Sri Vidya Sadhana

Sri Vidya Sadhana is a mantra and tantra evening devoted to the Divine Mother as Maha Tripura Sundari, also known as Lalitambika and Shodashi. It is led by Om Swami and held in Bengaluru, Karnataka, as the first Sri Vidya sadhana shivir he has offered. It is the first evening he has devoted entirely to this path. It suits practitioners who already keep a sadhana and feel drawn toward the Shakta tradition.

Sri Vidya is the tradition of the Mother Goddess in her sixteenth form, Shodashi. South India is credited with preserving, practicing and perfecting it, which is why the teacher chose Bengaluru for this first shivir. He describes it as the culmination of the sadhanas he has done, and says he waited sixteen years after a vision of the Mother before offering it.

What to Expect

The evening runs from 6:00 to 9:00 pm IST and is held live. It moves through three parts:

- An invocation of Maha Tripura Sundari, calling on the primordial energy.
- An offering of the self to that energy, in the spirit of lighting the fire of consciousness, as the devas did to awaken the Mother.
- Sri Vidya sadhana practice, done together in real time.

The teacher's emphasis is on steady, devoted practice. He quotes the Yoga Sutras (1.14): sadhana becomes firmly grounded when it is pursued for a long time, without interruption, and with devotion.

About Om Swami

Om Swami is an Indian spiritual teacher. By his own account he was drawn to the science of mantra as a child, reading whatever he could find on mantra, tantra and related subjects, and his sadhana began with the Dasa Mahavidya, the ten great forms of the Cosmic Mother. Later he practiced Shabara mantras and studied the Yajurveda. He writes of meditation, kundalini, Sri Suktam and Rudram as earlier stages of his own path, with Sri Vidya as the point they lead to. He is also writing a book, The Legend of Sri Vidya.

Before You Go

No prerequisites are stated. Still, the teacher speaks to people who have already worked with meditation, kundalini, Sri Suktam or Rudram, so some background in sadhana will help you follow the evening. The language is English.

Included is the live sadhana evening led by Om Swami, with real-time invocation and Sri Vidya practice. It is offered online as well as in Bengaluru, and he encourages those who cannot attend in person to keep up their own practice. Spots are first come, first served.