bAlA chakra

By admin on Mar 17, 2009 | In Srividya

Q] Can a bAlA upAsaka worship shrIchakra?
Anyone can do anything. The question really is what is right according to shAstra
dR^iShti. Though shrIchakra represents a sarva-samaShti shakti chakra, bAlA is one
of the a~Nga shaktis of lalitA in spite of the abheda that exists between bAlA,
bhairavI and sundarI. It is said, bAlalIlA vishiShTatvAdbAleti, lalitA on account of her
bAlAlIlA visheSha, is called bAlA. But apart from mantra and svarUpa, difference can
also be seen between lalitA and bAlA in terms of adhiShThAna, which is very
important in terms of shAkta saguNopAsanA. The adhiShThAna of bAla is in
svAdhishThAna chakra, which is the seat of letters from baM to laM, evident in her
very name.
Moreover, a specific yantra for bAlA is described in various tantras and this needs to
be worshipped by upAsakas of bAlA parameshvarI.
Acharya gauDapAda describes the yantra thus:
tadeva patravasudvayayuktamanusvaraM kumArIsadanam |
sha~NkarAraNya describes the resulting bAlA chakra thus: bindu trikoNa ShaTkoNa
vR^ittAntaraShTadalapadma vR^ittabahiraShTadalapadma chaturashrAtmakaM
bAlA chakraM bhavati |
An alternate saptAvaraNa yantra is described in traipura siddhAnta:
tato yantraM likheddhImAn bindumAdau likehnnaraH |
trikoNaM vilikhet pashchAt ShaTkoNaM vilikhettataH ||
dalAShTakaM liketpashchAt tadbahirvR^ittamAlikhet |
chaturashraM likhet pashchAt chaturdvArasamanvitam ||
maNDalaM vilikeht pashchAdyantrametadudIritam |
saptamAvaraNopetAM shrIbAlAM praNamAmyaham ||
As the upAsanA of bAlA through this yantra is taught as a preparatory practice to
the worship of lalitA in shrIchakra by various upAsana shastras, the yuktatva of
worship of bAlA in her own yantra becomes evident. This is the case when the
mukhya devatA worshipped is bAlA and not as a parivAra devatA of shrI lalitA. As
there is an explicit pramANa in this regard, I do not see the need to resort to
mImAmsA to support this statement. To summarize, there can be two cases:
a. The person is an upAsaka of bAlA alone: In this case it is quite evident that he
needs to worship bAlA yantra. The same shAstras which describe shrIyantra in
relation to lalitA, speak of a separate bAlA yantra. If the upAsaka of bAlA could
worship shrIyantra, bAlA yantra would more or less be redundant. trikUTA rahasya

states pa~nchadashI as the least requirement for pravesha into the navAvaraNa
yantra of sundarI. bAlA (tryakSharI or shadakSharI) is a pUrvA~Nga of lalitA like
mahAgaNapati, worshipped prior to undertaking the upAsanA of lalitA.
b. The person is an upAsaka of sundarI: If this is the case, in both nitya and
naimittika pakShas, he would need to worship sundarI and not bAlA. This is based
on the assumption that he received initiation into the Supreme vidyA of sundarI
after the prescribed upAsanA of bAlA, generally a pre-requisite in many
sampradayas. The lack of need for worshipping pUrvAnga devatas after initiation
into the mukhya vidyA is discussed at length twice by rAmeshvara sUrin. In the case
of kAmya pakSha, if one desires to worship bAlA for a specific purpose, he can then
make use of the sarva-shakti-samaShTitva clause of the shrIchakra and worship
bAlA within the shrIchakra, based on the pramANa from tantrarAja or kAdimata.