ŚrīVidyā is practiced by many great seers. The Purānic seers like Agastya, Durvāsa and Lopamudra (the wife of Agastya) followed ŚrīVidyā. Ādi Śankara was a great exponent of ŚrīVidyā. The Soundarya Lahari hymn composed by him, is famous and chanted even today by many devotees – both practitioners of Mantra Śāstra and followers of popular religion. There are many commentaries and translations of Soundarya Lahari, a few authors to mention – Lakśmi dhāra pandita, Kaivalyāśrama Svāmi, Acyutānanda Svāmi, Viṣṇu Tīrtha and Narasimha Ṭhākur. Practice of ŚrīVidyā is coming down for centuries, in teacher-disciple tradition. In some cases it is imparted from parent to the eldest offspring, in others it is from another teacher. Ādi Śankara also gave a commentary on Lalita Trisati, the hymn-form of Pancadāsi.
Kālidāsa, a renowned poet and devotee of Devi, is said to have primarily worshiped Kāli and Mātangi. However his praises of the Mother include multiple forms, including Tripura Sundari – he calls Her Aruna (red in Hue, Lalita) and also Kāli (black).
Ādi Śankara established four monasteries in India, called Amnaya maṭhās (Amnaya means Veda, and maṭhā in this context is monastery). Each of these specializes in one of the four Vedas. He also installed Devi in different forms, apart from Lord Śiva in thesemaṭhās. To this day, all these are worshiped according to ŚrīVidyā. Apart from these, he established many other monasteries like Kancimaṭhā. Devi is worshiped according to ŚrīVidyā School, in all these. For example, Śāradāmba is worshiped in Śrīngerimaṭhā. Kāmakśi is worshiped in Kancimaṭhā. Besides, there are many other āśramas like Siddhesvari Pīṭha of Kurtalam (a monastery), Kailāsa āśram of Hrishikesh, LalitaPīṭha, ŚrīVidyā Vimarsana Pīṭha and innumerable local āśramas that primarily worship according to ŚrīVidyā discipline.
ŚrīVidyāranya Swamy of 14th century AD was a great saint and scholar of Ādi Śankara’s tradition. He gave a commentary on the Veda, along with many other works like Vedānta Pancadāsi. ŚrīVidyārnava, a compilation on the philosophy, practices and secrets of ŚrīVidyā, is said to be his work.
Bhāskara Rāya from Bijāpur area of Karnātaka was a great ŚrīVidyā practitioner in the recent centuries. He belonged to 18th century. He lived in Vāranāsi for many years, and there are many stories about his devotion and the Mother’s divine grace over him. He was famous as a practitioner and an exponent of ŚrīVidyā in his times, and later. His name marks a lineage of practice in ŚrīVidyā. To this date, many generations after his times, Bhāskara Rāya lineage is famous. Bhāskara Rāya Mandali of Chennai, are among the practitioners of his school. Bhāskararāya’s commentary on Lalita Sahasra nama is said to be one of the greatest commentaries.
Śrī Muthuswamy Dikshitar who lived in 18-19 centuries was another exponent of ŚrīVidyā tradition. He was a multi-faceted personality, a genius. He was a great musician, a devotee, a Vedāntist, expert in Mantra Śāstra and a scholar. He belonged to Dakśiṇamūrti tradition of ŚrīVidyā practice. (There are three main traditions in ŚrīVidyā, called Dakśiṇamūrti, ānanda Bhairava and Hayagriva traditions.) He called Devi Kamalāmba, and composed kritis (songs in Carnātic music) that extol the greatness of Her. Since they follow the progression in the worship of ŚrīCakra, they are called as Navavārana Kritis. Kamalāmba is the main deity in the temple at Tiruvāvur whom he worshiped during his stay there. It was during that time he composed the songs, which expound ŚrīVidyā Tantra in an unmatched way. The songs that praise the deities in each enclosure of ŚrīYantra, are composed in a separate Rāga. So, nine Rāgas were used to compose the songs. Another uniqueness of these hymns is that they have different vibhaktis [Vibhakti is the suffix added to noun, that determines the role and state of noun, such as singular/plural, subject/actor. In Sanskrit, verb/noun is self-sufficient, and does not depend on other words. For instance, Rāma, “Rāma did”, “By Rāma”, “Rāma’s”, “to Rāma” all these are independent words like Rāmah, Rāmasya, Rāmou, Rāme. And these words are formed by appending different vibhaktis to the word-root Rāma. There are eight vibhaktis and one common to all. These nine forms are used by Śrī Dikshitar in his songs corresponding to the nine enclosures of Śrī Yantra].
Another great exponent of Śāktā Tantra of the previous century is Kāvyakāntha Vasiśtha Gaṇapati. He is said to have worshiped many forms of Devi, including ŚrīVidyā, Chinnamasta and Tāra. He contributed greatly in spreading and popularizing worship of Devi, initiated thousands of seekers into these schools. His disciples have in turn done that, along with establishing āśramas for the same. He was an associate of Ramana Maharśhi of Arunācalam (Tamil Nadu). He produced great literature not only on Śāktā but on Vedic knowledge in general. His consort was a teacher herself, and was primarily a ŚrīVidyā practitioner. Kapāli Śāstry, a disciple of both Śrī Aurobindo and Kāvyakāntha Vasiśtha Gaṇapati, was a ŚrīVidyā practitioner too. He was the author of Siddhanjana, a commentary on Rigveda.
The previous head of Kancimaṭhā, lateŚrī Candra Śekharendra Sarasvati, was a great exponent of ŚrīVidyā. He also gave an elaborate commentary on the Soundarya Lahari hymn.
There are different levels of practice in ŚrīVidyā. Usually, practitioners are initiated with Bala mantra first. After some practice, they will be initiated to Pancadāsi or Śodasi, and Khadgamāla. Khadgamāla is the hymn, which is used to worship Śrī Cakra. It enumerates the names of deities in each enclosure of the Śrī Cakra. They are worshiped in the order they come in the hymn. Beyond, there are different stages like Pāduka dīkśa (roughly translated as the worship of Devi’s shoes). However, many will be happy in continuing their worship at one of these stages, without necessarily taking the later initiations. There are seers who do Pancadāsi, Śodasi, Khadgamāla, Pāduka dīkśa or even Bāla alone. Tādepalli Rāghava Nārāyana Śāstry and Addanki Krishna Murthy of previous century are examples of people who worshiped Bāla. There is also a practice of worshiping Devi with Śrī Sukta.
Worship is done in many modes. Some worship everyday and some do collective worship on occasions. However some serious practitioners follow dīkśa, for a certain period of time. During that, they follow severe austerities, worship Devi with red flowers and kunkum (vermilion), wear red clothes during worship and sleep on the floor. Being red in hue Herself, such practice is said to please Devi.
In recent years in Andhra Pradesh there started a practice of collective worship of Lalita, chanting and worship with Lalita Sahasra Nama hymn. This is done in various occasions and regularly (weekly) in groups by many. They include Lakśa Kunkumārcana, in which a hundred thousand names of the Mother are chanted along with worship with Kunkum. (Sahasra nāma hymn having thousand names is chanted hundred times – ten times each by ten persons). While there is a general trend of rise in Śāktā practices, most of them follow ŚrīVidyā. There is also a general practice to worship Lakśmi in Śrī Cakra domestically.
Though there is a different Yantra for different Śāktā deities like Durga and Lakśmi, it came to be a practice that any form of Devi is worshiped in Śrī Cakra in ŚrīVidyā procedure. In some places both Candi Navarna and ŚrīVidyā procedures are followed, for example Kānci. The main priests of all these temples are usually initiated into ŚrīVidyā.
There are many practitioners of ŚrīVidyā today. They not only initiate many seekers into the path and guide them, but popularize the school through lucid explanations and popular discourses, collective worship. Some of the famous teachers and practitioners include Dr Śrī Vīrabhadra Mahādev and Śrī Samavedam Śanmukha Śarma. Śrī Mahādev is primarily a teacher and practitioner of ŚrīVidyā. ŚrīŚanmukha Śarma has reached out to people through his discourses, about the practice of religion. His discourses include praises and expounding the philosophy of all the major schools, Viṣṇu, Devi and Śiva. He is a living example of how, having experienced the deeper reality, one can easily understand and see the same spiritual philosophy in different religions or theistic schools like Vaiśṇava, Śaiva, Śāktā. The same holds true in case of many seers – Vasiśṭha Gaṇapati, Ramaṇa Maharshi, Śrī Aurobindo, Kapāli Śāstry, Candra Śekharendra Sarasvati.
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