Friday, August 22, 2014

Panchayatana Pooja

Panchayatana pooja - a way to unite with God, is the way of worship established by Aadi Shankara. The deities in this pooja are Ganapathy, Shiva, Parvathi, Vishnu and Surya. Incidentally these deities form the main aaraadhana moorthy under Ganapathyam, Shaivam, Shaaktam, Vaishnavam and Sowram of the shanmatham. The sixth being Kaumaram where Muruga is worshipped as prime deity.

Kanchi paramacharya has told, as seen in Deivathin kural, that one may add a vel (spear in the hands of Muruga) in this panchayatana pooja and worship muruga too to complete shanmatham.

If we see the forms of deities in this pooja, they are all from nature. The material for Ganapathy is found in river sona. Bana lingam for shiva is found in Narmada river. Ambal's swarnamukhi is found in Swarnamukhi river in Andhra. Salagramam for Vishnu as most of us know is found in Gantaki river. The spatika for Surya is found near Vallam in Tanjore, Tamilnadu.

Why this was established is that, we need to go with nature always. We should not deviate from it. Also the minimal requirement for this pooja is water, akshada (rice), dry grapes, vilvam and tulasi. Vilva for Shiva, tulasi for Vishnu, Akshada for Ganapathy, Ambal and Surya. We can perform archanai with these. Even if tulasi or vilva went dry, it is not a problem. Dry grapes can be used for nivedanam. So if one has taken this pooja, he can perform everyday, wherever he goes. It is easy for him to take these small things in a box. With all these in mind Guru Shankara has paved this pooja.



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