Ucchishta Ganapati Puja Paddhati
The opening of a Tantric manual for worshipping Ucchishta Ganapati: the preparatory rites, atonement and the panchagavya purification verse.
Verses
Salutations to Lord Ganesha. Now begins the procedure of worship for Shrimad Uchchhishta Ganapati. First, the preliminary rites (Purvakritya) are described therein.
Verse 1
Three days prior to the Purashcharana, one should perform preliminary rites such as tonsure (kshaura), followed by Vishnu worship, Vishnu Tarpana, Vishnu Shraddha, Homa, and vows such as Chandrayana as penance. If unable to observe the full fasts, one should donate a cow or material wealth. If unable to perform all these rites, one should consume Panchagavya as an atonement. The mantra for this is:
Verse 2
Whatever impurities or sins reside within the skin and bones of this body of mine, may they be burned away by the consumption of Panchagavya, just as blazing fire consumes dry fuel.
Verse 3
Having recited this purification mantra, one should drink the sacred Panchagavya while chanting the Pranava (Om).
Verse 4
Worship Guidelines & Chanting Benefits (Phalashruti)
Daily or auspicious lunar days (Ekadashi, Purnima, Pradosham)
Brahma Muhurta (4:00 AM – 6:00 AM) or Evening Dusk (Sandhya)
Ghee lamp (Deepa), Incense (Dhoopa), Fresh flowers & Water offering
- Peace of mind, spiritual upliftment, and harmonious energy in the home
Background
A paddhati is a step-by-step manual of worship. This one belongs to the Tantra literature of Ucchishta Ganapati, a form of Ganesha, and it opens with the purvakritya, the preparatory acts that come before the main practice of purashcharana, a long course of mantra repetition. The text on this page covers the first part of the Sanskrit Documents edition. It tells the worshipper to prepare by shaving and then performing Vishnu worship, Vishnu tarpana, Vishnu shraddha and homa, with vows such as the Chandrayana fast, as atonement. For those who cannot do this, it allows a gift of a cow or of wealth, and, for someone unable to do any of it, the simplest form of atonement: drinking panchagavya, the five products of the cow, with a verse of purification. The rest of the paddhati goes on to a day of fasting, the repetition of the Gayatri ten thousand times, and a prayer to Shiva for a guiding dream. Such rites are traditionally taken up under a teacher.
Did You Know?
Preparation before practice
The first verses set the rule that three days before the purashcharana begins, the worshipper completes the preliminary acts. They are listed as shaving, Vishnu worship, Vishnu tarpana, Vishnu shraddha, homa and the Chandrayana fast.
A graded atonement
The text gives a ladder of options. If fasting is not possible, give a cow or wealth. If none of these is possible, drink panchagavya. The rule bends to what the worshipper is able to do.
Panchagavya
The word means the five products of the cow: milk, curd, ghee, urine and dung. In this text it is a rite of purification, not food. The worshipper recites the verse and then drinks it while saying Om.
The purification verse
Verse 3 asks that whatever fault lies in the body, in skin and bone, be burned away by the panchagavya as fire burns fuel. It is a prayer for inner cleansing.
What follows in the source
After this section the Sanskrit Documents text continues with a fast on the day before, ten thousand repetitions of the Gayatri, offerings of water to the sage Vishvamitra, the Gayatri metre and the god Savitr, and a prayer to Shiva, repeated 108 times, to reveal in a dream whether the practice will succeed.
Ganesh
More from Hinduism
See allConnected Teachings
The same teaching, echoed across traditions