Shakambhari Sadhana Real Experience

Shakambhari Sadhana:

Goddess Shakambhari

Family life looked a waste of time, and with spiritual quest as an easy excuse, I ran away from home, friends, family and relatives. Little did I then understand that this was nothing but escaping from the reality. This realization came much later in the feet of my Guru. My true Mastered entered my life after several years of useless wandering, but it can be said that the first proper direction given to my first Guru, my first spiritual teacher, though I had been an unwilling and even untrusting disciple!

My perambulations took me to the North-East and there in the country side I first heard the name, Ma Nandita. This was how all country folks called her. It seemed to stir come past memories. I had never met her before, this I was sure of, yet as soon as I would hear someone say – Ma Nandita, some strange feeling would grip me. I enquired from at least a score of villagers and each would delightfully burst into encomiums for the lady. This only served to magnify my curiosity and finally to call upon her.

I reached her place and as soon as she saw me, her face lit up with joy and she said – ‘You have come!’

She must have been not more than fifty, give or take a year. Her hair was jet black, streaked with a few silver strands. Yet her face radiated with youthfulness and motherly compassion showered incessantly from her eyes.

Despite the initial feeling of discomfort, due to her almost smothering motherly love, I look liking to the gentle lady. I stayed there for a night, then another and another till it was a week before the wanderlust in me surfaced again.

The first night I was an eager enthusiast, craving to know something of the spiritual realms from Ma. I questioned her, probed her and tried to know all I could. This enthusiasm lasted for two more days where after I would sit silently and she would keep telling me new things. I wished to discuss, to argue but my limited knowledge had run out and I was forced to be a mere listener. Finally one day patience ran out and I told her that I was leaving.

A look of concern flashed on her features and she said, “Why are you going? And where shall you go?”

I myself didn’t know the answer, but I did not wish to look like a fool before the sagacious lady, hence I said, “Flowing water and a Yogi can never be stopped, Ma.”

And before the words were out of my mouth I knew that I had ended up looking even more foolish than if I had accepted my helplessness.

The painful look that came into her eyes tore at my heart. I wouldn’t have left more embarrassed if she had slapped me. “Is that what your Guru has taught you?” she asked.

I was too stunned to cry any more gimmicks and plainly I told her that I had no Guru.

The words seemed to act like magic. The look of pain evaporated from her eyes and was replaced by the same old motherly love. She stood there lost in deep thought for some time, and then asking me to sit down she went into her small hut.

I did not have the heart to disobey her and quietly I sat down outside. It was mid-day and I waited till the sun-set. Still there was no sign of her. Night started to creep in and feared lest she was unwell. But I seemed to be under a strange spell and did not have the courage to get up and go inside.

It was almost midnight and I must have dosed off. There was a sudden rustling movement and in a moment I was wide awake to see Ma emerging from her hut. Her face shone with a divine glow and I looked at her with my mouth agape. Without uttering a single word she motioned me to follow her and started off at a brisk pace along a time-worn path that went uphill.

The climb was strenuous and at last reaching a spot where there was a large flat-topped rock she stopped. “Go and sit there”, she said I obeyed and a few feet from me she assumed her seat, facing away from me. Without turning her head, she strictly directed me not to leave my place and then she became engrossed in some Mantra recital.

It was a moonless night and very dark indeed. Yet an ethereal radiance to dance all around Ma Nandita’s seated from. I was curious what she was doing but soon the curiosity gave way to anger and irritation under the fierce onslaught of bugs. I dared not to get up or make noise hence I let the bugs have a feast.

Very soon my head started to nod and I was lost to the world. What woke me up was a terrible sound ‘Dhumm!’ and when I opened my eyes in shock; I saw a bewildering scene before me. I had to pinch my skin hard to convince myself that what I was seeing was no nightmare.

Ma Nandita sat as before a few feet away, but right before her a mountain of a human form seemed suspended in mid-air. It was a woman, dark as the rain clouds in complexion and her belly swollen to amazing proportions. Her mammoth form was clad in deer skin and strings of sea shells adorned her neck, wrists, arms and ankles. The whole of her forehead was plastered with layers of vermillion, blood red in color, and a similar ruby radiance out of her grotesque form.

Even more frightening and awe striking than her form was her way of breathing. She did it with her mouth and with such force that it seemed a gale was blowing. Was this the reason why Nandita Ma had stopped me?

Then a strange electric feeling pervaded my body, wave after wave of electric current seemed to run through it till I could take it no more and fainted.

Somehow I managed to find my way back and when I reached the hut the sun was just beginning to peer over the eastern horizon. She sat there with child-like innocence at the doorstep and looking at her loved-filled face my anger too subsided.

Nevertheless I did complain why she had left me all alone. She only smiled at me and went inside to return with a bundle.

“Here take this! And go where you wish to.”

I untied the cloth and found in it a Yantra inscribed on a copper plate, a Gutika and rosary with strange beads. When I looked at her questioningly she said, “It matters not whether one is a Sanyasi or house holder. Both are splendid lives. But it is never good to be a dependent.

This is a special Yantra and a Gutika. On the fourth night of the dark fortnight of a lunar month place these two on a red cloth and chant the Mantra. Do this regularly and thus shall fulfill all your needs. Remember, it befits not a man to be dependent on others. Then she recited the Mantra and asked me to leave.

“But Ma, where shall I go?” I asked.

She burst into merry laughter and said, “Don’t you worry son, your stars shall direct you.”

And how true her words proved to be, for only a few months later I came into contact with Param Pujya Sadgurudev Dr. Narayan Dutt Shrimali. It was he who revealed to me that Ma Nandita had gifted me with not just the glimpse of the Goddess Shakambhari, but also Her Sadhana, which as I have experienced, can help one restyle and ornament one’s material life with all comforts and riches.

I have since returned to a family life and I feel indebted to the loving mother who without asking gave me such a wonderful boon. And how true were her words that my stars would direct me, for I have reached the feet of a Sadguru whose mere presence in my life has made a desert bloom into on oasis. Thinking of Ma, sometimes I wonder how many others are there silently guiding lost souls onto the right path of Sadhanas.

Who was this Ma, why had she helped me, was she some divine soul from the Spiritual Land of Siddhashram? I have myself had the vision of one Goddess Shakambhari. Gods and Goddesses sure are real. Will I be able to have a glimpse of anymore?

My spiritual quest is on and in fact in the loving guidance of Revered Gurudev it is in earnest now. For the time being I feel delighted to be blessed by the Goddess Shakambhari who bestows no less than 14 boons, namely-handsome and healthy physique, longevity, happiness, happy married life, beautiful spouse, sons and daughters, victory over enemies, wealth, comforts, spiritual enlightenment, pilgrimages to holy places, a kind charitable disposition, a Sadguru, and Salvation after death.

Shakambhari Maa

According to Revered Gurudev besides the fourth day of the Dark fortnight of a lunar month, this Sadhana can also be tried on a Tuesday or a Friday of the same fortnight. There are no strict rules for this Sadhana. Only one needs a Shakambhari Yantra, Karaali Gutika and Shakambhari Mala. The Sadhak must place these in a copper plate and offer water, vermillion, rice grains and flowers on them. Then picking up the Shakambhari Rosary one must chant 31 rounds of this Mantra.

Mantra: Om Hreem Kleem Kleem Hreem Mahaadevyei Phat

Try it in the night and next day; throw the articles in a river or pond. The form of the Goddess might look frightening but she is very gentle and kind at heart. Hence have no fear and try the Sadhana with an undoubting and devoted mind.