[Advaita-l] Shiva panchayatana puja. Questions ?

[Stig Lundgren]

Dear Rama,


> On a personal note: Stig, your mails are very
> informative and I am even more impressed you know R.S.
> Vaadhyaar and sons! They are not very popular outside
> Kerala. My wife is from Kerala and when we visited
> Kerala, my father-in-law told me that he once drove to
> R.S.Vaadhyar and sons just to buy their books. Most of
> their books are unfortunately in Malayalam, which I do
> not know.
>


Thank you for your kind and encouraging words! A Tamil friend of
mine, living here in Stockholm (Sweden), actually knows the
Vadhyar family. He went to Veda pathasala together with some
members of this family.

However, I first learned to know about the prayoga published by
R. S. Vadhyar from a pandit living in Sri Rangam. A friend of
mine gave me the e-mail of this pandit, and I sent him a question
regarding different Shiva panchayatana puja prayogas. He had a
rather vast collection with panchayatana puja prayogas from
different publishers and different corners of India. Anyway, he
personally recommended the prayoga published by R. S. Vadhyar. A
year later or so, a pandit belonging to the Sringeri lineage came
here to Stockholm, Sweden. He visited Stockholm in order to
perform some special pujas, homams etc for some Indian people
living here. As he was staying in the house of one of my friends,
I approached him regarding the principles of Shiva panchayatana
puja. It turned out that he did himself perform this puja
everyday. Moreover, he performed it in the same way as described
in the R. S. Vadhyar publication! He told me he would be most
happy to teach me the puja. After that I went to his house almost
everyday for some time, and he instructed me in detail and
step-by-step how to perform the puja.

Personally I believe it would be near-impossible to learn this
puja without instructions from a qualified teacher. The prayogas
rarely give any detailed information on the actions to be done,
like how, when and where to put the flowers, where to pour the
water, which mudras should be performed and when etc. etc. The
mantras are all there in the prayoga, but there are less
instructions on how to actually perform the puja. Personally I
also think that learning the mantras from a pandit is far
superior to learning them from a CD-recording or the like.
Moreover, Shiva panchayatana puja - as outlined in the R.S.
Vadhyar publication - also presupposes an initiation into
shrishakti pancaksari mahamantra, since japa on this mantra is a
part of the puja.

I assume finding someone who could teach Shiva panchayatana puja
would be possible after all. If it was possible for me to meet
here in Sweden a Sringeri pandit (and personal friend of the
former Jagadguru H. H. Abhinava Vidyatheerta Swamigal) to give me
detailed instructions, it should be possible for Indian people
living in India or USA - where there are large Hindu
communities - to find a qualified teacher.

Warm regards
Stig Lundgren