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Aasaa Dasami Vratham is a ten day worship procedure that can help you
regain, through righteous means, that which you may have lost, be it position, title, wealth, inheritance, friends or relatives.
Dasami is the tenth thithi in each phase of the moon.
In each year, there are roughly 24 or 25 Dasami thithis.
One of these is known as Aasaa Dasami. This year, it occurs on July/22/99; it starts at
0007 hours GMT on July/22/99 and lasts until 0228 hours GMT on July/23/99.
Please consult the Agasthiar Panchaangam (spiritual calendar)
for the exact times for your timezone.
Aasaa Dasami Vratham is one of the special worship procedures observed by Sri Garuda to get
the grace of Lord Sri Narayana and win back His position as the Lord's mount.
If divinities like Sri Garuda must engage in worship procedures, how about us mere humans?
This is Sri Narayana's way of illustrating the importance of being immersed in constant worship.
It shows that a devotee must be involved in worship, atleast mentally, twenty fours a day.
This worship procedure is observed over a period of ten days commencing on the Prathamai thithi
that precedes Aasaa Dasami. It reaches completion on Aasaa Dasami.
In this Pramaadhi year, this ten day period starts at 0225 hours GMT on July/13/99 (start of Prathamai thithi) and
lasts until 0228 hours GMT on July/23/99 (end of Aasaa Dasami thithi).
Please consult the Agasthiar Panchaangam (spiritual calendar)
for the exact times for your timezone.
We'll describe the worship procedure alone in this article.
For more details, please refer to pages 8 to 10 of the July/99 issue of Sri Agasthia Vijayam,
the Ashram monthly magazine.
As we said earlier, the Aasaa Dasami worship procedure spans ten thithis from Prathamai, the first thithi
until Dasami, the tenth. Devotees should worship Sri Narayana on each of these thithis according to the
Siddha procedure laid out in the table below. While you can observe this worship procedure in your home shrine,
it's ideal if you can do it in a Narayana temple in your area. On each of these days, you must apply sandalwood paste to
Sri Narayana's divine form; make the sandalwood paste and apply it as though Sri Garuda Himself is doing it to Sri Narayana by
surrendering yourself completely to the Lord. It's important that you make the sandalwood paste yourself from scratch.
| Prathamai |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's lotus feet and circle the Lord's temple 21 times.
If you're observing the worship procedure at home, perform aathma pradakshinam (circling
oneself) 21 times. Prostrate yourself in front of the Lord 21 times and pray as follows:
"Merciful Lord Narayana, I'm beginning this special ten day worship procedure to righteously regain that which
I have lost (be it position, title, wealth, inheritance, friends, relatives). Only You know what's
good for me. I surrender to your all consuming grace." This is your statement of purpose to the Lord.
You may wonder whether it's okay to pray for material reasons. While it's best if all of us can pray
for spiritual upliftment alone, only a few humans are at that level. So the Siddhas say that it's okay to pray for
righteous material purposes. The more you pray, the more you'll get transformed into a spiritual being.
And the time will come when your prayers will cease to be material.
The Lord attracts each one of us in a different way. Therefore, looking down on the materially minded
is itself a sin; those who do this have succumbed to their ego by putting themselves on a higher
pedestal than others. The perfect devotees place themselves at the lowest level; they know that each
one of us is attracted to the Lord in different ways for that's the Lord's pleasure.
On this coat, affix Naaga Mudra, that is, impressions of serpent figures. You can do this by using
a mould made out of wood or metal. Affix these Naaga mudras all over Sri Garuda's form.
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| Dvithiyai |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's navel (from whence Sri Brahma appeared) and worship Him.
This worship procedure blesses the devotee with good health and longevity.
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| Trithiyai |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's chest where Sri Lakshmi resides and worship Him.
This worship procedure relieves the devotee from money problems and blesses him or her with Lakshmi kadaaksham (wealth and prosperity).
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| Chathurthi |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's head and worship Him.
Some of us are subject to a never ending series of problems because of our bad karma.
This worship procedure relieves the devotee from these recurring problems.
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| Panchami |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's ears and worship Him. This worship procedure will make it possible for you
to bathe in many sacred temple ponds that you may not have visited before.
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| Sashti |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's lips and worship Him.
This worship procedure will free yourself of the bad karma accumulated through anger. Moreover, it'll fortify you
from succumbing to fits of anger. It'll help you rebuild relationships that were damaged because of anger;
it'll make it possible for you to get back that which you lost due to anger.
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| Sapthami |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's stomach and worship Him.
Feed the poor on this day. This worship procedure relieves the devotee from stomach ailments.
It'll ensure prosperity in the lives of your progeny.
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| Ashtami |
Apply sandalwood paste from Sri Narayana's navel all the way to His lotus feet and worship Him.
This worship procedure will give you the mental strength that's necessary to make sure that you don't succumb to evil habits of any kind.
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| Navami |
Apply sandalwood paste on Sri Narayana's forehead and worship Him.
It's important to give lamp jothis as gifts on this day.
This worship procedure spells relief for those of us who have to lead a life ridden with problems.
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| Aasaa Dasami |
This day marks the completion of the ten day worship procedure. On this day, it's important to do
svarna dhaanam (giving gold as a gift). Do it according to your means, but give at least
three grams of gold in the form of a maangalyam (mangal sootra) to a poor couple who can't afford it.
Apply a coat of sandalwood paste on Sri Garuda's form just as you did on the first day and affix Naaga mudras
all over His divine form.
On this day, it's ideal if you can worship Sri Garuda in Tirupati Thirumala.
Circle the form of Sri Garuda using the adi pradakshinam technique wherein you take short steps, with the
heel of one foot being placed where the tips of the toes of the other foot are. Perform giri valam (circling the hill)
in all those places where there are Narayana temples on a hill, e.g., Tirupati, Hasthigiri (Kancheepuram Varadaraja temple) and so on.
It's also appropriate to perform giri valam around sacred hills like Arunachala, Parvatha Malai, Trichy Hill fort,
Thiruparankundram, Thiru Kazhukundram and so on. Performing giri valam using the adi pradakshinam technique
Those Siva temples wherein sri Narayana graces us with His divine presence are also appropriate for adi pradakshinam worship on this day, e.g.,
Thirumaalpoor near Kancheepuram, Thiru Nedungalam near Trichy, Sri Ekambaresvara temple in Kancheepuram,
the Arunachala temple in Arunachala, Sri Sankara Narayana temple, Suchindram temple, Utthamar temple near Trichy,
Thirumazhisai temple near Madras.
On this day, you should try to worship eight Naaga Devatas.
You can do this at the Vadapalani Vengeesvara temple in Madras and at the Kacchapesvara temple in Kancheepuram.
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Those who perform giri valam on all ten days around the sacred hills mentioned above will be blessed with success
in their ventures. Even if you don't do giri valam on all ten days, it's crucial that you do it at least on Aasaa dasami day.
Sri Narayana appreciated Sri Garuda's sincere observance of this worship procedure so much that He gifted
Sri Garuda with an ornament on each of the first eight days.
These eight ornaments were eight divine Naaga devatas (holy serpent beings) which Sri Garuda wears
on His divine form as ornaments. These eight beings are:
- Aadhisesha (worn on the left wrist),
- Vaasugi (worn as the sacred thread slung from the left shoulder to right waist),
- Kaarkodagan (worn on the neck as a garland),
- Padman (worn on the right ear),
- Maha Padman (worn on the left ear),
- Sanga Choodan (worn on the head),
- Dakshagan (worn on the left shoulder) and
- Kuligan (worn on the right shoulder).
These are the eight ornaments received by Sri Garuda from Sri Narayana in His manifestation as Sri Jagannatha.
On the ninth day, Sri Garuda bathed in many sacred
temple ponds and on the ninth day He performed giri valam around many sacred hills and completed the worship procedure,
as a result of which he won the grace of Sri Narayana and regained His position as the Lord's mount.
Just like this ten day worship procedure helped Sri Garuda win back his position as Sri Narayana's mount,
it will help you win back that which you may have lost. This is Sri Narayana's grace in action for us.
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| Om Salutations to Sri Narayana |
| Om Salutations to Sri Garuda |
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