Daily Homam Practice — Bhutagni Concept, Small Fire Bond & Pronunciation vs Bhava in Mantra

Daily Homam — PVNR's Strong Recommendation

PVNR has been doing one homam every morning for a month and a half. He recommends a 30–40 minute homam every day to anyone who can manage it.

"I have done so many various spiritual practices. But there is nothing like homam."

The Bhutagni Concept

• Jatharagni is the fire in the stomach that digests the food you take in.
• Bhutagni is a fire in the sukshma sharira (subtle body). It digests everything that comes into you subtly.
• In Kali Yuga this fire is very weak in most people.
• When it is weak, the result shows up finally as problems on the physical plane too. Whatever happens on the subtle plane has its analogue on the physical plane.
• A homam — every day, every week or every month — purifies the bhutagni and makes it strong.

Why the Other Sadhanas Start Working

• You may do a mantra five hours a day and nothing happens. Your agni may not be strong enough to digest the mantra. "You are saying it, but it's not being digested fully."
• With a strong bhutagni, all mantras and sadhanas give their results 10, 100 or 1000 times faster.
• Most of the time 90–99% of a mantra ends in indigestion.

"If you do Gayatri 1000 times, if it is fully digested, I won't be here."

The Fire and the Bond

• PVNR uses no wood. The fire is small — "basically like a big deepam" — fed with small pieces of dry coconut. Only the Purnahuti, half a dry coconut, makes a big fire.
• The size of the fire does not matter. What matters is the association between that fire and the bhutagni within you.
• The bond is not there in the beginning. It forms slowly as you keep doing the homam.
• Once the association is complete, whatever mantra you say to the external agni also goes to your bhutagni and purifies it. As it is purified it grows stronger.
• This finally increases the jatharagni too: digestive problems may go, and you may feel more energy. PVNR feared adding an hour to a full schedule, and found he has more energy.

"We are so bothered about this gross body, we think this is everything. We do not understand the sukshma sharira, we do not understand its needs, we do not do anything for it. This is something that you can do for your sukshma sharira."

Which Deity, Which Mantras

• Any devata will do. Starting with Mahaganapati is good: by the Vedic method it is an easy homam, not complicated.
• PVNR is doing 60 days of Mahaganapati homam (the class day was the 44th) and will then switch to Mahalakshmi, his ishta devata.
• His own counts are minimal: the bija mantra 12 times, "Gananam tva" 8 or 12 times, the Ganapati Atharvashirsha three times (about ten minutes). Then Gayatri 16 times with ghee; Sri Suktam on Fridays, one ahuti per verse; the Devi Suktam's 8 verses on the Navaratri Sundays.
• The Ganapati worshipped here is not the one who removes obstacles or gives money or children. It is the Ganapati of the Atharvashirsha — "tvam Vishnus tvam Rudras tvam Indras tvam Agnis…" — Brahman, the source of all creation. Lakshmi, Brahma, Vishnu, Durga are all him.
• So the mantra of any devata can be offered to him. The same holds for any devata you see as the source of the entire creation.
• He is writing up the procedure and will record every mantra as audio so that people can learn it themselves.

Homam Supplements Japa — It Does Not Replace It

A student who does a lot of Gayatri japa with attention at the Ajna chakra finds that the same meditative effect is not there in the homam.

• It will not be there. Offering your mantra in the fire is not an alternative to your japa. It is a supplement.
• If you do 10 malas (1000) of Gayatri a day, do not do 1000 in the homam. Japa is the more beneficial for that.
• Add a token number of ahutis with ghee: 8, 11, 12, 16, or 100.
• You will see less during the homam than in your japa. But when you go back to the japa, its result is magnified because of those few ahutis — even if you do not realise that is the cause.
• The standard formula is the dasamsa: for 10 malas of japa, 1 mala in the fire. Such formulas are for specific aims, like the siddhi of a mantra. Without any sankalpa — "which is the best thing to do" — you need not be bound by them. Put 10 ahutis and be done.
• The bhutagni gets used to the mantra offered in the fire. Later, even without an external fire, it fires, receives that mantra and digests it better.

Pronunciation and the Image in the Mind

The question: What if you cannot pronounce the mantras properly?

• Some tantric procedures need the right sequence and the right pronunciation.
• Veda mantras done by the Vedic method are "purely heart-based". A mistake is not a big deal.

"Pronunciation is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is the image in your mind. It is not just the sound that comes out of the mouth, it is also the image that is formed in the mind. When there is a synchronization between the two, that is when things happen."

• Without that synchronization you are saying the mantra like a robot. Nothing happens.
• People with very bad pronunciation who have shraddha, bhakti and the right image in the mind get results. PVNR knows devoted Tamil priests who do not distinguish ka/kha/ga/gha or pa/pha/ba/bha — "Badmaja" for Padmaja, "Gamala" for Kamala — and their mantras work.
• Pronunciation is also important; it is not the only important thing. If you keep at it, your pronunciation will become correct in time. Someone will help you.

Why It Matters Now

• Homam and japa have to come back. We are already in Kali, and sooner or later Ghora Kali has to start — more strife, more disease, more chaos. It was willed long ago.
• The scattered pujas that kept the balance until now may not be enough. Those who are capable have to go back to the traditional Vedic ways and do a higher sadhana. That will matter for the world over the next few millennia.

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BPHS Chapter 91 — Eclipse Birth (Grahana Janma) Announced

• After the Sankranti chapter comes the eclipse chapter: Grahana Jata Shanti Adhyaya, Chapter 91 in the Santhanam edition. In the G. C. Sharma edition the chapter number is higher by about two.
• The timing fits. A solar eclipse had occurred a couple of days before the class (not visible where the class was held), with Sun and Moon in Virgo — PVNR's own lagna.

"Surya, Chandra, everybody was in my lagna last few days. So we will do Grahana Jata Shanti Adhyaya."

• Nothing of the chapter is taught in this recording. It ends as the chapter is taken up.

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