Q. Leaving astrology aside and those who do not have a guru, how can they choose a particular form of GOD? Because in second part of AGHORA, Vimalanda said choosing right deity is very important, as the analogy he gave of a person who is greedy and worships Lakshmi, may increase his greed.
We have so many deities that on Diwali would like to worship Lakshmi and Kali, in navaratri we would worship Durga, on Janmashtami we would fast for Krishna, an on Mahashivaratri for Shiva like this with the change in festival the deity changes.
Suppose if I choose a deity and something wrong happens (materialistically ) what should I consider that my deity was helping me to clear my debts/wrong deeds or the nature was telling me to change the deity as I am not fit for that deity and sometimes you feel that “what am I doing? Does this really work?”
A. Choosing the right deity for sadhana is important. If you do not know the right deity, just doing some
sadhana is definitely better than waiting. Pick whatever deity seems natural to you and do sadhana. Please remember that sadhana for spiritual progress is different from sadhana for specific material benefits. No matter which deity you worship, sadhana performed for spiritual progress never goes waste. However, sometimes it may be necessary to experience the results of some bad karmas before some good things happen. Imagine all your karmas lying in a pile in a basket. Suppose some of the really good karmas that will enable you to do serious sadhana and experience great things lie at the bottom or middle of the pile. When you start sadhana, suppose god decides to give you the fruits of those auspicious karmas. Imagine him reaching into the pile and retrieving those karmas. In the process, some other karmas may spill over and give their fruits. Some of those may be undesirable. So what? They had to be experienced sometime or the other, anyway!
A serious sadhaka should never be disheartened by a few seemingly undesirable results after starting a spiritual sadhana. Just keep going. One gentleman I know received mantra for Kaali from a very good priest-cum-yogi in late 2005. After he did the mantra for a few days, he was laid off and lost his job. He was not perturbed. He continued his sadhana and used the break to go on an extended trip to India and make a pilgrimage to some nice places. He participated in the Shata Chandi homam we conducted at the Kaalikambal temple in Chennai in March 2006. He met my guru and got the opportunity to be his room mate for a week when we stayed at the house of a priest during the homam. He could observe and interact with my guru very closely. Most importantly, when my guru had a vision of the Mother on 2006 March 3 afternoon, in which She told him to start the work on spreading homam in the world, this gentleman was present there. Though he could not see the Mother, he actually smelled something out of the world and was baffled. He knew something was going on, but did not know what. The temple was closed at the time and my guru and this gentlemen were the only people on the premises when the Mother appeared. Even though he could not see the Mother, it was most fortunate of him to be present there at *that* crucial moment. That is enough to mould the rest of his life.
You never know how, when and where the grace of god falls on you. Calculations and logic are useless when it comes to the grace of god. Just surrender and keep doing whatever sadhana you picked. If it needs fine-tuning, somebody will appear to tell you that. Any bad things that happen when doing a spiritual sadhana should be viewed as nature settling some debts so that you are prepared to receive the fruits of some really auspicious karmas. As Shirdi Sai Baba says, you should have "sraddha and saburi". Have devotion and patience. There is no limit to what you can get then.
Q. Dear Narsimhaji, You mentioned the appearance of mother before you. Can you kindly clarify which mother? You mean Sharda devi (Thakurain Ma) or Goddess Durga ? Kindly answer this immediately as I am excited to know this truth about homa.
A. You misunderstood me. The appearance was not "before me". It was before my guru Dr Manish
Pandit. The only other person present on the temple premises at that time was the gentleman I mentioned, who lost his job after starting Kaali mantra and went to India for pilgrimage. I was not there then. Though I was chanting with Manish on other days, I was sent away on that specific day to visit Kanchi and Tirunavannamalai (Ramana Maharshi's place).
I understand it was Mahaakaali who gave a darshan and asked Manish to spread homam as a spiritual sadhana in the world. She told him that she would arrange all the resources needed and asked him to just start. She also apparently told him of a sequence of events that were to happen.
Interestingly, the head priest of that temple had some books on homam gifted to Manish and me on the very next day. Neither Manish nor I asked him for such books. We never expressed interest in doing homam or learning homam. He himself got the inspiration. There was a book on different styles of homam for Ganesha and another book (by Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai!) on the procedures for various types of homam. Manish and I were gifted one copy each. I perused those books to devise the short method described in the manuals.
Interestingly, how we met that priest and how this shata Chandi homam was arranged is based on interesting coincidences. The son of the guru of a local priest was visiting greater Boston temporarily. He was a famous sivacharya (a special group of priests) from Chennai and the head priest of Kaalikambal temple in Chennai. We merely went to take his blessings on a Thursday night. We chatted a little with him and then my wife asked him "what are you doing on this Saturday". He immediately said with affection "we are doing on Saturday whatever Mrs Padmaja (my wife's name) tells us to do". Please note that we met for the first time in this life and did not know each other at all. My wife said "well, we perform a Satya Narayana vratam on every Pournima night. You are most welcome to attend." He said "we are coming". Then he called up a few guys in Canada and told them to cancel some events in Canada. We learnt later that he was supposed to spend that weekend in Canada. Instead, he decided to stay back and come to our house.
He came to our house on Saturday evening (Pournima) with two other senior priests. They stayed till the end of Satya Narayana vratam (almost midnight) and enjoyed it. As soon as he entered our house, he declared "I must do a Chandi homam at your house. The mother wants me to do a homam here. But I have one condition. I and other priests who come with me will not take even a cent. You buy the materials needed, but give no money." Even though we were not excited about the condition, we said ok.
During the navaratris of 2005, a few days after a solar eclipse on my lagna (when Sun, Moon, Mercury and Ketu were in Kanya - my lagna and 8th house from Moon), he came with 3 other priests and did a Chandi homam in really grand style. It was an amazing experience. It was actually the first time in my life that I heard Chandipath. I had never heard it before. Interestingly, I had my own biases. In the morning, I actually prayed to Mahalakshmi (my ishta devata), "O Mother, these priests want to do Chandi homam at
my house and I consented. I don't know who Chandi is. Whichever deity they call, I will be thinking of you only. You please come and bless us." It was partly innocent and partly foolish.
This was my first exposure to Chandipath and the first Chandi homam at my house. To think that I have now done more than 320 Chandi homas at my house.
Manish was concerned about the continued troubles faced by the Sankaracharya of Kanchi (the state government filed some cases against him) and he decided that we had to perform a Shata Chandi homam for his relief. He was not sure when and where it should happen.
After the Chandi homam at our house, we became close to that priest and kept meeting him regularly (until he left Boston). When I mentioned Manish's wish to him, he said "Sir, we will do the Shata Chandi homam he wanted at our temple. I will arrange everything. You and Manish Pandit just come and sit for the event. We will take the sankalpa you want. I will do everything."
Finally, the shata Chandi homam was conducted March 1-7, 2006. Interestingly, on the 64th day from the poornahuti of that homam, the ruling government of that state was defeated in elections and a new government came.
Manish put it this way later "Narasimha, who are we to help a great saint like Sankaracharya? We are not capable of helping him. We are really of no use. The idea was not that we would help him. The idea is that we would help *ourselves* because of the positive intention to help Sanakaracharya! It is all Her play. See, the Mother gave the thought of helping him and brought us to Chennai. Then she appeared and instructed to spread homam. Now so many people are doing homam and benefiting. In future, many many more will do. All this is happening because of a positive intention to help Sanakaracharya."
Though the dates for shata Chandi homam were picked almost arbitrarily, there was one interesting coincidence. The day on which the ritual was started (2006 March 1) was actually the lunar birthday (tithi pravesha) of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. In fact, the time when we took sankalpam formally and kicked off the 7-day-long ritual (in the morning of March 1) was interestingly within a couple of minutes from the *exact* Tithi Pravesha time (time at which the same fraction of same tithi is left as at birth) of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. This was not planned and was a mere coincidence. In fact, I noticed it after the fact!
Some forces beyond the scope of the thinking of my mind are behind the homam movement that is slowly picking up. I am fortunate to be picked as an instrument in this spiritual movement.
Actually, I do not honestly consider the goddess and Sarada Mata (and, for that matter, my guru) to be really different. But that is a different thing.