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Dear Dao Bums, Let me share some of my experiences with the highest level of Sri Vidya: the Navavarana Puja done on the Sri Meru (3D pyramid version of the well-known 2D version Sri Yantra also known as Sri Chakra). I'll share in 3 points: 1) Intro to Sri Vidya and Sri Meru 2) My own path to Sri Vidya and experiences from each level 3) My experiences with the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja 1) Intro to Sri Vidya and Sri Meru Sri Vidya translates literally as "auspicious knowledge" and is related to Goddess Worship. Sri Vidya has been kept secret for millenia because of its unique methods allowing the accomplishment of both yoga (spiritual liberation) and bhoga (material enjoyment and success). Sri Vidya has several origin stories: 1) It was given by Shiva to his most beloved consort Shakti as the ultimate means of acquiring everything both spiritually and materially, 2) It was given to saint Agastya as a boon by Vishnu's Hayagriva form, because Agastya asked for a way common people could easily and quickly reach ultimate liberation without renunciation and multiple-life spiritual practice, 3) It was given directly from the joint incarnation of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva) Dakshinamurti to a student, who then passed it on to Parashurama (Vishnu's 6th incarnation out of 10 incarnations). Adi Shankaracharya a very famous preacher of advaita vedanta & an unparalleled yogi personally installed Sri Yantra in temples all across India. Sri Vidya gives unique methods of reaching both bhukti (material enjoyment and success) and mukti (spiritual liberation) in this current incarnation. What is then the Sri Yantra / Sri Chakra? It's a 2D version that is called "Yantra Raja" or the "King of all Yantras". The 3D version is called Maha Meru and is in a pyramidal shape. The story is that this yantra holds all other yantras in it, it contains all Gods, all Goddesses, all Gurus, all spiritual powers (siddhi) as well as all the necessary means for complete fullfillment of purushartha (dharma, artha, kama and moksha, the 4 goals of human life). 2) My own path to Sri Vidya and experiences from each level I was exposed to Hinduism from early childhood, and it was always a big part of my life in early childhood as well as my teenage years. This was due to family. In my twenties I followed along the footsteps of my family and got mantra diksha (mantra initiation) and performed a "maha-purascharan" which in my case took 4 years of daily mala japa (mantra chanting with a rosary) to complete. At the completion of each purascharana, like clockwork, that very night I got a dream of the form of Almighty God I was worshipping. I would get life guidance. After performing 6 purascharans and getting these dreams I was quite content spiritually. At that moment I came into contact with SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga) which is a direct energy and transmission based meditation system. SKY blew my socks off; on top of deep meditation, I felt it gave "tangible benefits". By meditating on the chakras I got much better health, sleep, energy levels, mood and even better meditation than before, whereas with mantra japa I got a dream once or twice per year, but other than that it was adrishta-phala (unseen fruit) for me. No visible, tangible result. The tangible benefits of SKY reeled me in, because it seemed to give much more much easier and with lesser effort, so over time I slowly tapered down my japa until I completely stopped. After several years, my hindu family member sent me an invitation to an online Sri Vidya workshop with mantra diksha. It had no impact on me whatsoever - inside myself I thought "I've already tried mainstream religious hinduism with my years and years of mantra japa. It's a great way, but it seemed that SKY was simply superior in all ways. However, for some reason I read a bit on the webpage over a few days, just to give my family member and Sri Vidya the benefit of the doubt. At that point I saw a photo of Bala Tripura Sundari (the teenage form of the Goddess) and something deep in my soul stirred. I couldn't say what it was, but I felt something very deep and profound stirring. I felt a kind of attraction unlike anything I've ever felt before. After a few days of this deep feeling I decided to give it a go. Since then I've completed the rituals and mantras of each level of the Sri Vidya given by Parashurama and freely shared with the public by Guru Amritananda Natha. It's taken me several years of blood, sweat and tears to complete, it's been quite tough and demanding to be honest, but worth it. Level 1: Removal of Obstacles, Starting the Worship of the Goddess, Protection Ganapati the elephant God removes obstacles from your spiritual and material path and grants stability Bala Tripura Sundari is the teenage version of the Goddess, so you start your approach towards the Goddess Chamunda (Durga) gives you material and spiritual protection Level 2: Attraction, Joy, Love & Acceptance By worshipping Raja Shyamala Devi, the feminine side of the Goddess, you become enormeously attractive. In a group of the opposite sex, at least one from that group will be attracted to you after you've worshipped Raja Shyamala. It gives you profound pleasure in meditation. Further, it attracts more goodness towards you, materially and spiritually. In the end, this attraction and pleasure is said to actually be the Goddess' way of attracting you further towards her! Level 3: Healing, Protection, Destroying Bad Here you worship Varahi Devi, the masculine side of the Goddess. You heal your physical body, destroy black magic, protect yourself from enemies and spirits. You destroy and push away badness and bad energy from your spiritual and material life. Level 4: Here you finally worship Tripura Sundari in the Sri Meru with Navavarana Puja with her panchadashi mantra. Level 5: You get a higher mantra for Maha Tripura Sundari called Maha Shodashi, it's simply an add-on to the Navavarana Puja, and a big level up spiritually when you meditate with it (japa) I've detailed some of my personal experiences with each level in this thread here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/53122-sri-vidya-yantra-mantra-tantra-mudra-guru-karunamaya/ 3) My experiences with the Sri Meru Navavarana Puja I've recently started my first mandala (41 days) of Navarana Puja. I'm blown away! There are 9 layers or levels in the Meru, each called an avarana. The first 3 levels are one group and represents you as a seperate individual Level 1 represents the waking state and the feet. By worshipping it you're no longer helplessly thrown around by 8 negative feeling as a spontaneous and uncontrollable reaction to what you see and experience in the world, namely anger, lust, delusion, jealousy, greed, envy and possesiveness. Furthermore, it gives the 8 siddhis. Level 2 represents the dreaming state and the thighs. By worshipping it you eventually gain control of your dreams and get guidance in your dreams. You get aligned to cosmic cycles, namely the cycle of the moon. It is also said to satisfy all desires when worshipped. Level 3 represents the deep sleep state and muladhara chakra. It is said to end all agitation. The next 3 levels are one group and represents the powers working in the universe Level 4 represents the 14 worlds (chaturdashi loka), where we live in the 8th world (Bhu Loka or the Earth), as well as the swadisthana chakra. It is said to bless you with all auspiciousness. Level 5 represents the 5 karmendriyas (action organs) and the 5 gyanendriyas (knowledge organs) and the manipura chakra. It is said to bless you with all wealth. Level 6 represents the 5 elements and their 5 attributes and anahata chakra. It gives all protection. The final 3 levels represent Almighty God and his powers Level 7 represents the 8 most basic constituents of energy, the first outpouring from transcendent reality into primal, material existence, as well as the vishuddi chakra. It gives all healing. Further, it gives astral powers (seeing the past and the future, seeing every on planet Earth through your third eye, and later it gives the power of astral travel, i.e. leaving your physical body behind and travelling freely in the universe with your astral body. Read more here https://forum.amritananda.org/d/349-spiritual-reality-meditation-journey-within-by-guruji) Level 8 represents iccha (will), gyana (knowledge) and kriya (action) shakti, as well as agnya chakra. It gives all siddhis. Level 9 represents complete, pure bliss, God, sat-chit-ananda and the sahasrara chakra. It gives God realisation. When you add the Maha-Shodashi section on top of the regular puja, also on the same level of the Meru, it also opens dwadasangham chakra (above your head), allowing you to reach Thuriya-Teetha or the state even more beyond. My Personal And Tangible Experience The Navavarana puja takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to complete, so it's really, really long compared to the earlier pujas, where the longest (Varahi puja & Varahi tarpanam) took me about 50 minutes. The very first day I tried it, I got kind of tired because there are so many preparatory steps, new and unknown mantras as well as parts of the vedas and much more. However, the higher I reached on the pyramid, the higher I found a feeling of bliss and pleasure increasing at the corresponding chakra. When I reached the throat chakra, it was so intense that I could only describe it as a mix of deep meditation, ultimate sex, explosive orgasm and feeling drunk. When I reached the agnya, sahasrara and dwadasangham chakra, I was so slow in moving the spoon to give the Meru milk, because I was so incredibly blissed out. It isn't like that every day, but the more days of the 41 day mandala I complete, the stronger and more intense it grows, and stabilises more and more from day to day. I'm so incredibly surprised! I really feel "it was worth it" to go through years and years of blood, sweat, tears, rituals, mantra japa, purascharana and much more to get here. So far my feeling is that they weren't just marketing when they said the Meru is the ultimate.. I feel they were right! All the best! Sri Matre Namaha (salutations to the Goddess)