HASTA-MASTAKA-SAṂYŌGA (palm-head-contact): [ಹಸ್ತ-ಮಸ್ತಕ-ಸಂಯೋಗ]

Hasta-mastaka-saṃyōga (palm-head-contact) is a technical act and is a part of Linga-dīkṣa [ಲಿಂಗ-ದೀಕ್ಷಾ] (or initiation) (see DĪKṢĀ).

When a man who realises that miseries cannot be terminated by worldly means and pleasures are neither free from misery nor long lasting decides to take up spiritual course, he goes to a competent Guru for guidance. The guru initiates him into Lingayathism through the ritual, which involves hasta-mastaka-saṃyōga. This presupposes the doctrine that every man’s head (particularly) is a seat of consciousness (Parashiva). The guru places his palm on the top of the head of the seeker and extracts, as it were, the consciousness from it and establishes it in the Ishtalinga placed on the left palm of the initiate. He further instructs the initiate that the Ishtalinga is henceforth no more a piece of stone but a symbol of Parashiva, the universal soul and that, therefore, he should worship it daily thrice (see KUṆḌALINĪ and ISHTALINGA).