Chandi Pooja details (in English and Tamil)!

Those of us who want to have phalan of Chandi Homam without doing any sacrifice, we can perform a following pooja with only pooja dravyams and a deepam with 13 mukham. This pooja I learnt from a Shree Vidya Upasaka Shri Venkatesha shastrigal who had His adhyayanam from our Kanchi Matam.

To drive away all the bad spirit, bad vibration around us Chandala Sumangali dosham and have the full blessings of Chandi Devi who is in roudra (full of anger) as she destroys all the demons in the universe to give peace and harmony to the people , we perform this pooja. All cannot perform Homam as it needs a lot of preparation and time too. For this Devi mahamtyam which describes Devi's destruction of all asuras can be chanted with a good pandit who is well versed in Sanskrit , followed with a Deepa puja chanting Lalitha sahasranamam by 10 sumangalis doing Archana too.

Devimahatmyam consists of 3 parts, Kavacham, Keelakam and Argala being the 1st part that is the preface, 2nd part being the main 13 chapters 700 shlokas in which 4th and 11 th are Devi sthuti and the rest all vadham (destruction) of Asuras that all we know. The 3rd part is Pradhanya rahasyam, Vaikrutika rahasya and moorthi rahasyam and to end with Devi kshama prarthana (begging pardon of Devi for what all mistakes we did while doing pooja and chanting.

The pooja thus starts with Ganapathi pooja and Book Devimahatmyam. Place a very big Deepam with 13 mukha and ghee full , decorated with flowers ornaments and a small skirt so as to look like a girl. Prepare 13 different offerings(naivadyam) like chitrannam, vadai, sarkarai pongal panchamrutam, panakam, different kinds of fruits and so on. Invite 10 Sumangalis , do pada puja to them and shodasopachara to those ladies. Do aavahanam of Devi in the Deepam. When the Pandit is doing parayanam each chapter ends do a neivadyam and Harathi. In this way we can offer 13 types of offerings to Devi.

When the parayanam is done start with Sahasranama archana with kumkumam by all the 10 ladies starts. finally offer Suddhannam, Panakam coconut, betel leaves with nut ,milk with haldi(manjal) elaichi powder and sugar. With Harathi and prostration the Devi pooja ends. Then serve food for the ladies invited with utter dedication. Do prostration and circumbulation to the ladies and do Harathi too. Provide them with all mangala dravyams like betel leaves, nuts, manjal 5 in counts coconut and fruits and blouse piece or saree whichever possible .

13 Mukhams lit in the Deepam represent 13 main chapters . For sumangalis at the end of puja mehandi (marutani) also must be given along with other mangala dravyams.

Thus the elaborate pooja comes to an end. This way you can please Devi in rudra roopam and get rid of all the hurdles in your life and the bad spirits around us. This way I follow as per Venkatesha Shastrigal's advice. I have suggested people around me and some of them followed this.

Please click on this link for details in Tamil: Chandi Pooja details in Tamil

Devi sharanam.

Ya Devi sarva bhutheshu Mathru roopena samstitha Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyai Namo Namaha||

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Thanks a bunch to Saraswathi Thygarajan Mami for meticulously compiling the pooja details!