Bharat has always been one from the Himalayas to the Ocean. And all our Maharishis have endorsed this, supported this and worked tirelessly to emphasise this essential unity. Our pujas, our pilgrimages, our Devbhasha Sanskrutam, our Vedic Dharma are the threads which bind the nation together.
And among these daily pujas there is one very typical puja which most traditional Hindu families perform. Here five Devatas are worshipped together and it called the Panchayatan. The Panchayatan system is very ancient, it is described in several Puranas – the Narada Purana, Skanda Purana, Padma Purana, Matsya Puran and in the Shrimat Devi Bhagwat Mahapuran. As per the Mahapuran, the Devi Bhavani is worshipped in the centre, Bhagwan Vishnu in the northeast, Bhagwan Shankar in the southeast, Bhagwan Ganesha in southwest and Bhagwan Surya in the northwest. And as per other Purans, you can also keep your Ishtadevata in the centre and surrounded by the other 4 Devatas.
The greatest Maharishi of relatively recent times, Swami Adishankaracharya has emphasised this Panchayatan puja format. As is the most powerful and most suited especially for the householder level people. And this was because it has two major benefits.
- This is the best way of bringing together all the people of Bharat, to make them feel the inherent unity of the nation and the Vedic Dharma which powers its collective.
- And on the individual levels, this is the best way to progress faster in your spiritual practice. This type of Puja expands your mind, to help it more easily appreciate the true nature of the Vedic Dharma and the Vedic Devata.
In fact Adishankaracharya upgraded the energy of the puja. The puja can be performed with the human shaped moortis of the Devata. But he recommended that special stones be used as the representative moorti of the Devatas. These would be raw stones directly from nature as the moorti of the Devata. And these were not any random stones picked up from the ground. These are stones from all over Bharat and found in certain high energy rivers. These are –
- 1. Shaligram – this is a black colored rounded stone and often with the fossil imprints of ammonites. It is found only in the Gandaki river in the current land of Nepal, ie the Northern part of India. This stone represents Bhagwan Vishnu.
- 2. Banalingam – this is a rounded cylindrical stone with reddish brownish marks and found only in the Narmada river in Central India. This represents Bhagwan Shankar.
- 3. Sphatik – this is the crystal quartz. You must have seen it worshipped in rounded polished forms. But it can be worshipped in the rough form also. It is found only in the dried up course of the now underground river Saraswati in West India and this represents Bhagwan Surya.
- 4. Sonbhadra – This is a red colored stone is found only in the river Son in East India and this represents Bhagwan Ganapati.
- 5. Ambikashila – this is a greyish silvery stone found only in the river Svarnamukhi in South India and this represents the Devi.
Earlier if you wanted to do panchayatan puja in the real sense, you would have actually had to go to these places. Walk in the river beds. Request the Devi of the River and the connected Devata and then search for the stones in the river water or at the riverbanks. Feel the power of the Devi / Devata around you. And then the stone which you are given from this river, which naturally comes to your hand, this is what you had to take home with you and worship. Thus you do not simply worship just the stone, but you mentally amplify that moment of your oneness with that Devata in that natural surrounding. This stone also carries within it the intensity of your ‘search’ for the Devata and your happiness of having found Him/Her.
And why stones sourced from rivers? This is because the rivers represents the movement of the water. And here ‘water’ symbolises the cosmic water, ‘Ambh’. ‘That’ which was present ‘before existence and before non-existence’ as per the 1st Rk of the Naasadiya sukta. Creation began when this ‘cosmic water’ was moved by desire. And this energy is also connected to the stone you get from the natural river.
Today you can buy these stones from a jewellery shop or online and do the Panchayatan as Adi Shankaracharya had prescribed. But do try to go to these rivers at least once in your lifetime. This will help you understand the energy dynamics of the puja you are performing.
Apart from the energy, Swami Adishankaracharya wanted every follower of Sanatan Dharma to do such Panchayatan puja for a very practical reason. His vision was that every family would have these 5 stones sourced from all corners of Bharat in the home Devghar. Everyone would do their daily pujas on these stones. Some family member would have gone to that place in Bharat and brought it back with due reverence. He would have shared his story of his travel and his emotions as he picked up the stone from the river. And this energy would become a permanent part of the family puja and the family energy. Thus subconsciously every generation would continually appreciate the underlying unity of Bharat. Hindus would travel to these sacred rivers, interact with each other and come closer. And everyone would eventually develop a common nationalist feeling.
And on the Dharmic level, people would take the next step onwards, move from the human figure moortis to the natural stone moorti of the Devatas. Expand their minds with the Panchayatan pujas.
Worshipping Devatas in sheela/ rock form is always more powerful than worshipping them in carved human shaped moorti forms. The uncarved stones directly link with the sub-conscious mind without any interference from the conscious mind. The raw stones, directly from nature, carry with them the original power of Devi Prakruti, the Greatest Artist ever, unaltered by human minds/hands. Human minds/ hands cannot match Her Art. Natural is always the most beautiful.
Carved moortis are suitable for beginners. At this stage your mind needs the support of the human image as a focus point. You need to see the Devata as a human so that you can relate more easily. Eg you make beautiful jewellery or beautiful dresses for the moorti, which gives more emotional support to your mind. But this also means that the energy of the Devata is at the lowest. So it is advisable to pass through this level as fast as possible.
Then as the mind expands, the emotional mind is more stable and the intelligence/ Buddhi starts opening up, you move one step onwards. Now you should worship uncarved stones as moorti of the Parameshwar. Your mind has moved onwards from its need to cling to the human form but still it needs a form to focus on. And for common householders, ie the majority of the Hindus this is a very desirable stage to be in. Your emotional mind (Manomayakosh) is satisfied because you can still touch the moorti, see it and adorn it with ornaments etc. And your intellectual mind (Vijnyanmaykosh) also gets the chance to work on itself, to expand itself.
Both carved and uncarved moorti forms belong to the Pruthvi mahabhoot, they are solid earthy. The Pruthvi tattva is the lowest energy level of the Eternal Parameshwar. So the next ‘moorti’ upgrade is that you will worship after the Panchayatan puja format is the Agni moorti. Here you visualise the adored Devata in the flames of the Agni. This is a more intellectually rigorous phase. You enter this when your emotional mind is almost stabilised and you need to work only on the Buddhi component. Now onwards you will do Yajnyas. And if you have to do Archana/ Puja then you will do puja of the Agni – flame of the Deepak. ie you will invoke your deity in the flame of the Deepak! At this level, your mind is simultaneously expanding and yet becoming subtle. You stop relying on the solid moorti forms, you adopt the Agni form as the moorti of the Parameshwar. You are now moving from the more diluted Puranic/ Itihasic phase pujas to the pure Vedic Yajnas.
And after this, as you refine your mind further, make your Buddhi more prashodhit, you will eventually reach the final goal. This is the Keval Advaita, sometimes called the ‘Videha’. The Atmajnyani Mahapurush are in this state, they are one with the formless, abstract, ‘bodiless’, Amoorta Parameshwar or the Nirgun Brahma in his pure energy, intelligent, awaren, conscious form.
We humans are ‘humans’ because only we have a functional Vijnyanmaykosh, the discriminating intellect, Buddhi, Vivek, Vjnyan. Only we have the capacity to understand, Experience and then Transcend that Experience to Realise Pure Existence. But you have to activate your Vivek, learn to use it, learn to channelise its tremendous power. And only the Astik Darshan Shastra ie the Ved, teaches us how to do this. And the Panchayatan puja is an important link in this evolution process.
Dr. Tejaswini Arvind Patil.
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