[Advaita-l] Guru for Devi Puja

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2012, Venkata sriram P wrote:

> Utmost secrecy should be maintained while publishing the mantras especially
> the one above which is called *chaNDi navArNa mahA mantra*.
>  
> Even shrI bhAskararAya makhin while decoding this mUla mantra from 1st three slokAs of
> chaNDi pAth maintained the modesty of mantra gOpyatva and never disclosed.
>  
> Whenever there is any need of mentioning the mUla mantra, we just need

>to say *atha...manuH* (which is guru-mukhaika vEdya).

As I understand it there are atleast two classes of mantras, "public" ones 
which may have some associated vidhi but do not require formal diksha like 
om namah shivaya or om namo bhagavate vasudevaya etc. and "secret" ones 
which should only be learnt at the gurus feet like shrividya mula mantra 
etc.  (Of course in the age of the printing press very little is truly 
secret but we astikas should strive to do the right thing.)

Now, you are saying that this mantra should belong to the second group but 
the chandi path is part of the Markandeya Purana.  And the 18 puranas were 
written by Veda Vyasa to disseminate Vedic knowledge to all.  Yes the 
associated rituals are from Katyayani Tantra but it doesn't make sense to 
me that the tantra should "privatize" what is already public.  Plus it 
forms part of the ritual of Navaratri in which thousands of non-initiates 
will take part.  And I am only talking about nitya japa.  I acknowledge 
recitation for attaining siddhi etc. may have stricter rules.

But then let me ask you, what should Paresh do for nitya japa if not this 
mantra? (bearing in mind Patels are not dvija.)

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