Be mindful that the water for tarpan cannot be used for marjanam. It would be like reusing somebody’s old bathwater. That’s not a nice image but it’s something like that.
To do marjanam , have some water in a little pot, join your ring finger with your thumb, dip it in the pot and then sprinkle it over your head with the still-joined ring finger and thumb. Add “Om marjayami ” at the end. So, it becomes:
“Om bhurbhuvah svaha tatsaviturvarenayama bhargo
devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah pracodayata, Om marjayami.”
You sprinkle the water on your head after saying the mantra above.
Now you have crowned yourself with that energy, you are free to roam around fearlessly like a king in the world. As it says in Devi Apradha Kshama Stotra :
Shvapako jalpako bhavti madhupakomagira
Niratanko ranko viharati chiram kotikanakaih
Tavaparne karne vishati manvarne phalamidam
Janah ko janeete janani japaneeyam japvidhhau
Oh Mother, the one who possesses no attraction of speech, the one who has no wisdom becomes all-attractive and very wise. Even a beggar becomes king and roams fearlessly. This is the result, if even a tiny bit of the devotion, even one letter of Your mantra reaches somebody’s ears. If someone was to do Your entire sadhana properly, who knows what that person will be blessed with.
You have done abhishekam, marjanam, and you are walking around with that energy. It will elevate you. You will feel greater self-esteem; you will feel stronger. You will feel, “I don’t need so much external approval. I don’t need other people. I can make my own way – I can breeze over hurdles and cut through obstacles,” and so on.
Step Thirty-Four
This step is about charity, which is an integral part of a good sadhana. It’s also called sadhaka bhojan or Brahmin bhojan . In this, we usually gather some people and feed them. It is a moment of celebration as well as expressing your gratitude.
Sadhaka bhojan is usually one-tenth of the coronation process. For example, if you have done a 1,00,000 japa , let’s say in 40 days, then the total fire offerings would be 10,000, tarpan would be 1000, marjanam would be 100 and you would feed 10 people. Over the course of 40 days, this is usually done on the final day. You could also do it daily. For example, when I was in the woods during my sadhana, I used to set aside some money every day with the intention that I would just give it to somebody or feed some people at the end of my purushcharana.
Until we do sadhaka bhojan , everything we have done is for abstract energy; for some deity. But when we feed people, we are feeding the living God: we are feeding the energy that is living in other people – they talk, bathe, walk, sleep, eat and so on – that gives the proof that we exist; that the soul which is there in every living entity exists.
When the soul leaves the body, you are declared dead.
You may be a billionaire or a very learned person – whatever you have been, when you are deceased, we say, “He or she is dead now.” Nothing lives on. Your legacy is only your good karma. Everything else dies, so feeding other people expresses our gratitude to those around us.
Step Thirty-Five
After you have fed people, you need to seek forgiveness again. You can repeat the small prayer outlined in step number 30 or just express your sentiments in any language. Even something as simple as, “Thank you for coming. I seek your forgiveness for any shortcomings, and so on,” will do.
There was a young boy who went to his friend’s place for dinner. His friend’s mother cooked the food and brought it to the table. When she served it, the boy started eating straightaway.
“Oh, don’t you say grace before you eat food?” the hosts said. “Don’t you pray to God?”
“I don’t have to,” he replied, “my mum cooks very good food.”
The danger is that when you accumulate energy, you move towards a sense of invincibility. And when that happens, it can get to one’s head very quickly. That is the beginning of the downfall of a good sadhaka . The idea behind all this is that we should remain humble; we should remain grounded.
Step Thirty-Six
If there’s any water left in any of the pots from your sadhana, yajna , tarpan , etc., you can now offer it to the sun – just face the sun and pour the water in front of you. The notion here is that if you’re facing the sun, the sun’s rays are falling on you; there is some heat, which means if you put some water on the ground, part of it is going to evaporate and help distant entities. Part of it is going to be absorbed by the earth and is going to help many other organisms. If you are living in a country where there is snow or inclement weather or you can’t step out for any reason, you can pour the water in a flower pot or at the root of some plant or tree, so that it is not wasted.
This concludes the comprehensive method of 36 steps.
The Brief Invocation
At the beginning of this chapter, I shared with you that if you are pressed for time, you can choose the brief method of invocation. If your sentiment is true and your intentions well-placed, you will surely benefit just as much from brief invocation, which has 7 steps.
The only thing to bear in mind is that if you undertake a purushcharana using the brief method then that’s the method you must continue with throughout your sadhana. In other words, if you vow to chant over 40 days and begin it with the comprehensive method of 36 steps, you can’t move to just the brief one on day two.
In addition to the three steps of sankalpa (step number 16, which is additional and has to be done only on the first day), and steps 1 and 2 which are bathing and putting on fresh clothes, here are the 7 steps of brief invocation:
Purification of the surroundings (Step 4). Just sprinkle water in all directions.
Self-purification (Step 5). Drink water three times.
Lighting the lamp (Step 6). You can do it without chanting any mantra.
Ganesha prayer (Step 7). Once again, you can do it without mudra or any specific mantra.
Mantra chanting (Step 26). Chant as per your sankalpa .
Offering japa to the deity (Step 28). This is japa samarpana .
Seeking forgiveness (Step 30). You can either chant the stotra given in step 30 earlier or you can simply seek forgiveness for any mistakes or errors.
With this, we have covered all the steps of Gayatri sadhana. Now you know everything there is to know about the Gayatri mantra.
In the olden days, when there was only oral transmission of information, and even when there was the written word, the knowledge I have given you was reserved for ascetics or Brahmins. We are done with this ignorance; we don’t need this anymore. After thousands of years of divisive policies, we need to move towards unification. This has hurt our country for far too long and certainly in spiritual activities, it is not at all needed. Everybody is entitled to all the wisdom that is there, and it’s up to people how much of it they use it for themselves.