Who Can Do This Sadhana
Any person, of any age, religion, ability or background can do this sadhana with or without initiation. Menstruating women can start or continue their sadhana without any reservations whatsoever. Complete abstinence must be practiced throughout the purushcharana . There’s no dosha (issue) in case of wet dreams or any other involuntary release of sexual fluids. Voluntarily though, any form of sexual gratification is forbidden.
Diet
Throughout your purushcharana, you should be on a strict vegetarian diet. Dairy is allowed but no meat, seafood or eggs. No onion or garlic either. Be careful of eating biscuits, cakes, cheeses and supplements that may contain animal-derived ingredients. If your doctor has prescribed any medication, feel free to take it without any of the considerations above.
Lamp
Ideally, the lamp used in this purushcharana should be made of brass. An earthen lamp or a silver lamp can also be used. The wick must be of cotton. It is permissible to use braided cotton thread (like the common sacred red thread, mauli , for example, or any other) to use as a wick. The oil used in the lamp should be either ghee or sesame oil. If you are doing this sadhana in winters in a cold region, I would recommend using sesame oil as ghee solidifies very quickly and it may put out your lamp. Once again, it’s important to be consistent. If you start your sadhana by lighting a ghee lamp, stick to that throughout your purushcharana .
Direction
The aspirant should face east, north or northeast while doing the chanting and the yajna .
Clothing
Any color is okay but the best are red, yellow and white. Ideally, you should wear no more than two pieces of red, yellow or white loose-cloth on your body — one to cover your lower body and the other to cover the upper part. If you are in a very cold place, you can either use a heater in your room or sew your upper cloth with a woolen shawl. Women can wear a saree, blouse, etc.
Beads Bag (Gomukha )
If you use chanting beads, then I recommend using a bead bag called gomukha . Most of you would know how to use the gomukha . It’s got two openings; one is larger than the other. It is designed so when you put the rosary in it, the beads don’t touch the ground or dirty hands, and are kept pure.
You can wear it around your head if you like. Then you chant with the beads inside it, the index finger, however, remains outside the smaller opening of the gomukha .
Seat
The best seat will be a blanket on which you should spread the same colored cloth you cover your body with. Or, if you are wearing regular clothes (and not one of the three colors mentioned in the previous section) while doing purushcharana , you can just put a yellow cloth on your seat. The nature of this sadhana requires you to sit on the floor. If you are unable to do that, you may try sitting in a chair and setting up a table in front of you with lamp, pots, etc. Personally, I have never experimented with that. If you do, please feel free to share the results of your sadhana.
Other than a blanket, you can also take a standard meditation cushion or use any seat made from cotton.
A seat made out of kusha grass is also permissible for this sadhana.
Posture
Try to maintain stillness of your posture while you chant with utmost mindfulness, faith and devotion. Please allow me to remind you that mantra sadhana is not about reckless chanting of a mantra just for the sake of ticking off an item on your list. It is the soulful process of becoming one with your deity so you may elevate yourself spiritually, materially and emotionally.
Things You Will Need for Gayatri Sadhana
A lamp (brass, silver, or earthen)
Ghee or sesame oil and wick for your lamp
Five small water pots, a small spoon and a saucer if you are performing the comprehensive invocation or only one water pot if it’s a brief invocation. The pots can be of silver, copper or brass. This is the standard for every sadhana and details on how to lay out the pots (patra ) can be found in the chapter ‘Arrangement of Pots (Patrasadana )’ in ‘Detailed Notes’.
Standard ingredients for fire offerings (yajna ) as mentioned in the chapter ‘How to Make Fire Offerings (Yajna )’.
In addition to those ingredients, you will need firewood. You can use either wood from a sacred fig (Ficus religiosa . Common name: Peepul ), mango (Magnifera indica , Common name: Aam or aamra ) or palasha (Butea monosperma . Common name: Plasha or dhak ). You can also use the wood from deodar (Cedrus deodara . Common name: Devadaru ) or teak (Tectona grandis . Common name: Sagaun or sheesham ).
Chanting beads made from rudraksha
A lot of faith, devotion and discipline
I strongly recommend that after going through this chapter, you make a daily checklist in line with the 36 steps I enumerate below. Also, make a daily list of what all you require; it’s better to procure everything in advance.
The Mantra Sanskrit (Devanagari) Sanskrit (IAST) ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः oṃ bhūrbhuvaḥ svaḥ तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यम tatsaviturvareṇyama भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि। bhargo devasya dhīmahi। धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात॥ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāta॥
Before You Begin
We must seek permission from the Divine Mother before undertaking Her sadhana. The simplest way to do this is to take a bath and sit at your altar after sunset. Take a bit of water in your right hand and mentally call upon the Divine Mother in the form of Gayatri and seek permission that may She and other forces of nature allow you to complete Her sadhana. Leave the water in the plate next to you.
Next, do 3, 7, 10 or 30 rounds of the Gayatri mantra chanting for mini, standard, extraordinary and grand invocation respectively. Use rudraksha beads. Use the same beads to commence your purushcharana the next day.
One round is 108 times. Thirty rounds will be chanting your mantra 108 × 30 = 3240 times, for example. Personally, I always chant 10,000 times before doing any major purushcharana . Once done, go to sleep in the same place where you chanted the Gayatri mantra. Here’s the mantra again for your reference. Sanskrit (Devanagari) Sanskrit (IAST) ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः oṃ bhūrbhuvaḥ svaḥ तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यम tatsaviturvareṇyama भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि। bhargo devasya dhīmahi। धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात॥ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāta॥ Translation May we abide in the Supreme Energy that is eternal, transcendental, radiant, perfect, divine. May such divine grace always guide us on the path of righteousness.