Sri Kumar GurukkalSivachariyar · SaivaPriest.com

Daily practice

The daily remembrance

Every invocation the homepage can show, and the day that brings it.

The front page of this website opens with a single deity and a single line to say. Nobody chooses it by hand. The almanac chooses it, the way a household's own practice does — a named festival first, then the tithi, and otherwise the weekday. The page is different every morning, and no one has to remember to change it.

What the page shows you is the almanac fact — today is Śukla Caturthī — and not an argument for the association. The almanac is the authority. This page simply sets out the whole set, so you can read it in one place, or find the line you keep.

On what these are called. These are short invocatory mantras — nāma mantras for the most part, of the form Om … namaḥ. They are not all mūla mantras in the technical sense that word carries in Āgamic and Śrī Vidyā usage, and this website does not call them that. They are given here as they are commonly recited, and they are printed exactly as received, without alteration.
What is not here yet. Recordings in Gurukkal's own voice, and the daily passage with its meaning. Neither is published from a draft: a translation or an explanation appears under a priest's name only once he has read it and approved it. Until then the invocation stands on its own.

  1. Gaṇapati

    Vināyaka · Piḷḷaiyār

    ॥ ॐ गं गणपतये नमः ॥

    Om Gaṃ Gaṇapataye Namaḥ

    Salutations to Gaṇapati, who clears what stands in the way.

    Comes up on Caturthī of either fortnight · at Ganesh Chaturthi and Ganesh Visarjan

  2. Śiva

    Sadāśiva · Naṭarāja

    ॥ ॐ नमः शिवाय ॥

    Om Namaḥ Śivāya

    Salutations to Śiva — the five syllables that steady the mind.

    Comes up every Monday · on Trayodaśī of either fortnight and Kṛṣṇa Caturdaśī · at Arudra Darshan, Karthigai Deepam and Maha Shivaratri

  3. Devī Durgā

    Ambāḷ · Śakti

    ॥ ॐ दुं दुर्गायै नमः ॥

    Om Duṃ Durgāyai Namaḥ

    Salutations to Durgā, who carries her children through difficulty.

    Comes up on Śukla Aṣṭamī · at Durga Ashtami, Maha Navami, Sandhi Puja, Sharad Navratri Begins and Vijayadashami / Dussehra

  4. Murugan

    Subrahmaṇya · Kārttikeya

    ॥ ॐ शरवणभवाय नमः ॥

    Om Śaravaṇabhavāya Namaḥ

    Salutations to Murugan, born of the reed grove of Śaravaṇa.

    Comes up every Tuesday · on Ṣaṣṭhī of either fortnight · at Panguni Uthiram, Skanda Sashti, Soorasamharam, Thaipusam and Vaikasi Visakam

  5. Nārāyaṇa

    Viṣṇu · Perumāḷ

    ॥ ॐ नमो नारायणाय ॥

    Om Namo Nārāyaṇāya

    Salutations to Nārāyaṇa, the refuge in whom all beings rest.

    Comes up every Thursday · on Ekādaśī of either fortnight and Pūrṇimā · at Devutthana Ekadashi, Tulsi Vivah and Vaikuntha Ekadashi / Mukkoti Ekadashi

  6. Mahālakṣmī

    Śrī · Thirumagaḷ

    ॥ ॐ महालक्ष्म्यै नमः ॥

    Om Mahālakṣmyai Namaḥ

    Salutations to Mahālakṣmī, in whom abundance and grace are one.

    Comes up every Friday · at Dhanteras, Diwali / Lakshmi Puja and Varalakshmi Vratam

  7. Hanumān

    Āñjaneya · Māruti

    ॥ ॐ श्री हनुमते नमः ॥

    Om Śrī Hanumate Namaḥ

    Salutations to Hanumān, in whom strength and service are the same thing.

    Comes up every Saturday

  8. Śrī Rāma

    Rāmacandra

    ॥ ॐ श्रीरामाय नमः ॥

    Om Śrī Rāmāya Namaḥ

    Salutations to Śrī Rāma, who kept his word at every cost.

    Comes up every Sunday · at Rama Navami

  9. Śrī Kṛṣṇa

    Gopāla · Kaṇṇan

    ॥ ॐ श्रीकृष्णाय नमः ॥

    Om Śrī Kṛṣṇāya Namaḥ

    Salutations to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is near to those who simply call.

    Comes up every Wednesday · at Janmashtami - Smarta and Janmashtami - Vaishnava / ISKCON

  10. Narasiṃha

    Nṛsiṃha

    ॥ ॐ श्रीनृसिंहाय नमः ॥

    Om Śrī Nṛsiṃhāya Namaḥ

    Salutations to Narasiṃha, who comes without delay when a devotee calls.

    Comes up on Śukla Caturdaśī

  11. Kāla Bhairava

    Kṣetrapāla

    ॥ ॐ कालभैरवाय नमः ॥

    Om Kālabhairavāya Namaḥ

    Salutations to Kāla Bhairava, guardian of the sacred ground and of time itself.

    Traditionally invoked on Kālāṣṭamī, the aṣṭamī of the waning fortnight. Families keep this observance differently — Gurukkal will advise on your own.

    Comes up on Kṛṣṇa Aṣṭamī

How the day is decided

Read in this order; the first rule that matches wins.

  1. A named festival in the Bay Area calendar this site publishes — Gaṇeśa Caturthī, Dīpāvaḷī, Skanda Ṣaṣṭhī and the rest.
  2. The tithi, the lunar day, which is what most vratas actually follow — Caturthī, Ṣaṣṭhī, Ekādaśī, Pradoṣam, Aṣṭamī.
  3. The weekday, the everyday vāra-devatā practice kept in most Tamil households.

The tithi and the sunrise it is measured from are computed for the San Francisco Bay Area, not for India — which is why the day here can differ from a calendar printed elsewhere. The methodology page sets out how, and the festival calendar carries every date.

Two Devīs who are not in this list

Devotees ask about Vārāhī and Rāja Mātaṅgī, and they are deliberately not among the daily invocations above. Within the Śrī Vidyā tradition they attend the Divine Mother as her commander and her counsellor, and their practice is initiatory — it belongs to a living teacher, not to a rotation on a web page.

Because accurate answers about them are genuinely hard to find, this site explains who they are, sourced to the Lalitā Sahasranāma and the Lalitopākhyāna, with no mantras and no ritual procedure: Śrī Vidyā, and the two Devīs who attend the Mother →

If you want to begin something

Families keep these observances differently, and there is no single correct way. If you would like to start a daily practice at home, or to know which observance suits your family's custom or a particular difficulty, that is a conversation worth having with a priest rather than a page.

Speak with Gurukkal