Samanargya

The next step in the preparation is the purification of the water. We make a man
dala like this. A square, a circle, the point of which touches the square.Then y
ou form a hexagon inside that. And then you form a triangle inside that.First yo
u draw the inside triangle. Then you draw the hexagon. You go clockwise. You dra
w the circle starting at the upper left and going aroundclockwise. Starting with
the isana kona, the northeast corner, you draw thesquare. When you do it this w
ay you are following the vastu, the rules for architecture. The central triangle
represents the ajna chakra. The upper triangle represents the siva trikona, and
the triangle with the point down represents the shakti kona. They are inter pen
etrating and they are in union with each other.
This, therefore represents the swaddhisthana chakra, the six petalled lotus. The
circle represents the three circles going around the waist, the chest and the t
hroat chakras. Muladhara is the square, swaddhisthana is the six-petalled lotus,
the circle represents manipura, anahata and visshudi grantis and the central tr
iangle is the ajna. Up to the ajna the differentiation between Siva and Shakti e
xists. The Samanargya preserves this difference. You say "trikona" and draw the
triangle, "satkona"- the six-petalled lotus, "vrta" - the circle, and"caturasra
"- the square. When done say "mandala vilikya".The directions of the puja are se
lf explanatory. "Offer a flower. Put a conch or a pot on top of diagram. Fill it
with water. Into the water add one drop of milk, the special herbs, saffron, tu
meric, etc. Imagine the diagram is transferred up into the water. Worship the an
gadevatas with kumkum or sandal paste. Imagine you are also worshipping yours an
d Devi's bodies as you do this nyasam. " On top of this is a base and a pot with
water. Into this water we are invoking the limbs of the Goddess.
Preparation of the Viseshargyam
Now comes the complicated procedure, the invocation of all the kalas into the mo
ther's milk. We have identified the viseshargya with the Mother's left breast.Th
e milk of kindness, of compassion, of knowledge of grace, of protection, of all
these good qualities resident in the Mother are present here. Like before, we ar
e drawing the mandala for viseshargya. First you put the bindu, taking the water
from the samanargya, draw the mandala with your ring finger. The ring finger re
presents the Siva, the ring is the yoni. So with the Sivalinga you are putting t
he yoni there. Again dip the finger and draw the central triangle. Surrounding t
hat you draw the satkona like before. Then draw the circle and the square. Here
you start from inside and go to the outside. First worship the mandala that you
have drawn on the ground. To the left of the samanargya is your normal pot of wa
ter and to the side of the visheshargya you keep the milk. The articles or worsh
ip are on your right side.
You worship the mandala from the center. Then you worship the three konas ofthe
central triangle the ajna chakra, looking into the eyes of the Devi andrememberi
ng your own eyes.
Ka..namah, Ha...namah, Sa...namah
. Then youdo the angadevata nyasa. You go aroung the sat kona clockwise, startin
g withthe southern kona . Then you repeat the nyasa in the same way that you do
itfor the samanargya. All the chakras are included in this nyasa. The bindurepre
sents the sahasrara chakra. But in samanargya only up to the ajna chakrais inclu
ded. This establishes the female supremacy.
Then you place the bijas for each of the chakras. You start with the fire whichy
ou are going to invoke in the base on which you are going to place theviseshargy
a pot which goes on top of the mandalam you have drawn. The potrepresents the su
n and the liquid, the milk is going to represent the moon. Theagni is essentiall
y the earth. Here is the sun and here is the moon. When thesethree are aligned t
hen there is a sun eqlipse. If you think of the moon here, thenthere is a moon e
qlipse. Why do we say that the earth represents the fire?Because except for the
outer crust, out of the 6000 miles about 5995 is fire andfive miles is the earth
. The entire earth inside is molten lava. That is why wecall the earth the fire

The graha kala, the eqlipse time is supposed to be a punya kala, an auspiciousti
me. It is necessary that you do not move the viseshargya patra or thisalignment
until the puja is completely done. If you move it, then the power thatyou have i
nvested in that, the eqlipse is over, so it does not have the sameeffect. That i
s why it is said that as long as the puja is not completed, youshould not move t
he visesargya or the samanargya.