Two kinds of worship (varivasyā), external and internal, are described in various treatises on the Tantras. Of these, the propitiation of one’s own chosen deity (iṣṭadēvatā) with external flowers, incense, and so on is known as external worship; the propitiation of this deity with the mind engaged in contemplation is known as internal worship. In the Kula, Krama, and other traditions, one’s own self-deity (svātma-dēvatā) is propitiated on the lines of their respective śāstras. And this is yet another kind of worship. This three-fold method of worship is described as divided into Parā, Aparā, and Parāparā in the Yōginīhr̥daya (3.2-4) thus:
“O Gaurī, the daily worship ordained is distinguished into three types: Parā, Aparā and thirdly Parāparā. The first pertains to the state of non-duality and is experienced by all the sense perceptions. And the second is the worship of the śrīcakra; O Dēvī, the third is the parāparā (situated) in what is full of knowledge. Parā worship is known to be the highest.”
In this passage, one should understand that the external worship is aparā, the internal worship is parā, and the propitiation of one’s own self-deity is the parāparā worship.
In the preceding passage, the superiority of the parā is declared. In the ṣaktisaṅgama Tantra, to a question of the Goddess regarding worship, Shiva answers: “Of what use indeed, is the external purification of an earthen jar full of excrement? After the completion of the internal purification, one should perform the external purification” (4.11.74-75) and: “After the completion of the internal worship, one should perform the external worship” (4.11.79). The author of the Dīpikā commentary on the Yōginīhr̥daya, on the strength of this statement: “Whatever is about to be prescribed subsequently (as) external, one should first perform all that internally” (3.90), concludes: “By this, it is pointed out that one should first perform also inwardly the complete external worship.” For this very reason, such statements are found: “That which is performed continually with external materials like flowers and so on is not the (real) worship, but that which is the supreme state in the non-dual splendor, in one’s own magnitude is the worship.” For, the external worship becomes, as it were, fruitless without the internal worship as indicated by “That worship, where the mind is not appeased while dwelling in the middle of the pure and limitless ocean of consciousness, is similar to a game with a cloth doll played by a girl.”
For this very reason, ṣivānandanātha defines worship as follows: “Worship is the repose of the objective universe on the ground of consciousness” and he shows the esoteric purport of the incense, perfume, lamp, and food offering, quoting the Bhaṭṭagaṅgādhara stotra. On similar lines, the definition of worship is stated in the Mahānayapaddhati thus: “That firm intuition (parāmarśa) of the form, the nature of which is supreme and unobstructed, is worship. Praśastibhūtipāda declares: “The worship of the wise consists in furthering their own state at the moment of the experience of those gladdening mental states (that are) the pleasing and resplendent appearances visible here.” For everything is pervaded by the Goddess, as indicated by: “Whichever lofty consciousness and whichever mental state resplendent with bliss, whichever marvelous form in the universe, all that is the appearance of you, O Goddess.”
In the following statement of the āgama, the word kriyā (ritual act) should be understood as synonymous with pūjana (worship): ‘Yoga is not one thing and kriyā another; this intelligence which has attained truth in the appeasement of the tendencies of one’s own mind, this is named kriyā.” And as this points only to the parā worship, the superiority of the parā worship is thus well proven. And it must be known that for this reason, the repeated performance of the parā worship is very essential to attain fitness for the aparā and parāparā worship. And in this context, there is a specific application of the purification of the elements and of the installation of the prāṇa.
The worship of the external śrīcakra, referred to as aparā in the passage of the Yōginīhr̥daya cited earlier, is known as bāhyavarivasyā. According to the author of Dīpikā (3.112), external worship is performed with perfume, flowers, and so forth, which are products of the five elements. The author of the r̥juvimarśinī commentary on the Nityāṣōḍaśikārṇava also gives their characteristics based on the authority of the Prapañcasāra. The worship is developed variously as five, sixteen, and sixty-four acts of homage.
The parāparā worship has been thus commented on by Amr̥tānanda: ‘Thus the third worship parāparā is the repose “in what is full of knowledge”, i.e. in the splendor full of the above-mentioned contemplation of non-duality of the external ritual act, that which has the form of the worship of the enclosures, which are distinct from the self.