Shodasi Puja- a Meaning

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In "shodasi puja," shri ramakrishna actually OFFERED ceremonial

worship to his young wife of 18 years SRIMATI SARADA DEVI!

hE SEATED HER on a pedestal of a deity-

 

This puja took place on the night of Phalaharini-Kali Pooja day, when

the Divine Mother is worshipped as the consumer of the Karmas of

the devotee.first, shri ramakrishna completed all the preliminary

rites of worship - then after seating his yoing wife on the seat

allocated for the deity- then He t invoked the presence of the Divine

Mother in her with the Mantra: "O Divine Mother! Thou eternal virgin,

the mistress of all powers, and the abode of all beauty! Deign to

unlock for me the gate to perfection. Sanctifying the body and mind

of

this woman, do thou manifest Thyself through her and do what is

auspicious."

 

Then he went through all the procedures of a full ritualistic worship

with sixteen ingredients. (shodasi means 16 -also one of the names

of kali) He first performed the Nyasa which consists in touching the

different parts of one's body with appropriate Mantras and

identifying them in meditation with the corresponding parts of the

Deity. After that he offered worship with sixteen items with

appropriate Mantras. In the course of it he applied red paint to the

soles of Sarada Devi, put vermilion mark on her forehead, put on her

a new cloth, put a little of sweet and betel-leaf in her mouth, and

performed the Arati (light-waving ceremony) before her. The bashful

Sarada received all these acts of adoration without the least

feeling of hesitation. The sense of identification with the Deity must

have come on her. Both the Master and the Mother were in a state

of ecstatic and semi-conscious absorption in the course of the

worship, and by the time it came to an end they were in complete

Samadhi in which the worshipper and the worshipped realized the

identity of their being as Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. After

a considerable length of time, when the second watch of the night

had fairly advanced, the Master regained external consciousness.

Then he resigned himself completely to the Divine Mother, and in a

supreme act of consecration, offered to the Deity manifest before

him, the fruits of his austerities, his rosary, himself and everything

that was his. He then uttered the following Mantra: "O Goddess, I

prostrate myself before Thee again and again -- before Thee, the

eternal consort of Siva, the three-eyed, the golden-hued, the

indwelling spirit in all, the giver of refuge, the accomplisher of

every end, and the most auspicious among all auspicious objects."

 

ALTHOUGH, the cpuple's marriage was never consummated(physically) ,

the shodasi puja united them in eternal union- the master and his

dutiful wife became the divine couple whose only mission was to lead

other aspirants on the spiritual path.

 

jai gurudeva!

 

adi_shakti16