Hari Aum.
On completion of my sixth purascharana in April, I had decided not to start the seventh for several months-- the plan was to wait until the end of Navaratri in autumn at the very least.
However, as the saying goes, 'man proposes and God disposes'. And there is now a change of plan.
I had a 'tower moment' a few days ago. Every now and again, when I start to relax spiritually, I get a kick from the universe to get me going again.
This time, it was one of my 'unglamourous spiritual experiences' (similar to that described in this post https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/803812822913447625/6082514563214787021?hl=en-GB I will not therefore describe the experience again here).
This unglamorous experience occurred after a break of many years (again provoked by severe physical pain that appeared out-of-the-blue). The main effect of this, as before, was to remind me that when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan (apologies for the language!), there is only one person I can rely on-- and that one person is Krishna. Not my family, not my friends, no other person and no other deity-- but Krishna, and Krishna alone.
I had the impression that He had put up with my sulking very patiently in recent years. I have been rude to Him of late-- doing 1 mala of the ashtakashara daily since April with little enthusiasm. And talking only of the greatness of the Divine Mother and mainly worshipping Her (while ignoring Him due to feeling upset). I feel He tolerated all this with great patience but then wanted to remind me that time is passing and it is the right time to get serious about sadhana again.
In the past week, I completed 8 weeks approximately since the completion of the last purascharana. This would have been the time for me to plan the next one based on the past. But I was in no mood to think of another purascharana. The fifth and sixth purascharanas had been so horrible in terms of karmic purging, health issues and other problems that I felt betrayed by God Himself. I was not keen to think of the next one.
Anyway, the events of the past week have changed this (there have been various challenges including health issues which are now improving). I have been reminded again that it is Krishna who is my rock. Whatever emotion I may feel towards Him, this is simply an undeniable fact as far as I am concerned.
I therefore sat down to plan my seventh purascharana yesterday. I was looking for a good muhurtha. In the meantime, the heat here was terrible and even higher temperatures were predicted this week. There was no rain forecast at all and, as I get horrible migraines in intense heat, I silently asked Krishna to consider sending a little rain. If possible, I said, please provide a little relief from this terrible weather.
I was using the AI tool Gemini to plan my seventh purascharana last evening. I gave it some instructions and told it to work out how long it would take to complete with scheduled reductions in japa after completion of every quarter (I don't usually outsource my work to AI but was feeling tired so though I would get some help from it). As I worked this out, it began to rain (obviously a coincidence and not necessarily due to my prayer, but I was very happy!).
Overnight, it poured with rain and there was a large storm with much thunder and lightning (this was not predicted in the forecast yesterday; some areas were flooded including some parts of the city where I live. I was awakened last night by my daughter running into my room to say she wanted me to close the windows in her room as the sound of thunder was disturbing her. I shut the windows while watching the spectacular flashes of lightning in the sky.)
In the morning, I felt grateful for the rain--though a little less would have been helpful-- no need for flooding! (The Divine will obviously say there is no pleasing us humans-- everything is either too much or too little!).
The bottom line is I have now selected a muhurtha for my seventh purascharana of the ashtakshara mantra of Narayana-- and the intention is to start this next week.
This is going to be a very chilled out purascharana. It will be done at the rate of 8-9 malas per day, with a view to complete it in around 2.5 years.
Every 200,000 recitations (i.e. after every quarter of the purascharana), there will be a relaxation of the japa, down to 1-4 malas. At any time, if the karmas feel too intense and unbearable, there will be a temporary suspension for as long as is needed to recover prior to resuming it.
Like a mobile phone contract can 'roll' from one month to the next and be suspendeded at any time, this purascharana also will 'roll' monthly and can be paused at any time! The first four purascharanas were quite pleasant overall. There were no very heavy karmas and no need to worry about pausing.
In contrast, the fifth and sixth were very tough and full of all sorts of unprecedented challenges. Therefore, it makes complete sense to prepare for anything in the seventh (I will of course try to keep this up as continuously as possible but will need to be prepared to make adjustments based on karmas that may need to be faced).
However, I do hope and pray that the seventh will be better than the previous two. Based on my Vedic astrology chart, a horrible phase (Rahu- Jupiter) is ending, and a more auspicious period is beginning (Rahu-Saturn; this is based on Lahiri ayanamsa, towards which I am leaning again as this seems more accurate than other ayanamsas with regard to my dashas).
Saturn demands discipline, regular spiritual practice and adherence to dharma. As a Taurus ascendant, it rules my 9th house of dharma and 10th house of career (it is exalted in Libra, my sixth house of health issues/enemies/legal matters--yikes! This placement usually means a person will have a battle on their hands with regard to these but will prevail!). I am going to start a new post workwise when this period begins after a couple of months. We shall see what the future brings.
So this post is basically to say that purascharana seven is very much on the cards and is due to begin much sooner than I had planned. The events of the past week have been like a bolt from the blue (quite literally!) and have compelled me to take this step.
There is a nice placement of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury all together in the sign of Cancer currently. I plan to utilise this auspicious conjunction to get my seventh purascharana off to a positive start-- I feel I will need all the help I can get from the stars to complete this!
For those readers who have not yet considered this practice, I would say that it is both very rewarding and challenging (ultimately, in a good way)-- overall, it is very much worth it.
Om Namo Narayanaya.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
