Yajur Veda:  Pratah  Sandhya Vandanam

Index


Arghyam Notes

Procedure  Notes

 
  • Notes

Notes

  • Arghyam is a form of worship or prayer, and is the basic tenet of the vedas.
  •  The 'Arghyas' delivered skyward from the palms of the worshipper serve as missiles to destroy demons known as 'Mantehars' attacking the sun. This statement in the vedas has a great significance.
  • The demon Mandeha (one of lazy effort) and Aruna (one of sanguinary passion) literally and by denotation stand for Tamoguna and Rajoguna. The two demons daily attack the Sun in the form of the Atman. When the Arghya is offered with remembrance of the gayathri whose import is Paramatman in-dwelling the sun, the Rajoguna and the Tamoguna are destroyed. But when we come back to worldly life, the demons become revived and again they should be destroyed at the proper time. 
  • The process of cleaning the vessel should take place everyday as long as we live in this prakriti.
  • The Taittiriya sruti and Vishnupurana narrate the following

    The demons called Mandeharuna performed severe penance and secured a boon from Brahma that they should be attacking the all helpful Aditya, the Sun God. The creator god granted their boon but added that as their intention was unholy, they would be dead and revived everyday. Accordingly the deadly demons would be attacking Adithya everyday during the morning and evening. But the Arghya offered by the devotees to the accompaniment of the sacred gayathri would become a thunder bolt to kill them, after some time the demons would come alive again and attack the Sun, to be killed and thrown away into the island.