anaghA vrata vishaya sUchikA Part-1

February 29, 2008

Dear Members of rAjarAjeshvarI_kalpataru,

Iam cut-paste-copying my postings made on anaghAvratha vidhi made in my group dedicated to Lord Dattatreya henceforth in a few parts.Please read and be benefitted by this lost and ancient vrathA practice.As anaghA devI is a Divine Mother, I felt it apt to post it here too.

In case any member wishes to join that group(Smarthrugaami-Dattavaibhavam) also, click below to join:

Smarthrugaami-Dattavaibhavam

jaya guru-deva dattA!

avadhUta-chintanA sri guru-deva datta!

hari-om tat sat jai guru datta!

May the sacred graces of the saints of datta lineage from pithapura srI vallabhA to nrusimha saraswathI protect your spiritual path and coruscate it with abundance.

(swayamkamala lochana dattAtreya with anaghA devI--This Syamakamalalochana Dattatreya incarnation took place on the 12th day of the brighter half of the month of Kaarthika on Wednesday and at the time of Sunrise when the birth star was Revathi. This incarnation has greater aspect of Shiva. This principle bestows peace and knowledge. As the incarnation took on the Twelfth day this signifies that he is the giver of Bhukti. Here Wednesday signifies that he bestows prosperity in business. Star Revathi signifies that he bestows Valour and happiness. Association with Anagha Devi signifies that he bestows prosperity to the family)

kaliyuga prabhAvam(the influence of kali-yuga) has eroded the greatness of Lord datta as far as human perception is concerned not that the lord's greatness can ever be diminished in the least. Human perceptions do vary.

Some have even told me that the era of Datta is finished. Some don't even know who Dattatreya is and some confuse Datta sAmpradAyA with trimurthy-vrathA sAmpradAya.

This being so, the esoteric datta-upAsana is now renegaded to a few faithful and mostly erudite people apart from the girinArIs, people in the marAtha,karnAtakA and AndhrA region.

dattAtreyA's puissance is beyond imagination and to reach common masses he has come in various human forms like srI pAda srI vallabhA, sri nrusimha saraswathI swamI,akkalkot maharAj,shirdI sai bAbA,etc.Who is an avatAr of dattA or not also remains a big controversy.

Some hindUs out of a narrow sectarian thought process conclude that saints and mursheedhAs like saI bAbA cannot be considered as dattA avatAras. To such pegion brains all I can tell is that, "First you rise to such a level as you can judge saints whether they qualify as dattAvatArAs, then talk"

anaghA means "one who is sinless or pure".

The AdhAra for our shrushti(cosmic-creation) is adya saktI. That itself is called as Bhagavanta. We fail to ascribe any gender to such a energy.

Though the fundamental energy does not have any gender its products do have a form and sometimes gender.Why this is so is a big vedAtic question, which is out of the scope of the current posting.Similarly, from the fundamental energy which was a-sexual came the creation which consists of heterosexual beings.

The scheme by which the differentiation of gender entered creation is called as 'Eshwara sankalpA' in the shastras. It means that it did not take place without the knowledge of the Almighty.

Therefore, when that energy wants to take a form, it can take the form of Anda(ovum) or Jeevakana(sperm).

Therefore the Almighty manifested sometimes in masculine form and sometimes in feminine form. Irrespective of the manifestation, the original form of the Almighty (i.e., the fundamental energy) is beyond the differentiation of gender.

The same concept is echoed in an episode in the Dattatreya Purana.

When Lord Dattatreya, the combined incarnation of the Trinity was a child of five years, many old sages spotted his greatness and started insisting him to show them the path of yogA. The child Datta wanted to test them. He disappeared in to a pond and remained there for one hundred years. Some of the sages waited for Him on the banks of the pond while the infant dattatreyA was in a state of complete Samadhi for hundred years. Even after coming out of the pond he continued to test the sages.

Dattatreya, who was 105 years old then, brought out His Yogic energy through His brahma randhra (an astral orifice found in the centre of the skull, through which Yogis can leave the body), and gave it the form of a woman. Because the energy came out from Him, He was its natural owner. He declared her to be His consort. In order to test the sages, she drank wine and started dancing.

She was born as a youthful,buxom and erotic woman. Seeing her drink wine, some of the sages called her 'Madhumati'. Others called her as 'Nadee' looking at her dance which resembled the dancing movements of a flooded river. Still others realised that she was none other than the Yogic Energy of Lord Dattatreya and prayed to Him. Some others went away disgusted at the sight.

Then Lord Dattatreya came out of Samadhi. She now appeared as an ascetic! Lord Dattatreya named her as anaghA.(anaghA hari vallabha)

Agha means sin, sorrow. Those who called her as Madhumati and Nadee had identified her as one who possessed sin. But in reality she was sinless. Therefore Dattatreya had named her as Anagha(Sinless, Pure). Those who had recognised her to be the energy of Dattatreya, obtained the true vision of the Lord and could transcend all sorrows. In other words, because of her their sorrows (Agha) disappeared. This was another reason why Dattatreya named her as Anagha (one who removes sorrows).

Etymologically, the word Agha means that which comes to the experience of the doer (kartaaram anghaati iti agham. Aghi gatow). He who thinks that he is the doer, will experience pain and pleasure. According to vedantic view, even the worldly pleasure is in fact pain. Thus, one who thinks oneself to be the doer is always suffering. That energy which removes the feeling of doership is Anagha.

According to another etymology, Agha means that which causes sufferings to remain for ever. (Na jahaati duhkham it agham. O haak tyaage) Sorrow is caused by poverty, disease, fear of enemies, greed , ignorance etc.. That which removes sorrow by bestowing prosperity, health, affection, contentment, wisdom etc., is Anagha.

Because all these in mind, Lord Dattatreya called her as Anagha. Those sages who could comprehend this could see her as the manifestation of energy and could attain positive benefits. The demons who could not comprehend the reality only saw her as a dancer and therefore were annihilated.

This particular episode makes it clear to us that those who thought the Almighty to be merely a female caused their own destruction. Those who consider the Almighty to be male only, also, accounted for their own doom.(The stories of such demons can be found in many puranas) Those who could realise that the Almighty was above such differentiation and was of the form of fundamental energy could transcend affinity and aversion. They alone could experience unalloyed bliss.

Dattatreya is popularly known as a Yati(Ascetic) and an Avadhoota(one who has shaken off himself from worldly feeling and obligation). How then can he have a consort? - is one of the frequently asked questions. This question will not arise in the minds of those who have read the Datta Purana. Only those who consider Anagha to be a separate entity will raise the question "how can Dattatreya have a spouse?" Only when we realise that Anagha is the manifestation of His own energy, we will understand that His ascetic nature will not be disturbed when Anagha is seated next to Him.

Once a veternary doctor living in our native village of srIkAkulam was taken aback when I said, "Place on one thigh of dattA anaghA and on the other madhumathI and then do the dhyana, you will see progress regarding.....(one particular thing he was trying) "

He laughed and said "Dattatreya is a celebate, please don't make him a gruhasthA and that too with a "petromax "!"("petromax" is a slang used in that place for a second wife!).

I said "Your view is narrow, your knowledge is limitied, your bhAvA is sin-ridden, you will not see any progress. I can assure you this much"

He ultimately did not have any progress in whatever assay he was doing.Was it because of my harsh words? No, not in the least.

Later realizing his mistake, he did exactly what I adviced him and he could see progress the very day he did thus.

Why?

By worshipping only Dattatreya, absolute knowledge of the self will set in.There is no doubt about this.But to negate the existence of His shaktI will not be taken kindly by Him.

Also, by worshipping Dattatreya along with Anagha, even the worldly difficulties will be removed and eventually Atma jnAna will set in. In Kaliyuga, human beings can achieve wisdom only in an unhurried pace. Therefore Lord Dattatreya himself preached the method of worshipping Anagha.

The story of the thousand-armed Kartaveeryarjuna in Datta Darshana is highly symbolic. He was one of the favourite disciples of Lord Dattatreya. Dattatreya Himself taught him the method of performing Anaghashtami pooja. Kartaveerya got his boons on the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Margashira. Lord Dattatreya has himself marked this day to be auspicious for conducting the Anaghashtami Pooja. He has further ordained that this pooja be performed every month on the eighth day of the dark fortnight. Bhagavan Vyasa has narrated the method of worship in the Puranas. But on account of the vicissitudes of time, it slowly became less and less practised so much so that assinine questions like "What? A woman sitting by the side of Datta?" are being asked.

I just ask one question, " Have you become so great to question thus? Without a wee bit understanding as to the greatness of datta-marga?"

Mere reading of texts does not give even an iota of what Datta or anaghA-tatwam is. I too have collected carefully these days many a text but does it make me a great upAsaka? No!

What then is needed is first a sagunOpAsanA, then dhyanA, nirgunOpasanA,avyaktabhAva and then finally enter into layA yogA.

Once layA is attained then a simple flower offered in that state at the feet of dattA prabhU or anaghA thalli is million times more powerful than offering a million flowers in an ordinary state.

datta and anaghA are in sahaja-sthithis. And to reach this sthithi is not easy. I find these days some mAthAs and bAbAs claiming to be sahaja yogIs. These people are perfect charlatans.

sahajabhAva is a gUdAthmaka bhAva AND NOT ADVERTISED or propogated.

To reach this sahaja sthiti we must go through the natural route of sagunOpAsana and anaghA vratam doled out by dattatreyA to His priya-shishyA kArthaveerArjunA is an easy tool for gruhasthAs and yogis alike.

The postings by me henceforth will now concentrate on this vrathA,pUjA, anaghA mantra(to be got as deekshA from a dattoupAsaka) and sAdhana niyamAs; as also the merits of doing the vrathA.

Please wait for this amruthA to be revealed slowly. Too much of amruthA(ambrosia) is also vishA(Poison) and thus I will now give rest to my typing fingers here.

AvadhUtha sadAnanda parabrahma swarUpine

videhadeha roopAya dattAtreya namosthuthe'

akhandadwaita rUpAya, NirgunAya GunAtmaneKrishnAya PadmanetrAya, Namosthu datta-Paramatmane!

I seek solace at the lotus-feet of true dattA-bhakthAs.

May the sacred graces of sri gurU residing in Girinar pervade its influence throughout the world as the jasmine flower spreads its fragrance throughout the room from a remote corner.

I remain ever,

Yours yogically,

Shreeram Balijepalli