What is Śrī Vidyā? Śrī refers to Parāśakti and Vidyā means knowledge. Therefore, Śrī Vidyā means knowledge to realize Parāśakti. She can be attained only through mind, one of the components of antaḥkaraṇa. She cannot be attained by an ordinary and mundane mind. What is the difference between a mundane mind and spiritually evolved mind? The one with a spiritually evolved mind listens and teaches, as his mind is devoid of ego. On the contrary, a mundane mind is full of ego and criticism and indulges in criticism. Those who indulge in unpleasant criticisms cannot claim to be a true upāsaka. Upāsaka means a servant; a servant to Her and Her servant cannot be arrogant and egoistic. There is no point in such ignorant men worshipping Her as long as they do not get rid of their ego.

Realizing Her does not mean walking to Her physical form with our physical bodies. This is just impossible in the present day world. She has to be approached with great love; even devotion does not help in realizing Her. Sage Patañjali begins Yoga Sūtra-s by saying, “yogaḥ cittavṛttinirodhaḥ”, which means by controlling, conquering and silencing the contents of the mind, the Self is realized. If we continue to worship Her, there is no need for Bhāvanopaniṣad. Let us take 8th verse of Bhāvanopaniṣad which says, “ jñānamarghyaṁ jñeyaṁ haviḥ jñātā hotā | jñātṛ jñāna jñeyānāṁ abhedabhāvanaṁ śrīcakrapūjanam ||” This means says that knowledge is arghya. That which is to be known is oblation. The one who seeks knowledge is the performer of homa (oblations into the fire).  Understanding that there is no difference between the knower, the known and the process of knowing (knowledge) is true worship of Śri Cakra.

This detailed explanation has become necessary due to inappropriate comment published by me, which was received anonymously. THIS IS THE COMMENT. In the first place, a true Śrī Vidyā upāsaka will not make such an unsavory comment. But at the same time, he will not hesitate to point out the mistakes. Further, why such all-knowing person should make such comments anonymously? When such critical comments are made, it should be made with his or her identity, so that we will have an opportunity to interact with him or her. This is not expected from a learned Śrī Vidyā upāsaka.

Whether we inhale through left nostril or right nostril is not important. What is important is our true love towards Her. At the beginning of this series I have made the following appeal: “I will put in my best efforts and if any mistakes creep in, either knowingly or unknowingly, please post the corrections in the comments column of the respective articles. This will help us to get the basic idea about Navāvaraṇa Pūjā without any errors.”  

I am a disciple of one of the best Guru-s of Śrī Vidyā, who was not initiated by an ordinary person.  The first thing he told me was to get rid of ego and I have learnt all humility only from him. All of you should be knowing that how difficult it would be to write Śrī Vidyā navāvaraṇa pūjā both in Sanskrit and English (with IAST) with relevant interpretations. When such critical comments are made, there is no point in continuing this series, as I consider that these comments bring disrepute to my Guru, who had Her direct vision several times. I cannot accept any disrepute to my Guru and the knowledge he taught to me.

Therefore, with deep pain, I wind up this series without proceeding further. Correcting mistakes is welcome, but not undue criticism.