Gupt Navratra: How To Perform Kalash Sthapana?

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The festival of the Navrataras is one of the most awaited for the followers of Shaktism. This period of nine days is considered very auspicious for the worship of Goddess Durga. She fulfils all your wishes and blesses her devotees with power and love. To help you, we will keep giving you information about the correct way to perform the puja. This article deals with Kalash Sthapana.

Items Required For Kalash Sthapana

Items required: an earthen pot, a flat earthen vessel for sowing barley seeds, a red cloth to cover the stool as well as the kalash, some coins (silver/gold/rupee coins), coconut, five kodis, supari, red moli, sindoor, rice, turmeric powder, an earthen cover for the kalash, soil, cow dung to mop the puja sthan with and paan leaves or Ashoka leaves.

How To Perform Kalash Sthapana

Before beginning the Kalash Sthapana, make sure you clean the place well. Now take a woollen asana for sitting; keep all the required material near you.

Then sprinkle Gangajal in the area where you want to perform the puja.

Begin with making a paste of soil, or you can take cow dung, and apply it on the part of the floor where you want to place the kalash. On it, keep some rice, spread it in a circular way. Now take the earthen round container, fill it half with soil; you can add some sand in it as well.

Take a tablespoon of barley seeds and add it into the vessel with the soil. Now add some water to it and mix it so that the seeds are sown properly and can get moisture as well. These seeds will germinate into saplings within these nine days. It is believed that the higher and the greener the seedling grows, the more the goddess is pleased.

Now place this earthen vessel on the circular pile of rice we had made in the beginning.

Next comes the kalash. The kalash ideally has to be an earthen one. Tie a red thread (sacred moli) around its neck, and mark a swastika and an Om sign on it using vermilion mixed with water. Place this on the earthen vessel in which you have sown the seeds. Fill it with water taken from all holy rivers.

If this water is not available, you can take freshwater from any river as well. Fill it up to the brink, add some Gangajal, place the paan leaves over it, and now cover this pot with an earthen cap. Make sure the paan leaves (betel leaves) are all joined together, and should not be torn or broken apart. You can also take Ashoka leaves for this.

In the cap used for covering the pot, keep some rice and on this we have to place a fresh coconut. Make sure the coconut is not dried from the inside and must contain water. Before placing the coconut, cover it with a red cloth and tie the cloth using the red moli around it. Now you can place the coconut on the earthen pot. Please do ensure the face of the coconut must be towards the devotee and not the goddess.

Also, do not forget to drop the five kodis, supari and the coins inside the kalash water.

This was the procedure for Kalash Sthapana. In the coming articles we will let you know about the procedure for establishing Mata Ki Chowki, as well as the whole procedure to perform Navratra Puja, along with stories of the goddesses worshipped during the Navratras.