[Advaita-l] Outline of Vyas Puja

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

It's a bit late sorry but I thought you be interested in the method of
performing Vyas Puja as done by monks in the Advaita tradition.
Ravishankar Venkataraman sent a link to kamakoti.org where Vyas Puja is
described.  I found a fuller description in a dharmashastra called
Dharmasindhu by Kashinatha Upadhyaya.  The deities are aranged like this:


                                Sampradayagurus
       Saraswati      Parataparaguru Guru Paramaguru            Ganesh
                                Parameshtiguru [5]
       Hastamalaka                 Aniruddha                 Sanatasujata
Totaka Shankara Padmapada Pradyumna Krishna Vasudeva Sanatkumar Sanaka Sanandana
       Vishvarupa [4]             Sankarshana [1]             Sanatana [2]
                                    Paila
         Durga         Vaishampayana Vyas Sumantu            Kshetrapalas
                                    Jaimini [3]

[1] This is the Krshnadi Panchaka
1. Krshna
2. Vasudeva
3. Sankarshana
4. Pradyumna
5. Aniruddha

2-5 are the four vyuhas according to Pancharatra tradition which I found a
bit strange as Shankaracharya has condemned the vyuhavada in his sutrabhashya.

[2] This is the Sanakadi Panchaka
1. Sanaka
2. Sanandana
3. Sanatana
4. Sanatkumar
5. Sanatasujata

[3] This is the Vyasadi Panchaka
1. Vyas - Who arranged the Vedas into four and taught them to:
2. Sumantu - Atharvaveda
3. Jaimini - Samaveda
4. Vaishampayana - Yajurveda (Shuklayajurvedis can substitute  Yajnavalkya)
5. Paila - Rgveda

[4] This is the Acharyadi Panchaka
1. Shankara - And his four disciples the heads of the four pithas:
2. Padmapada -
3. Vishvarupa (Sureshvara)
4. Totaka
5. Hastamalaka

[5] This is the Gurvadi Panchaka
1. Ones' Guru
2. Ones' great-Guru
3. Ones great-great-Guru
4. Ones great-great-great-Guru
5. The gurus of the sampradaya

For 5 one remembers
Narayana
Brahma
Four Sanatkumaras
Narada
Vasishtha
Shakti
Parashara
Vyas
Shuka
Gauda
Govind - The Guru of Shankaracharya

The Kanchi source also mentions a Dravida Panchaka but its not mentioned
in this source.  Kashinath was Marathi so perhaps there is a difference in
local traditions.

In the four corners, Ganesh, Kshetrapalas, Durga, and Saraswati Bhagavans
are worshiped.  And in the outside, the 8 lokapalas are worshipped in the
8 directions.

For all the offerings, Om Namo Narayana is used as the mantra.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>