Sri Vidya Sadhana

My first brush with Sri Vidya was long before I even knew what Sri Vidya was. Those were the days when there were no mobile phones, no online communities and no internet. Even landlines were not common and people would frequently go to phone booths or specialized shops known as PCOs (Public Call Offices) to make calls. I was around eleven or so and already knee-deep into the world of mantra science. I read everything I could get my hands on and sourcing books in a small town was as easy as calculus. Believe it or not, sometimes I would plead with the bookshop owner who traveled to Delhi frequently to get me books. And he would ask me which book I wanted to buy. And I would often say, get whatever you can on mantras, tantra, Ayurveda, palmistry, or astrology. It was mostly a hit and miss as sometimes the books were so pedestrian and the writing so shallow that you wouldn’t want to waste a matchstick to burn them.

But, this one time around, the shopkeeper managed to get me a book on various shakta traditions. It had well-documented sadhanas without the ludicrous promises found in almost every other book on the occult. I was very impressed with this author, but unfortunately, I can’t recall his name presently. It was a book in Hindi and his name ended with Jha or Ojha. He was not famous like Narayan Dutt Shrimali but his writing had truth and sincerity, I felt. So over the next few weeks, I procured everything he had ever written.

After devouring his books, one day I mustered the courage to write to him. I wrote him a long letter that ran into five or six pages. I told him what sadhanas I was doing and which wandering saints and teachers gave me what, and if I could do such and such sadhana from his book. Plus, I had some other questions but my memory, which thinks it’s acting rebellious, when in fact, it’s actually lame and way past its prime, is refusing to budge at the moment. So I don’t know what those questions were. I was not expecting a reply but still I thought if there was ever a chance of getting one, it was only possible if I wrote something.

But lo and behold, I got a response from him. It was easily the most beautiful handwriting I had ever seen. It wasn’t just written immaculately, it was as if you were looking at a work of art. To me, a kid—and he knew I was a kid because I had written so in my letter—an author had written back. An author! ¹ Those were not the days of self-publishing or vanity publishing. Being a writer meant something. His response was even longer than my own letter.

There are three things I broadly remember from his reply. 1. He had been a practicing tantric and sadhak for more than four decades. 2. He encouraged me to do as much sadhana as I could. 3. He told me that he was authorizing me to do any sadhana I so wished from his books. He mentioned that he had personally done every single sadhana he shared in his books. “Consider yourself initiated in every sadhana in my books. Do them without fear,” he wrote something to that effect. I went to the bank the very next day, got a draft made for Rs. 151 (you could buy 5-7 good books for that price back then) and sent it to him by registered post. I was so deeply touched. If I could, I would have sent him everything. Such goodness existed that a completely unknown person cared to write back to a kid, when he had absolutely nothing to gain from it.

I didn’t mean to make this post about him—² though I don’t regret it—but the point is that this was the beginning of my sadhana in Dasa Mahavidya. This was before I practiced Shabara Mantras, before I learned Yajurveda, before I had been initiated by anyone.

I took his message and permission to heart and—I say without exaggeration—went crazy. I turned the world upside down to source the ingredients for various sadhanas and began my journey with full faith, conviction, and, might I add, expectations. I thought the deity would just manifest out of nowhere, or the siddhis would come in swarms, or something amazing would happen. I think all those things did happen in my life in due course (they sort of just fell into my lap) but at the time when sadhana didn’t meet my expectations, I thought either I was doing them wrong or there was no truth to them. Nonetheless, I persisted.

Out of that persistence, many gems came my way. One such was Sri Vidya. The glorious form of Divine Mother whom the world knows as Lalitambika or Maha Tripura Sundari. One of the ten great forms of the Cosmic Mother.

In Sri Vidya, the Divine Mother is called Shodashi, the sixteenth, or simply sixteen. And ever since my vision of Her in 2011, that’s precisely the number of years I [will] have waited before doing Sri Vidya sadhana with you. Read on to know what I mean.

Over the last sixteen years, numerous seekers have requested initiation and sadhana in the exalted path of the Mother Goddess, but I had to wait for the stars to line up before it could be done. After meditation, kundalini, Sri Suktam, and most notably, Rudram, if Sri Vidya is what you ever sought, then I must tell you, the time has come.

Sri Vidya is the final frontier of sadhana. There’s nothing more powerful, systematic, or elaborate than Sri Vidya sadhana. And personally, this is the culmination of all the sadhanas I’ve ever done. This is the tipping point, I would say.

It is with a certain gladness in my heart, a certain spring in my step, therefore, that I invite you to join me live on the first ever evening devoted to Sri Vidya sadhana.

We’ll call upon Mother Goddess, Maha Tripura Sundari, invoking the primordial energy, and light the fire of consciousness by offering ourselves completely to the origin of all origins. Just as the devas had first done to awaken Her. Abhyasa-atishya-gyata, She can be realized with devoted sadhana.

The whole world is grateful to South India for preserving, practicing, and perfecting Sri Vidya. So to stay true to the tradition and tenets of sadhana, I will be conducting my first ever Sri Vidya sadhana shivir in Bengaluru. My plan is to finish The Legend of Sri Vidya too by then. (I’m only two chapters in at the moment.)

I would encourage you not to see this post as an announcement (if anything, it is a declaration) but as a sublime opportunity, a piece of wisdom in a league of its own. In case you are interested, here are the details.

At any rate, regardless of whether you make it in person or not, keep walking the path of sadhana as nothing purifies one like sadhana does. The key to realization is to remain steadfast in your practice. Sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkara-asevito drdha-bhumih, sadhana becomes firmly grounded when it is pursued for a long time, without interruption, and with devotion. (Yoga Sutras 1.14)

And once your sadhana starts taking shape, you will be amazed at the world that will open up before you. It’s as simple as that, really.

Peace.
Swami

See you next year in Bengaluru. All spots on a first-come first-serve basis. Here.