Why you must become a Deity to worship it!

What if I said, you have to become the God that you’re worshipping to actually unlock their power?

Yes, you have to literally become Krishna, Kali, Shiva, Devi or the deity yourself. But why & how’s it possible? Here’s the tea.

Usually in our childhood, we imagined ourselves as distant, passive bhakts dependent on a Higher Power’s mercy, but Tantra gives us the perspective that a non-Deva cannot worship a Deva.

Just as a paper cup won’t be able to hold hot boiling water for long, our current physical body is incapable of handling these powerful energies, so we go through a process of building a siddha-deha or divya-deha, a divine spiritual body.

This advanced form of upasana or meditation goes beyond object, idol & symbolic worship, instead meditating on the piece of God living inside ourselves.

And as per our Agamas & Tantras, the method has clearly laid out steps.

First, we must undergo bhutashuddhi - cleaning our body of impurities, reducing it to the 5 elements or panchamahabhuta. You sit erect, practice pranayama or controlled breathing, and awaken the sleeping Kundalini energy from the base of your spine.

You use specific bija mantras or seed syllables to burn away your physical presence & become an empty clean vessel to invite the deity inside.

Second is Nyasa, painting the deity on the canvas paper of your body.

You touch specific parts of your body while chanting the corresponding mantras.

This includes fingers, thumbs, palms of the hands, the heart, head, shoulders, etc. Some methods involve depositing close to 50 Sanskrit energies or matrkas on 50 points from head to toe.

This is like installing a new software inside your hardware, asking the deity’s OS to take over your thinking & functioning.

Third, we meditate deeply on the space where our heart lies, imagining it to look like an actual temple, invite the deity to come sit in it, and mentally offer sacrifice like lighting the diya, offering flowers, and washing the deity’s feet.

This Antaryaga not only allows you to start an internal dialogue with the divine but invite it to act through you.

The simple idea is that you know your sadhana or spiritual practice is going correctly if you start acting responsibly like Ram, calm like Shiva, fearless like Kali, loyal like Hanuman, or smart like Krishna.

Basically, a true real sign of spiritual progress is when you start taking on the qualities of your Ishta or chosen deity.

Of course, this must all be done under the guidance of a bonafide guru.

Few traditions offer such a deeply detailed procedure to become the divine yourself, a practice beautifully preserved in our Sanatan Dharma.