Sanatana Dharma Shastra, Mantra and Dharma Gyaan

Japa Gyaan:
1. Before starting a Japa, a Brahmin should always do Shikha Bandhan or else all his Japa will go in vain. Now this rules applies to all Brahmin caste people irrespective of whether you are a Pandit or no.
2. According to the Brahmand Purana, Aasan should be spread. Aasan should not be torn or should not have holes, etc in it.
3. Japa on bamboo brings poverty, doing it on stone or ground brings diseases, sitting on leaves or grass and doing Japa brings mental instability
4.One must not- spread his legs during Japa, talking in between the Sadhana, fidgeting with nails or body parts or touching body parts, breaking threads, fidgeting or moving your hands in rice or supari or such things, moving your head in different directions, moving hands through hairs, shaking or causing movement of body parts.
All this is strictly forbidden.
5. According to Angira Smruta, Sadhana done with pride or ego, Daan done without water and Japa done without proper counting all these go in vain.
6. Laziness, sins/mistakes, the feeling of infatuation towards someone, sleep, anger; all these are biggest enemies of Sadhana. If one gains control over them, the chances of success in Sadhana increase substantially.

Mantra Peeth:
A Mantra has 4 types of location requirements. Even one has its one significance.
1. Shmashaan Peeth- doing Sadhanas in a Smashaan
2. Shav Peeth- an extremely life threatening Peeth. In this, on has to do puja of a dead body or sit on a dead body and then do Sadhana.
3. Aranaya Peeth- doing Sadhana in an extremely silent and isolate location where no one may have come since years or months
4. Shyaamaa Peethika- the toughest one among all. In this, a Sadhak has to make a 16 year old girl sit nude and do the Japa. If he is successful in doing the Japa without getting aroused, he gets success.

Guru Mantra Gyaan:
Guru Mantra is said to be the supreme. Every person gets a different Guru Mantra. But Guru Mantra has to be kept a utmost secret. Here are rules one must follow in case you have got a Guru Mantra:
1. Guru Mantra given to you by your Guru or your Devta should not be told or shared to anyone. Nor should the Puja Vidhi of the Mantra be shared. According to our Dharma, The Guru Mantra and everything related to it should be protected as one would protect his life in case of a life threatening attack. And I personally agree with it. Because Guru Mantra is like the sweet nectar which makes me just keep on chanting on and on the whole life. During the Guru Mantra chanting days one must do his Isht Dev Darshan in sun, moon, cow, Peepal tree, fire, Brahman and his Guru. During the Guru Mantra chanting or any Mantra chanting, one may experience one must not share it with anyone. I have seen many people do this mistake and must tell such people that sharing all these things with others will make you Siddhi Heen from the Isht Mantra.
 All the above rules should also be followed for normal Mantras

Shivling Gyaan:
Shivling is of various types or made with various things.
They include:
1. Each God and Goddess of our religion worship Shiv Linga and use Shivling made of different materials:
1. Parthiv Shivling or Shiv Ling made from sand
2. Paashan or Dhaatu(metal) Shivling-  The metal may be Rajat, gold, iron, copper, Peetal, Paarad and Baan Linga. Baan Linga is one of the most divine Linga as it does not need Aavahan or Pran Prathishtha.
3. Ratna [Gem] Linga: It refers to linga made from Gems. For Shani Peeda, Iron Shivling is optimal and for happiness and Chandra Graha Peeda, a Coral Gem Shivling is optimal.

 Kinds of Shivling worshipped by Gods and goddesses:
1. Lord Indra- Padamraag Shivling
2. Kubera- Gold Shivling
3. Varun dev- Shyaamvarna
4. Vishnu- Indranila-May
5. Brahma- Hemmay Shivlinga
6. Dev Gana use Silver Shivling
7. Vasugana use Peetal made Shivling
8. The 2 Ashwini Kumars- Parthiv Shivling
9. Lakshmi- Crystal Shivling
10. Agni Dev- Diamond Shivlinga
Thumb Shivling: In Santana Dharma and especially in Kalyuga, worshipping Shivling daily is mandatory. If one cannot go to a Shivalay, one must consider his thumb as Shivling and worship it.

Anushthaan Rules: Here I am going to mention rules which every person must follow in case you are doing Purashcharan:

1] Place- The place must be pure and hygienic. This can be done very easily by sprinkling Gangajal all around in all 10 directions. I.e. the normal 8 directions plus up direction and down direction. For location, one can refer to the significance of various locations here- Complete Mantra Sadhana Rules and Regulations

2] Food eating regulations-
A food is affected by three kinds of Dosha according our religion:
a] Jaati Dosh- Foods that contain onion, garlic, Non-veg, etc are considered to be Dushit [unholy] food.
b] Aashray Dosha- keeping liquor at Home or keeping food in impure place brings this Dosha. Keeping liquor at home makes all the foods in the house impure.
c] Nimitt Dosha- The pure food that is touched by dogs, cats, flies or insects bring this Dosha.
During the Sadhana days, one must eat food that is not affected by these Doshas.
Stale food, food that contains oil, salt, Udad, carrot cannot be eaten during the Sadhana days. Food should only be eaten once a day and should be eaten less only then will you get success in the Anushthan.
3] Meeting girls, talking with them is prohibited. If the female is your wife or mom then it is fine but you cannot have sex.
4] Applying creams, face packs and such things is prohibited.
5] Impure hands, Without having bath, being naked, or keeping cloth or anything on head and doing Japa is prohibited
6] Once you begin the Sadhana for the day, you can only talk once you finish that day's Japa part. You cannot talk in between.
7] If talking becomes utmost utmost necessary, then you can continue the Japa from where you left but only after doing Achaman and Angnyasa. Also, you cannot stop the Japa in the middle of the Mala.
8] If you have to go to the washroom during the Japa then do it but then you will need to do bath, achaman and angnyasa again.
9] During chanting- laziness, yawning, sleep, sneeze, spitting, fear, touching private parts, anger and talking is very strictly prohibited.
 I face this problem a lot as Hanuman worship causes lots of anger.
10] Japa should be done neither too fast nor too slow.
11] One must not "sing" the Mantra.
12] During chanting, shaking heads, reading something, forgetting the mantra or chanting the Mantra without knowing its meaning is prohibited.
13] Following rules should be followed very strictly:
1] Bhumi Shayyan [Sleeping on ground]
2] Celibacy
3] Guru Seva
4] Vow of silence
5] Bathing 3 times a day
6] Giving up on sinful activities
7] Daily Daksha
8] Saying Prarthanas or Stavas of the Mantra Dev.
9] Isht Sadhana
10] Japa dedication
14. Face packs, skin creams, perfumes, leather articles should not be utilized.
15. The Aasan used by used by you should never be used by one else. For Bhumi Shayyan, one can sleep on one single plain cloth of Isht Dev's favorite color. For example- red or Sindur color in case of Hanuman Sadhana, White in case of Shiv Sadhana, etc.
16. Wearing too many clothes or too less clothes during Japa is not allowed
17. Chanting during eating or doing Japa as soon as you wake up is prohibited.
18. IF you are feeling too hungry then you can stop the japa in between. However, this rule this doesn't apply to all Sadhanas. Some Sadhanas do not allow this.
19. Japa should not be done with spread legs.
Other than this, the person who gets to know the secret of the Mantra is unaffected by the above rules and can Japa wherever and however he wants.
18. Every day, after the Japa, Dashansh Havan, Tarpan, Marjan and Brahman Bhojan should be performed. One can also do it all together at the end of the required number of chants.
19. IF the above rule cannot be followed, one must do 1/4 part of the Japa more. So, if required chants are 1 lac and you cannot do what is mentioned above, one must do 1.25 lac chants
20. Anushthan has 5 parts- Japa, Homa, Tarpan, Abhishek, and Brahman Bhojan.
21. For a female, the Japa itself is enough.
22. Other than Japa, if the other 4 things cannot be done then the Ashirwad of the Guru will also suffice.

Now, I will share something very very important: I have got this knowledge and I am sharing with you but you should not share it with anyone else:
Sadhana Samay Gyaan:
 This is very rare knowledge about the timings to do the Sadhana. Irrespective of what the Paksha is, what the Nakshatra Karan, Bhav, etc are; one can begin the Sadhana.
1. First and the most powerful Yoga is Guru Pushya Nakshatra.
2. The second most beneficial is Ravi Pushya Nakshatra
3. For the months of Chaitra, Vaisakhi, Shraavan, Maagh, Bhaadrapad, Falgun following are the auspicious timings:
Sunday: 6 Am to 6.45 AM
6.45 pm to 7.36 pm
Sunday night from 3.36 Am to 4.24 AM [Monday morning according to English calendar]
Monday: 7.36 PM to Tuesday morning 6.12 AM
Tuesday: 7.36 Pm to 6.12 AM of Wednesday
3.36 am to 4.24 am: - Here, timing is according the Hindu calendar. So this will be Wednesday morning 3.36 am to 4.24 am according to English calendar.
Wednesday: 3.36 Pm to 4.24 pm
6.12 pm to 10.45 pm
Thursday: 7.36 pm to 6.12 am
Friday night 1.12 to 3.36 of the morning.
Remember that the day starts in Hinduism when sunrise happens, so if you are a Sadhana at 2 or 3 am then kindly consider everything according to Hindu rules and not English calendar.

There are many people I see daily on sites like prophet666 and many more where people start chanting a mantra without any understanding or Know-how. For such people I want to say that It just your waste of time by doing any Sadhana. Every person has an Isht Dev according to their Kundali whose worship will bring optimum results. But every god's worship is bound or restricted or one can say aspected by the Kundali of the person. You just cannot start worshipping any god you desire. This is because of Janm Kundali. I suggest worship of Hanuman as his worship, Shiva worship, Krishna worship is not bound by such things. However, this rule doesn't apply to Tamsik gods like Bhairav and Kali. Just any person cannot do Kali worship. There are certain planetary positions which allow her worship. If they are not favorable, Kali worship can cause problems instead of benefits. And this rule doesn't apply just to Kali, it applies to many and many god.

That is why there is a guru. Also, a Mantra Sadhana cannot be started without looking at planetary positions. Again, this rule doesn't apply to gods like Shiva or Hanuman as they are not bound by Grahas. I am not going to give personal advice about anything that I have mentioned in this article or the upcoming articles as I am not a Guru or such thing.

The timings for Sadhanas are very very holy and are not bound by any rules or restrictions.

This is all for the 2nd part. The First Part can be seen here - Mantra Sadhana Rules

In the next part, I will share timings for the remaining months, Dev rules and Diksha rules.
|| जय वीर हनुमान ||

This detailed, knowledgeable and most informative article has been written for the benefit of readers by Ashok Mehta, I hope readers will appreciate his hard work and efforts.