Dhumavati Mantra
Who Dhumavati is, the tradition this mantra belongs to, and how it is received from a teacher. The mantra itself is given at initiation and is not printed here.
Who Dhumavati is
Dhumavati, “the smoky one”, is the seventh of the ten Mahavidyas and the only one pictured as a widow. She is old, thin and pale, in worn and soiled clothes, her hair loose, wearing no ornaments, riding a horseless chariot with a crow on its banner, or a crow itself. One trembling hand holds a winnowing basket, the tool that separates grain from chaff; the other grants a boon. Two stories account for her. In the Shaktisamgama Tantra she rises with a darkened face from the smoke of Sati’s body burning at Daksha’s sacrifice. In the Pranatoshini Tantra, Sati, overcome by hunger, swallows Shiva himself; at his request she releases him, and he curses her to take the form of a widow. She stands for what the rest of the tradition turns away from: loss, want, disappointment and the end of things.
Kept for those who stand apart
Her personal practice has traditionally been kept apart from ordinary household life. The texts that describe it address it to renunciants and to people living alone, and set it in solitary places such as cremation grounds and forests. A teacher weighs this before giving her mantra. The practice asks the one who keeps it to look steadily at what is usually pushed away and to meet it with detachment rather than fear. Her best-known shrine is within the Pitambara Peeth at Datia in central India, and her day, Dhumavati Jayanti, falls on the eighth lunar day of the bright fortnight of Jyeshtha.
The mantra itself
This mantra is given at initiation. Tradition transmits it from teacher to disciple with the practice that belongs to it, so we do not publish it in full. A teacher who has the authority to give it will give it with its method.
When Dhumavati is chanted
Weekday. Friday
Have your chart read before you decide
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
- Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
- He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
- Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Related
Chanting is yours to do. Some things are performed for you.
Where a matter carries real weight, devotees sponsor the homa alongside their own practice. Performed for you and any family members you name, at our Yagna Ashram, in your name and gotra, on a muhurta calculated from your chart, and telecast live so you can watch it done for you.