Puraścaraṇa

Puraścaraṇa · puraḥ-caraṇa, “the rite done beforehand”

Puraścaraṇa, or mantra-puraścaraṇa, is the course of japa (repetition of a mantra) and homa (offering into the sacred fire) that a sādhaka undertakes to make a mantra his own. By it the mantra is purified (mantra-śuddhi) and the sādhaka himself is purified (ātma-śuddhi). The Agni Purāṇa gives it in Chapter 30, where Nārada Maharshi, having taught the devatās and colours of the Bhadra maṇḍala, turns to the japa of the mantra and its dhyāna.

Each kind of mantra has its own count of japa. A second lakh of japa makes the mantra kshetrīkṛta, firmly settled in the sādhaka. The homa follows the japa. While the course lasts, the sādhaka keeps a vrata a month at a time, sets his left foot first on the ground and accepts no gift. Japa done twice or three times over gives the middle and the highest fruits.

The japa

For the purity of the mantra and of oneself, the japa is done this many times:

  • A bīja mantra (a seed-syllable mantra): one lakh (100,000) times.
  • Other mantras: as many lakhs as the mantra has syllables.
  • Vidyās: one lakh times.
  • Stotras: one thousand times.
  • Or else every mantra is first repeated one lakh times.

By a second lakh of japa the mantra becomes kshetrīkṛta: the sādhaka gains steadiness in it.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30

The homa

For a bīja mantra, as many oblations are offered as the count of the first japa. For other mantras, the homa is one tenth of the japa.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30

The rules of the course

When one resolves to undertake the mantra-puraścaraṇa:

  1. He keeps a vrata for one month at a time.
  2. He places his left foot first on the ground.
  3. He does not accept dāna (gifts).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30

The phala

Japa done twice or three times over gives the fruits of the madhyama (middle) and uttama (highest) grades.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30

The dhyāna of the mantra

In the same chapter Nārada Maharshi teaches the dhyāna by which the fruit of the mantra is gained.

  • A mantra has three forms. Its sthūla (gross) form is sound, its outer form. Its sūkshma (subtle) form is made of light, its inner form, made only of contemplation. Beyond contemplation is its para (supreme) form.
  • For the mantras of Varāha, Narasiṃha and Śakti, the gross form is chief. The form of Vāsudeva is beyond thought. For the other devatās, the inner form made of contemplation is always chief.
  • The form of the Virāṭ is gross, the liṅga-form is subtle, and the form of Īśvara is beyond thought.
  • The bīja mantra dwells in the lotus of the heart. It is imperishable, made of consciousness, of the nature of light and of the nature of the jīva. Its space is like a kadamba flower; so one should meditate on it.
  • As the light of a lamp set inside a pot does not spread out but stays gathered within, so the Mantreśvara, the lord of the mantra, shines in the heart.
  • As the light of a lamp in a pot with many holes goes out through every hole, so the rays of the shining bīja mantras spread through the nāḍīs (channels of the body) and shine with a divine body. The nāḍīs go out from the heart as far as the eyes; two of them, of the nature of agni and soma, are at the tip of the nose.
  • The sādhaka who, by udghāta-yoga, fully masters the prāṇa that fills the body, and who is intent on japa and dhyāna, gains the fruit of the mantra.

The sādhaka who purifies the five bhūtas and the tanmātras and practises yoga gains, if he has desires, the siddhis beginning with aṇimā. If he has vairāgya (freedom from desire), he passes beyond those siddhis, abides in his own form of pure consciousness, and is freed for ever from the bhūtas, the tanmātras and the senses that seize like grahas.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 30