Naivedya for Navagraha worship

It is customary in our Hindu religion to offer fruits and various food articles as Naivedya after performing a Pooja (ritual/abhishek). Then we partake this as a Prasad. In the same manner after worshiping Navagrahas, it is customary to offer Naivedya. The Puranas recommend variety of articles and food to be offered. Details of Naivedya for each of Navagrahas is as follows.

1. Surya (Sun) – South Indian sweet khichadi (sweet pongal)
2. Chandra (Moon)  – Milk-rice pudding (Pal Payasam) i.e. kheer made of rice, milk and sugar 
3. Mangal (Mars) - South Indian ghee khichadi (Ven Pongal) i.e. salted pongal with ghee and pepper
4. Budha (Mercury) – Tamarind rice
5. Guru (Jupiter) – Curd rice
6. Shukra (Venus) – South India ghee khichadi
7. Shani (Saturn) – Rice cooked with salt and sesame (Teel rice)
8. Rahu – Rice cooked with urad daal (black gram)
9. Ketu – Lemon rice or coconut rice

Lord Ganesha

(This article is based on an article which appeared in a Tamil spiritual magazine.)

We all know that Pranava Mantra is “Om”. In Tamil Nadu it is customary to start any writing by symbolizing this pranava mantra at the top first. Lord Ganesha is the Pranava Swaroopa, hence we all pay our obeisance (respect) to Him first. Vedas address Him as Jyeshtharaj (one who has appeared first and King of Kings). It is believed that the name Ganapati may have been derived from the elephants which roamed in the forest first as Kings. Hence in Sanskrit, elephants were addressed as Kanaga Ganapati. Aadi-Shankara stated, that Lord Ganesha was Anayaka Nayaka (Leader of par excellence or leader who doesn't have any leader i.e. he is leader in himself). In Atharvashirsha upanishada of Atharvana Veda, it is stated that the word, “Ga-na-pa-ti” explains the tatva “tatvamasi” i.e. attaining moksha after attaining dhyana. “Ga” stands for Riddhi and “Ti” stands for Siddhi.

In Lalitha Sahastranama, the Mother Lalitha Devi created Vigneshwara, to nullify the effect of Vighna Yantra (Mohan mantra) of Bhandasura, by combining Her Shakti and grace of Lord Shiva (Kaameshwara).

There are number of legends in Purana about how Ganesha got his elephant head. The following story is from Matsya Purana. Once Parvati went to take bath. Before going to bath, she created a small boy of turmeric powder. She gave it a life and placed him as a guard outside. Lord Shiva was stopped by this boy from entering the place where she was taking bath. In anger, Lord Shiva cut the head of this boy. In order to console Parvati, Lord Shiva fixed the head of an elephant to the slain boy and brought him back to life. Thus Ganesha was born with elephant head. Hence it is customary in South India to prepare a Ganesha of turmeric powder and perform Avahana before starting any worship. 

Another legend stated that Parvati prepared an earthen image of boy as she badly wanted to have a son. Due to Saturn’s bad vision on the image, the boy’s head fell off. Lord Shiva ordered his Ganas to get head of an animal that was sleeping with head towards North and fix it above boy's neck. In this manner, the legend explains how Lord Ganesha got head of elephant.

According to Bramhanda Purana, once Ganesha was standing as a guard at entrance to Kailash. Parshurama tried to enter the Kailash and was stopped by Ganesha. Parshurama, in anger, threw his axe (Parshu) at Ganesha, who stopped it with his left tusk and hence his tusk broke. This gave him the name “Ekadanta”.

In order to remove the curse on Agni Deva, Ganesha used his ears as fan. Hence he got the name Shurpakarna. This is also mentioned in Bramhanda Purana. 

Parvati obtained upadesha of Ekakshar mantra from Lord Shiva. She delivered a boy with elephant head and six hands. This child was white like a moonlight and hence he got the name Bhalachandra. 

He is worshiped in the form of the sacred stone, known as Sonabhadra Vinayaka which is red triangular stone.

According to Bhargava Purana, Bramha started the creation with ego, without first worshiping Ganesha. Hence all his creations were ugly. Realizing his mistake, he did penance and obtained Dhyana Shakti and Kriya Shakti as his daughters with Lord Vinayaka's blessings. He proceeded his work of creation. Later on Lord Vinayaka married his daughters.

One of the deities in Panchayatan worship, started by Aadi-Shankara, is Lord Ganesha. This is known as Ganapatya. This particular worship is prevalent in Maharashtra. In Maharashtra there are eight places which are considered highly sacred for the worship of Lord Ganesha. These eight places together are known as Ashta Vinayaka.

Quotes of great Saints

Quotes of Swami Chinmayananda on devotees:

The devotees can be classified into four categories

1. In the first type, the devotee perceives God in all living and non-living things. Such devotee is considered to be greatest of all devotees. He feels that atma exists in everything similar to his own. At the same time he also feels, that all the atmas, get merged in to Paramatman. Hence he sees no difference in anything.
2. In the second type, the person bows (prays) to God, moves with his friends and relatives with love and affection. At the same time he treats his enemies in same manner as others. This type of devotee is secondary.
3. In the third type, devotee believes that God exists only in idols and prays Him only. He does not treat and serve others. This type is inferior to first two types.
4. Last type of devotee bows and worships only in the temples. He cannot tolerate other worshipers and different paths of worship and so on. He is unable to grasp the fact that God is omni-present (present everywhere). He is most inferior of all devotees.

Quotes of Swami Shivananda (of Divine life society):

1. In this world, love is the supreme force. Self-confidence is even more supreme. Develop self-confidence.
2. Being a loving and caring person is Dharma. Forgiving and forgetting the mistakes, done to us is Dharma. Uttering soothing words to sufferers is Dharma.
3. Some people use the difficulty of others to torture them (others). But a time will come that they will repent for their actions.
4. Don’t presume that God is outside. Pray to Him by keeping Him in your heart.
5. There are no right or wrong deeds in this world. Your own thought is responsible for analyzing them.
6. No one has a real enemy outside himself. His own ego, greed, anger, evil thought, selfishness and jealousy are his own enemies.
7. You do your duty truthfully then automatically your rights will come to you.
8. Your thoughts alone are responsible for creating a hell for you. So think of God always.
9. In this world nothing is certain but death is certain.
10. Make full effort after making firm decisions and with full determination. At the end you will succeed fully.
11. Concentrate fully on the work at hand. Live the day with discipline. Forget about the past as you cannot change what has happened. As far as tomorrow is concerned it is still far off. Live in the present then future will take care of itself.

Quotes of Ramakrishna Paramhansa:

When a person wants to drink water from a shallow pond, he has to take water with his hands slowly without disturbing the mud at the bottom. Otherwise the water will become muddy and unfit for drinking. Similarly, if you want to progress in spiritual path i.e. have divine vision, you must have faith in your Guru, perform step by step sadhanas. Arguing about vedas, puranas and engaging in useless discussions will only confuse you and ultimately you will achieve nothing.

Quotes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:

A doctor does not reveal the type of decease as far as possible to the patient. He bans the tasty food and makes patient take bitter medicine and prescribes food which patient may not like. When the patient gets relief, he realizes the greatness of what doctor has done for his (patient’s) benefit. Similarly a true Guru treats his disciple with strictness and makes him work hard. Finally when the disciple attains knowledge (gyan), he realizes that the Guru made him undergo hardship only to make him attain knowledge.

Panchayatan puja using stones

Back in 2014 we posted information about Panchayatan Puja Padhhati. Whereas in previous article, puja padhhati was described using idols, in this article it is described using stones.

In this panchayatan aradhana, instead of having five idols, there are five stones, which are equivalent to those of idols, are used in the worship. They are 

1. Banalingam - this represents Lord Shiva. This stone is found in Omkar kund of river Narmada. 

2. Swarnamukhi sheela - This represents Goddess Ambika. This type of stone is found in the swarnamukhi river in Andhra pradesh. 

3. Shaligram - This represents Lord Vishnu. This is found in river Gandaki in Nepal. 

4. Sfatik - This represents Sun. This is found in a place known as Vallam in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu. 

5. Sone bhadrasheela - This represents Lord Ganesha. It is found in river Sone in Bihar (Zharkhand) where it meets river Ganga.

Depending who you worship as a main deity, the placement of stones changes. E.g. in Maharashtra, Ganesha is considered as main deity and hence the stones are placed accordingly

Here are placement of stones for each Panchayatan

Ganesha Pramukh Panchayatan

Shiva Pramukh Panchayatan

Vishnu Pramukh Panchayatan

Ambika Pramukh Panchayatan

Surya Pramukh Panchayatan