Sankranti Shanti Procedure (Navagraha Homam), Parashara's Actual Mantra Counts & Qualified Priests

The Sankranti Shanti — Navagraha Homam (BPHS Chapter 90)

Parashara: for relief from the dosha, do the Navagraha makha (makha = homa).

Step 1: The Place

• The east side of the house.
• Smear the ground with cow dung (gomaya).
• Decorate the place well (su-alankrita).

Step 2: The Grain Pile

• First a little vrihi — in Telugu pelalu, grain that is only slightly popped.
• On it 5 dronas of paddy (dhanya — rice in the husk).
• On that 2½ dronas of raw white rice (tandula).
• On that 1¼ dronas of sesame (tila).
• Spread it and draw an ashtadala padma (eight-petalled lotus) on the pile.
• A drona is an old volume measure; he does not know its size. The number is not the point — take a cup, call it your drona, and keep the proportions.

Step 3: Punyahavachanam and the Acharya

• Have brahmanas read the Punyahavachanam — normally the Pavamana Suktam. It calls the devas and rishis to make the water and everything there sacred.
• Then choose the acharya. Parashara's words: dharmajna (knows dharma), mantra-tattvajna (knows the tattva of the mantra — not just the mantra, but its inner meaning and nature), shanti-karmani kovida (expert in shanti rites).
• In the old days many brahmanas came, all read together — ideally seated in the four directions — and one of them was then asked to be the acharya. Today even finding one is hard. These are ideal conditions; you may have to relax them.

Step 4: The Kalashas

• "Establish the kumbhas in the rashis." Parashara assumes you know the Navagraha Homa layout: 9 kalashas for the 9 grahas and 12 for the 12 rashis. An elaborate homa adds 28 more for the 28 nakshatra devatas. The rashi kalashas are usually arranged like a South Indian chart.
• The pots must be avrana (not leaking) and good to look at.
• Fill them with tirthodaka — the water sanctified by the Punyahavachanam.
• Add herbs and other auspicious things. In practice: cardamom powder, saffron, a little turmeric, sandalwood; a little homa samagri in place of the more elaborate materials. Coins can be put in — the divinity is invoked into them and they can be given away afterwards.
• Pallava: tender leaves (mango) at the mouth of the kalasha, and normally a coconut on top.
• Wrap each with a pair of cloths — one on the coconut, one round the pot.

Step 5: The Three Idols

• Middle: the Sankranti devata for the weekday of the Sankranti (Manda for a Wednesday Sankranti, and so on). If you have no such idol, use any idol and take it to be that devata.
• Adhidevata — Surya, on the devata's right. Pratyadhidevata — Chandra, on the left.
• Offer the devata a pair of cloths.

Step 6: Puja

• Main idol: the Tryambaka (Mrityunjaya) mantra.
• Surya: the Vedic mantra beginning "Ut Surya".
• Chandra: "Apyayasva".
• Do shodashopachara puja — the full sixteen services, not just five. "We compromise everywhere; at least here do the sixteen."
• Then, touching the main idol, do the Mrityunjaya mantra 1008 or 108 times — or at least 28, according to your ability.
• This is separate from the fire. Normally the idol, the kalasha and the fire are worshipped together; here Parashara has the idol worshipped on its own.

Step 7: Homa

• Set the fire on the western side of all the kalashas.
• Do the agni-mukham by whatever procedure you were taught — Vaidika or Tantrika. Parashara leaves this open.
• With the Tryambaka mantra offer samidh (twigs), ajya (ghee) and charu (cooked food, such as payasam) — 1008, 108 or 28 times, according to your ability.
• Tila homa (sesame) with the Mrityunjaya mantra.
• Then the svishtakrit offering — Agni is the one who makes the offering su-ishta, fit for the devas — and the other standard closing offerings.

Step 8: Abhisheka

• Pour the water of all the graha and rashi kalashas over the native, and his family members.

Step 9: Feed Brahmanas

• Then feed brahmanas. With that the shanti is obtained.

What Else Can Be Offered

• Parashara does not say it, but having rashi kalashas implies the rashis can be given ahutis too.
• At the teacher's own Navagraha Homa they personified and offered to everything: rashis, the varga chakras, weekdays, tithis, the 27 yogas, karanas, the 60 years, solar and lunar months, nakshatras. Everything has a karana sharira, so everything can be personified.
• A student asked about offering to grahas that are bad for you. In a homa you do not pick. You play host to all and feed all. The one who is good to you becomes better; the one who is bad to you becomes a little better. Do it as dharma, without calculating the return.

Getting a Priest to Follow Parashara

A student said he cannot do all this himself and cannot dictate to a priest.

• You can ask, humbly: "This is what Parashara says — can we do it this way?"
• Parashara gives only the format: these kalashas, this idol with Sun and Moon on the sides, these mantras this many times. The details — how the agni-mukham is done and the rest — stay with the priest.
• Most priests learn a format and fill in the details you give. The teacher's own priest accepted his suggestion to lay out 28 nakshatra kalashas (with Abhijit) seven to a side, starting from Krittika, as in the Sarvatobhadra Chakra, instead of 27 placed at random.
• A priest who cannot follow a Maharshi's text when shown it is probably not the right priest. Do not insult him.
• Even if the priest does it his own way, you may still get some result. "Doing is the most important thing."

Do the Rishis Have Complete Knowledge?

A student's question, prompted by the "ideal acharya".

• The most complete knowledge is that everything is Brahman and there is nothing to know. Every Maharshi has that.
• Knowledge of how to work within maya — these very remedies — is also knowledge, but perfect knowledge of it is not possible, even for rishis. Only the Divine Mother has it; even Brahma and Vishnu do not.
• The rishi still advises the homa and does it, knowing it is maya — like a water drop on a lotus leaf.
• So no one is perfect in this knowledge. Choosing an acharya is always a compromise; do the best you can.

---

Parashara's Navagraha Mantra Counts

Raised while explaining the kalashas. The chapter on Navagraha Shanti (he believes chapter 84 in the Santhanam edition) had not yet been taught.

The popular practice: take the planet's Vimshottari years and multiply by 1,000 — Sun 6,000, Moon 10,000, Mars 7,000, Ketu 7,000 and so on.

• Parashara never gives these numbers. It looks like a later invention.
• It is not logical either: Vimshottari is not the only dasha. Other dashas that use all nine planets give different years.
• A student asked for the rest of the Vimshottari-based counts. "Why do you want to know? I am saying they are useless."

The counts Parashara gives (as read out in class):

"Parashara does not ever mention the Vimshottari dasha numbers. He mentions totally different numbers. … We do not even know the basis for these numbers, but these are the numbers given by Parashara."

• Example: for Ketu shanti almost everyone does 7,000. By Parashara it is 17,000.
• These are counts for homa or japa. They are not years.
• 23,000 is within reach for two or three people doing four hours each.

The mantras Parashara names are the Veda mantras in use today, except for two:

• Moon: a mantra beginning "Imam deva asapatnam" — today Apyayasva is used.
• Venus: a mantra beginning "Annat parisruto rasam".
• The teacher did not know the full text of these two and asked the students to find them, with the Veda reference and the svara marks, for a Navagraha Homa he was planning.

---