Last Updated on August 12, 2024 by
“By your grace, oh Goddess, virtuous souls perform everyday all the actions of spiritual discipline and righteous conduct with the greatest of faith and devotion, and thereby attain to heavenly perception.”
– Chandi Path, Chapter 4
The Great Vow
Many are the austerities to be performed in order to become pure. Some seekers make vows to perform a discipline for 9 days, 30 days, 108 days or even more as they feel necessary. Taking a sankalpa (a vow to perform spiritual discipline) is a way to direct our life energy and focus it on our highest goal, to manifest light and divinity in ourselves and the world around us.
The Sahasra Chandi Yajna is the immense vow to recite the Chandi Path before the Sacred Fire for one thousand days or three years. It is a great austerity, a tapasya, whose tradition is rooted in the Chandi Path itself. Chapter 13 of the Chandi describes the origins of this sadhana. It tells us of how the ex-king Surath, whose name means Good Thoughts, and the businessman Samadhi, whose name means Pure Intuitive Vision, propitiated the Goddess Chandi for three years after receiving instruction from the Rishi Medhas. Both of them attained to extreme bliss by virtue of their devotion and this unbroken discipline and the Goddess appeared before them in perceivable form to grant them whatever they prayed for. The benefits of this sadhana have been further proclaimed by the Varahi Tantra, an authoritative Tantric text which describes among many things the application of the Chandi, which says that the Sahasra Chandi Yajna will bring the ultimate wisdom and liberation.
Consecrating the Fire of Devotion
The Sahasra Chandi Yajna is the most amazing experience that we can attain in life. It gives us the ability to cloister our senses so that we want nothing more than to sing and chant to the Divine Mother Goddess and worship her throughout the day and night.
At Devi Mandir, the fire was consecrated for the Sahasra Chandi Yajna on January 24th 2005, and has been burning continuously 24 hours a day since that date.
Rarely do people have plans for what they will do in the next year or two let alone a resolve for what they do every day for the next three years. Why would we want to remain in one rhythm of worship without going outside the temple for three years? What could we possibly hope to achieve?
Sahasra Chandi Class
We answer these questions in the video and audio classes below.
This discussion tells us from where the tradition has emanated, and what are the possible effects that it can have in our lives. (Note: To hear the classes below you should have the quicktime or real audio players.)
This video shows how the fire was invited and inaugurated, established and energized, and how it is being worshiped.
Establishing the Divine Fire Video