – This is the moment of introspection. After surrendering yourself to the God, you are in his custody. At this moment the introspection brings you even closer to understand the aspects of life with his vision. This is the essence of this entire ritual.
• Udvasana – Bid good bye – Request the God to leave the idol and the Kalasha and reenter your body. 

The essence of this entire ritual is surrendering yourself to the God you invoked, and having a conversation with him. However, do remember that the God is always with you – in yourself. You invoked him from within you into the idol and requested him to re enter your body after the ritual. This ritual was performed to see the God who is actually in you. But due to our worldly activities, we forget his existence. The ritual brings us closer to the Truth – Shri SatyaNarayana.

Shri Satyanarayana Vrata and Pooja

Last week we attended a “Satyanarayana Vrata pooja” at a friend’s place. The host did an awesome job of arranging everything fabulously and had invited quite a few people to participate with them in the rituals. I have attended this pooja a few times in the past as well. Usually the ritual also involves reading the story of Lord Satyanarayana that is expected to absolve the listeners from all their sins and set them on the path of salvation. I listened to the entire story dutifully trying to understand a few questions –

1. Who is Lord Satyanarayana?
2. What is so important in the story that can lead to one’s absolvation?
3. Who can perform this ritual, when and where?

Unfortunately, the prevalent story and the ritual did not help me in my quest. Either I was too ignorant to have understood the deep rooted messages, or I was not eligible enough to listen to the voice of God hidden in the story. To help myself with the understanding and preparing myself for the “Satyanarayana Katha and Vrat”, I decided to write this article. Please forgive me if you feel I have crossed the lines somewhere. My only intention is to know what we do and why!

Lord Satyanarayana is supposed to be another form of God Vishnu. His name actually is a combination of two words – Satya (Truth) and Narayana (God). Lord Satyanarayana is also viewed as an incarnation of Vishnu in the current epoch of time where we ae all mired by the illusion or God’s maya. Truth is the only path that can lead us to salvation in this world. Believing in the truth and following the path of truth can help us keep away from losing our focus. This shall help one to become one with the God and attain salvation from the cycle of rebirth. The path of truth is important for one’s spiritual and material growth in the time of Kaliyuga. This is also what is read in the story in the first few lines when Narad muni requests Lord Vishnu to tell him the easy way for the welfare of humans.

The ritual Satyanarayana pooja is usually performed by householders who seek for an easy way to please the God and seek his blessings in return for worshipping him. The ritual is thus recommended to be performed in the open space in house and in the presence of the family and friends. The benefits are supposed to be extended not only to the performer, but also to those who attend the ritual. The ritual emphasizes on one’s remembering the mother earth, Ganesha, the family deity, parents, the seven sages and all your teachers.

The Satyanarayana pooja is conducted with the idols of Rama and Sita or Lakshmi and Vishnu. The way the idols and all the gods are arranged can be seen in the figure below (the legend is provided below the figure) –

Figure - Organization of Peetha

Legend –

During the ritual, every god is invoked and is worshipped. In the last Lord SatyaNarayana is invoked and is worshipped. When the story recital is completed, all the gods are then requested to go back to their respective abodes.

The “Satyanarayana Vrata and Katha” ritual was designed in an easy format for its wide acceptance. As per the norms attached to the ritual, it can be performed on any day, at any time of the day and by anyone. Though there is no specified time, it is recommended to perform the ritual after the sunset. The 11th day of the moon, full moon day and the Sankranti are recommended as the best days for the ritual. Also, men and women can equally participate in this ritual with or without their spouses. This flexibility of time, place and person made the ritual very popular. It amazed me on listening to the story from the priest. The story had 4 sections, and each section focused on the 4 varnas of people as per the Hindu belief – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. A common story or a ritual that binds the four pillars of the society has to be popular and powerful. The popularity of the ritual was also fuelled by the renditions offered today – express, short or regular!

Let’s look at the renditions so that we can understand the ritual better –

1. Regular procedure – Elaborate external procedure replete with vedic mantras – Involves Shodashopchara pooja (16 service worship) for every god invoked
2. Short procedure – Slightly elaborate ritual for those comfortable with the Sanskrit language – Involves pachopchara pooja (5 service worship) for every god invoked
3. Express procedure – Extremely short procedure for those who are not comfortable with Sanskrit language, those who are short on time and those who are not attracted to external rituals and want to spend more time in internal meditation than in an external ritual. – Involves 1 service worship for every god involved 

Chaand

चाँद 

काली अमावस्या गई,

और चाँद फिर निकला। 

रोज नयी छटा बिखेरता,

चांदनी की शीतलता लिए,

देखो चाँद फिर निकला। 

बढ़ता ही रहा,

हमारे संबंधों की तरह,

विशाल अजगर की तरह,

आज की महंगाई की तरह,

देखो चाँद बहता ही रहा। 

अचानक चाँद रुक गया,

हमारा रिश्ता भी बदल गया। 

चाँद अब घट रहा था,

तुम भी तो दूर जा रहे थे,

जब तुम न थे, चाँद पूरा निकला था। 

अँधेरा फिर से छा रहा है,

हम तुम बिछड़ चुके हैं। 

पुनः चाँद का इंतज़ार कर रहे हैं,

पुनः मिलन की आस जोट रहे हैं। 

अमावस फिर से छा रही है। 

पर अब अमावस भयावह नहीं,

हम तुम अकेले भी नहीं। 

परिपक्व संबंधों की आड़ में,

सुन्दर यादों की छाँव में,

चाँद फिर से निकलेगा। 

Vedic story about the birth of animals

The vedas and puranas are not the scriptures that talk about the religion, but the knowledge that our ancient Indians had. They talk about the existence of life and its purpose. They talk about a framework that defines the life and the actions during one’s lifecycle. We may have seen many frameworks succeeding or failing with time. However, the vedic framework of life has stood tall over time and provides a great explanation for the facts we see often.

I shall be trying to narrate stories / incidents from different scriptures that revolve around the closes siblings to the humans – animals. As the western concept – the evolution of humans theory of Charles Darwin – we were once animals. I will be referring to many great scriptures and notable writers in my quest for stories. Please bear with me even if you feel plagiarism. I am just lamenting upon knowledge that I am gathering – not producing.

We all know Brahma as the creator of the universe. The vedas tell us that Brahma started the creation to understand his own being. In his quest to understand the purpose of himself, Brahma created the universe and the organisms that inhabit the world. In order to progress his creation he created his sons. These were known to be born from his thoughts hence are known as “Manas Putra”. Narada muni is one of the most famous manas putra of Brahma. Brahma’s sons played an important role in the creation and also in providing for the creation to survive. The sons who helped in the providing are well known as “Prajapati”.

Brahma’s son Kashyap is said to be the father of all living creatures.  He had many wives. Each of them gave birth to a different set of creatures. The names of his wives and the children are as follows –

Kashyap’s Wife	Their children	Characteristics
Aditi	Devas or gods	Live in the sky
Diti	Asuras or demons	Live under the earth
Kadru	Nagas, slithering snakes and worms	Crawl on trees and on the earth
Vinata	Garuda, birds and insects	Fly in the air
Sarama	Wild creatures	Have claws
Surabhi	Gentle animals	Have hooves
Timi	Fishes	Live in water
Suarasa	Monsters

At the same time, vedas also talk about the gods travelling from one place to the other. For this movement, they require a vehicle. The vehicles for the gods were none other than animals, thus giving a new shape and name to the animals. Some of the well known vehicles or ‘vahans’ are –

God	Animal used as vehicle
Vishnu	Eagle (Garuda)
Brahma	Swan (Hamsa)
Saraswati	Swan (Hamsa)
Maheswara or Shiv or Shankara	Bull (Nandi)
Vinayaka or Ganesha or Ganapati	Rat (Mooshika)
Subramanyam or Shanmuga or Katikeya	Peacock (Mayura)
Yamraja or Dharmaraja	Buffalo (Bhainsa)
Dattatreya	Dog (Sunaka)
Durga or Amba or Parvati	Lion (Singh)
Indra	White Elephant (Airavata)
Surya	Horses (Ashva)
Shani	Vulture (Giddha)
Mangal	Lion
Agni	Male sheep
Chandra	Male sheep
Bhairava	Dog
Khandoba	Dog
Ganga – Since she is seen as a bubbly fast flowing	Makar
Yamuna – since she is darker and sluggish	Turtle
Lakshmi	Owl
Kama	Parrot
Kaalratri or Kaali	Donkey
Alakshmi	Crow
Shukra	Crocodile

The common folklore stories may have many more vahanas.

During the nine days of the Brahmotsavam at Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam, Sri Venkateswara is taken in procession with different animals as his vahans on each day.

Day	Sri Venkateshwara’s Vahan
1	Shesha (Serpent)
2	Shesha (Sepent)
3	Hansa (Swan)
4	Singha (Lion)
5	Garuda (Eagle)
6	Hanuman (Monkey)
7	Gaja (Elephant)
8	Ashwa (Horse)

To add to the list, God Vishnu is known to have taken different forms of animals marking his incarnation upon earth. Some of the very well known forms are –

1.     Matsya

2.     Kurma

3.     Varaha

4.     Narsimha

Brahma, in the process of creation created Shatrupa – the first woman. He fell in love with his own creation and took forms to follow her and express his love for her. Shatrupa kept changing her form into many animals, and Brahma kept following her. This went on till the extent when Shiva had to cut off Brahma’s fifth head.

God Shiva, also known as a yogi, took many postures or asanas to be one with his form. This pleased him and kept him at peace with himself. Many of these asanas look similar to the forms of the animals. It is believed that when Shiva took this posture, the corresponding animals came to life.

Asana	Animal
Ushtra-asna	Camel
Matsya-asana	Fish
Bhujanga-asana	Snakes
Shalabh-asana	Locusts
Go-mukh-asana	Cows

The yogis shall be able to tell much more of these names.

The collection of stars or constellations were named after animals, as they resembled their forms. What we do not understand is that the animals were formed based on the forms of the constellations, or because we know the animals that we see the constellations in this form?

The hindu belief also says that the human form is obtained after the soul passess through 8,40,000 animal wombs or ‘yonis’. Each form is known as the yoni of the soul. Depending upon the deeds of the soul in the previous yoni shall define the next yoni and the personality of the soul’s form. The cow yoni is supposed to be preceding the human yoni. Yet, which is the first – human or animal – is up for debate!

Precursor to my new series

I was going through my previous blog posts and thinking over them again and again. One of the most prominent themes that come across is the importance of storytelling and its impacts in defining one's character. Be it personality, appearance or the mannerisms – all are affected by the way the person thinks. Most of the stories that we relate to are the ones that we have heard while growing up and have a message hidden within them. Many of these stories have a character best described as an animal yet able to converse with humans, gods and demons with equal ease. The animal character in these stories holds immense significance as it bears the central idea that the story has to offer.
Many years ago, a very learned man – Pt Vishnu Sharma authored an entire book of stories with only animals as the characters – Panchtantra. The vedas and puranas are filled with scriptures wherein the animals talk sense to the humans. All these stories and symbols tell us of that despite the looks and habitat, animals and humans are not much different from each other. The only difference between the two species comes from the advanced brain of the humans. Charles Darwin actually proposed a theory of evolution which made him immortal.
Starting today from this article, I plan to write the stories from colloquial beliefs that have one or more elements related to animals. I request you all to share your ideas with me so that I do not miss out on the stories.

Why should I learn my language?

The popular management theories revolve around measurements, corrections and rewards. You measure everything through the eyes of meeting success, correcting what doesn’t and reward what does.

A great thinker and a philosopher has remarked – “As is your belief, so is your behavior and hence so is your business.” In a nutshell, it means that to understand one’s business, it is important to understand what the person believes in. Looking through his glass, one finds a paradox – measurable business, but immeasurable belief. Yet, it’s the belief that leads to the business. How did it happen?

Belief is the truth or the ideas that shape up the persona – identity, thought and the aura around the person. The beliefs make the person’s opinions. The beliefs are made out of the subjective truth the person lives by. They may not mean the same to others but mean the world to the person concerned.

Hence, they are not the objective truth or absolute but subjective truth or relative given the circumstances. Belief is made and enhanced through the stories, symbols and signs around oneself. The stories that have a meaning in a context, yet meaningless to others. This is also same as mythology.

Charles Darwin, a well renowned scientist, explained the evolution of humans from monkeys. The fact that remains is that the humans are still animals with an enlarged brain. It’s the brain or the mind that distinguishes the humans from animals. It’s the mind that gives the limitless power to the humans through imagination. And it’s the mind and the power of imagination that turns the humans fearful. The fear is a result of the thought that emanates from the unfavorable imagination or something beyond imagination.

The humans deal with their fear everyday and every moment. This defines their behavior. Since everyone’s fear is different, their behavioral pattern differs. The person living in the poverty fears about his food for the next day, while a well-to-do person fears for the food and the luxury for his future generations. An even better-to-do person fears for his name and fame. Thus comes the Maslow’s pyramid of needs.

To deal with their fears and the need for a better future, humans created boundaries across everything – event the thoughts in their mind are contained. The boundaries create a structure – a measurable fundamentalist unit called society or a culture. The Indian society leans heavily on the brahmanical society revolving around the pinnacle – Brahmin. Unfortunately, in the quest to get to the highest form, we have forgotten the true meaning of the Brahmin – “Greater Mind” (Brah + Man). A mind expanded to infinity is attaining divinity!

The best way to understand a person and his behavior is to understand his beliefs. And the beliefs are created through the stories and symbols shared with them since their childhood. Just like the same rice and pulses cooked in every house has a different taste to itself, the stories told in every household differs in the point they make.

The Indian mindset has been trained or cultivated with the stories of Rama and Krishna as separate identities yet forgetting the point that they are different incarnations of the same Vishnu. One most important learning from the Indian Philosophy is that nothing lasts forever. And everything happens in a context. Without the context, anything is meaningless.

To understand the Indian philosophy, we must understand what our scriptures tell us. The stories, symbols, signs and messages that each of them have for us. The best way to understand them would be to read them in the language they are written to understand the true meaning and the context. This is where I believe the true value of “Vedic Vidyalaya” lies.

DISCLAIMER - I wrote this article for the annual magazine for "Vedic Vidyalaya" 2015. Most of my thoughts and writing are inspired from Dr Devdutt Pattnaik. I make no claim that my thoughts are original, but I am proud that I am starting to understand the purpose. My earnest request to all of my readers is to share your views and stories with me to keep me going.