Lalita Trishati

Yesterday I read and chanted the Lalitā Triśatī Stotram, the Song of 300 Names of the Playful Mother Goddess.  I use Swamiji's transliteration and translation in the book Shree Maa: The Guru and the Goddess.
 
I really like the Lalitā Triśatī.  The first time I ever chanted it was with Swamiji, around the fire at the Devi Mandir during the first Navaratri that I attended.  

Chanting anything with Swamiji is an experience of a lifetime, especially when your heart is open, but there have been certain scriptures that we have chanted together that I feel especially drawn to.  Lalita Trishati is one of them, in large part because of the 16 letter Șoraṣī mantra that you chant before and after the stotram.  The first time I chanted that mantra with Swamiji it blew my mind.  It was unlike any other mantra I had ever heard or chanted. 
 
Not only is its sound and structure super cool, but it has a meaning to match.   In the introduction to the stotram, Swamiji explains that Șoraṣī is Śiva  and Śakti together in "undifferentiated communion." 
 
So I chanted the Lalitā Triśatī right after I chanted the Śrī Guru Gīta (they are next to eachother in Swami's book so its pretty fun to do them together).  Towards the end of my chanting, in the epilogue of the stotram that comes after the 300 names, I happened to eye the translation of a verse that was about worship without knowledge.  That inspired me to read the whole translation, which Swamiji encourages us to do.  I figured I might as well know what I'm chanting.
 
The reading was awesome.  It was really helpful and insightful.  The three hundred names come as part of a story in which the Ŗṣi Hayagrīva is given the the 300 names by the Divine Mother Herself so that he can teach them to his disciple, Agastya (He Who is Born from a Jar), and Agastya's wife, Lopāmudrā.
 
The three hundred names could have been written for Shree Maa.  I guess they were, seeing as Shree Maa is the Divine Mother....but its just amazing.  The names describe Her so perfectly.
 
Here are a few of the names that really grabbed me:

205. hrīṃkārakuṇḍāgni-śikhā - Who is the ultimate of the sacrificial fire burning on the altar of Hrīṃ (Māyā) 
208. hrīṃkārāmbhodacancalā - Who is the inconsistent  nature of the heavenly waters of Hrīṃ (Māyā) 
214. hrīṃkārāvālavallarī - Who is the fibers in the creepers of Hrīṃ (Māyā)
217. hrīṃkārakandarāsiṃhī - Who is the lioness in the cave of Hrīṃ (Māyā)
233. satyarūpā - Who is the form of truth

.....and one more....

297. hrīṃkārahimavadgaṅgā - Who is the Ganges that flows from the Himalayas of Hrīṃ (Māyā)

Jai Maa!

My Sadhana

My sadhana currently consists primarily of sanskrit chanting.  I chant with pranayama -- rhythmic breathing.  I breathe in a mantra (silent repetition) and breathe out the sanskrit verses (chanted out loud).  This is the technique of chanting that my Gurus focus on in their teaching.  Swamiji talks a lot about "learning how to sit, how to chant, how to breathe."  Sanskrit vibrations are very soothing and very divine.  Sanskrit is a language that describes subtle states of consciousness; describes the intrinsic reality of existence.   The words have multiple levels of meanings and each syllable has a meaning as well.  It is one thing to intellectually understand a mantra, a word, a syllable, or the story of a scripture.  It is another thing all together to begin to understand the inner meanings of what we are chanting - to attune to and absorb the vibrations of the mantra, and to watch our consciousness and our experience of life change accordingly.  Swami says we become the mantra.

I think it's like adding a drop of blue into a glass of water.  The water is our mind, the blue is the mantra.

I work primarily with the Guru Gita, Shiva Puja and Durga Puja.  Pu = merit, ja = birth, and puja is the activity which gives to birthto merit.  Swamiji says that the highest merit is the privilege to sit in the presence of God.  Puja is the activivity that guides the mind into the presence of Divinity.  It is a form of worship -- a guided meditation.  When I sit for worship I generally worship murtis - statues that are representations of Divinity.  I have two alters - one at the Devi Mandir and one in the room that I rent.

When I go to the mandir I sit in front of an alter of Ramakrishna, Shree Maa's Guru.  There is a beautiful Ramakrishna murti that stands several feet high, and above Ramakrishna on the wall are two large framed photographs of Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi.  On the alter itself there is a framed image of Chandi, a small shiva lingam (a stone from the Narmada river that is a symbol of Shiva) and a small Durga murti that Shree Maa gave to me when I first visited the Mandir.  At my home alter I have a shiva lingam from my first spiritual teacher and a small murti of Shiva and Parvati sitting next to eachother from Shree Maa

I also like to incorporate Ganesh puja and the Sadhana Panchakam (Five Verses in Praise of Spiritual Discipline written by Shankaracharya, found in the front of Swamiji's Shiva Puja and Advanced yagna book) into my worship.

I feel that with the pujas I am worshipping the divinity that is both inside and outside of myself.  Shiva is the Consciousness of Infinite Goodness (Maa says Shiva is Pure Consciousness), and Durga is She Who Removes Diffculties.  She is a form of Shakti - the Divine Mother, Infinite Energy (Maa says Shakti is Pure Energy).  She is a form of Parvati Mata, the divine consort of Lord Shiva.  And she rides the lion - she is the ideal of the feminine, strong, beautiful, fierce, but also tender, gentle, and modest.  I feel that the more I worship Shiva and Durga, the more I enhance and coax out these aspects of myself.  It is like I am a big conglomeration of so many quailties, some negative and some more positive.  Puja focuses attention on the divine qualities and thus magnifies them.  When I bathe my shiva lingam, I bathe my own soul, I wash my own consciousness.  My mind becomes more pure, more focused, more harmonious.  More peaceful.

When I do puja in the morning, the whole day is better.  I feel that I walk a little more with God.  There is a lightness in my step, in my mind, in my heart.  It's really nice.