Author: dhyanakamalam

• poojas: offering salutations to one or more Gods following Vedic rituals
• homams: submitting sacrificial offerings meant for specific Gods via Agni (God of Fire)
• sadhanas: pursuing meditation practices towards a spiritual objective

there is the tradition of formally stating the objective of the spiritual activity with three details:

1. where & when is the activity being performed,
2. what is proposed to be done, and
3. why is the activity being performed, that is, what does the kartha (the person in whose name the pooja is being done), or yajamani (as in the nominal owner of the homam), or sadhaka (as in the performer of the sadhana) desire as the outcome.

In Sanskrit, the word for intent is Sankalpam, so that is the source. Sankalpam can verbally stated out aloud along with the rest of your prayer, or can be simply mentally offered.

So now you know at least what to think of, next time your temple priest prompts you for Sankalpam!

Usual practices

It turns out that the degree of detail and precision of Sankalpam could in practice vary depending on how frequent the spiritual activity is.

• Daily activity (anushtana): Stating the ‘what’ alone is typical. In Sandhyavandanam as an example, the kartha simply states in sankalpam that s/he is performing the salutations, without going to the ‘why’.
• Extremely rare activity (visesha): Elaborate articulation of ‘why’ and ‘what’ is the norm in this case, as in the case of a complex homam.
• Somewhere in between: An abbreviated summary of ‘what’ and ‘why’, for example with infrequent spiritual activities or activities towards a specific personal goal

One other typical question is language – should Sankalpam only be stated in Sanskrit? Not necessarily. Sanskrit being the ancient Vedic language works well, but so do all other languages – including of course English. The most critical requirement is the devotion.

Week Days, Fortnight Days, Months, Seasons, and Annual Halves

In articulating the ‘where’ and ‘when’ part of the Sankalpam, it is customary to include the specifics of the current time, and that involves knowing the formal names of days, months, seasons, and halves of the year. It is entirely possible that you may already know these from mundane usage, but here are hopefully a set of handy lookup tables for you.

Day (English)	వారము (Telugu)	వాసరం (Sanskrit)
Sunday	ఆదివారము	భానువాసరం
Monday	సోమవారము	ఇన్దువాసరం
Tuesday	మంగళవారము	భౌమవాసరం
Wednesday	బుధవారము	సౌమ్యవాసరం
Thursday	గురువారము	గురువాసరం
Friday	శుక్రవారము	భృగువాసరం
Saturday	శనివారము	స్థిరవాసరం

Calendar day (English)	రోజు (Telugu)	సంకల్పం (“on the __day”, for Sandhyavandanam)
Padyami	పాడ్యమి	ప్రథమ్యామ్
Vidiya	విదియ	ద్వితీయాయామ్
Tadiya	తదియ	తృతీయాయామ్
Chavithi	చవితి	చతుర్థ్యామ్
Panchami	పంచమి	పంచమ్యామ్
Shashti	షష్ఠి	షష్ఠ్యామ్
Sapthami	సప్తమి	సప్తమ్యామ్
Ashtami	అష్టమి	అష్టమ్యామ్
Navami	నవమి	నవమ్యామ్
Dasami	దశమి	దశమ్యామ్
Ekadasi	ఏకాదశి	ఏకాదశ్యామ్
Dwadasi	ద్వాదశి	ద్వాదశ్యామ్
Trayodasi	త్రయోదశి	త్రయోదశ్యామ్
Chaturdasi	చతుర్దశి	చతుర్దశ్యామ్
Poornima Amavasya	పూర్ణిమ అమావాస్య	పూర్ణిమాయామ్  అమావాస్యామ్

Month (English)	మాసము (Sanskrit)	ఋతువు (Season)	Season (English)
Chaitra Vaisakha	చైత్ర  వైశాఖ	వసంత	Vasantha
Jyeshta Aashadha	జ్యేష్ఠ  ఆషాఢ	గ్రీష్మ	Greeshma
Shraavana Bhadrapada	శ్రావణ  భాద్రపద	వర్ష	Varsha
Aaswayuja Karthika	ఆశ్వయుజ  కార్తీక	శరత్	Sharath
Margasira Pushya	మార్గశిర  పుష్య	హేమంత	Hemantha
Magha Phalguna	మాఘ  ఫాల్గుణ	శిశిర	Shishira

What’s up with the bolded first letters in the Seasons column, you ask? That’s simply the shorthand that I rely on to quickly recall the order of the seasons in a pinch! (Va-Gree-Va-Sha-He-Shi, or వ-గ్రీ-వ-శ-హే-శి)

Yearly half (English)	అయనం (Sanskrit)	Start date
Uttaraayana	ఉత్తరాయణం	Look for Makara Sankramana in the Tithi (lunar) calendar (typically January 14)
Dakshinaayana	దక్షిణాయనం	Look for Karkataka Sankramana in the Tithi calendar (typically July 15)

Hope at least some of you found that information interesting & useful (and the rest…, hope you found that all to be accurate!). Till next time…