Respected Members:
With absolute 'Sastanga Namaskarams' to all esteemed devotees of these fora
this writer wishes to contribute his little bit in comforting the concerns
expressed in the enclosed message.
All we have to do in such cases, where there is guilt, feeling of apparent
incompleteness or a sense of disappointment of not visiting Tirupati or
Srirangam etc. and worshipping at faraway lands, all one has to do is to
bring to mind the Vedas.
Aeons ago, the Vedas had already anticipated such a situation would come to
pass. A solution was conceived. This was assimilated by the newer and
younger religions, faiths subsequently. This is the 'saranagathi' and
'prayaschittam' both of which have been enshrined in the Sandhyavandanam.
Hence, The Vedas proclaimed that this is a nitya karma.
Most of us are aware of the 'confession' which is widely prevalent amongst
Christians. The mortal commits errors, wrongs and sins, and then goes to
the Church and after kneeling inside the confession box behind a wired-mesh
window masking his identity, he/she confesses to the priest his/her
errors. His sense of shame, guilt, emotional burden and inner turmoil are
all off loaded into the priest’s ears, who in the end makes a symbol of the
Cross and blesses the man to go and 'sin no more'. The fact remains being
mortal, he sins again and once more makes a trip to the confession box.
This is human nature whether Christian, Chinese or Tamilian.
Knowing well the limitations of man's mind and in full magnanimity with a
compassion par excellence, the Vedas have put the Saranagathi and
prayaschittam into the Sandhya rituals and this is to be done thrice in
favour of that Supreme Friend fondly referred as 'mitra' i.e. the Sun. You
do not need any priest to intercede. You directly and privately are in
communion with the SUN who is the manifestation of God and Glory of the
Vedas.
The Sun with HIS great burning power is addressed by the practitioner
thrice. With water before proceeding for the Gayathri, the sinner calls
upon the Sun to burn his errors. The basic purification after achamanam is
"suryascha maa manuyshcy.......mansa vacha ...padhbyam..ratris..." i.e. if
I have sinned by mind, body, words, unknowingly, knowingly or in the night,
in ignorance etc. please burn these. In the evening Agni is invoked to
take over the burden of the sins of the day and burn them out.
In the end, again after the Gayathri etc. there is the famous " Sanka
chakra gadthabane, srimad dwaraka nilaya chuda........RAKSHAMAM
SARANAGATHI..."
And finally, before closing Sandhya, one more sincere effort to Krishna
"kayena vacha manaseyindriya...sarvam krishna arpanam...".
Even the flawless M.S.Subbulakshmi whose Vishnu Sahasranamam and
Suprabatham sung over 5 decades back and which are still evergreen
masterpieces, she too ends with "kayena vacha...".
The humility in-built into the Sandhya is extraordinary. Namely, it even
considers the subtle aspect of the man making errors in his confession
itself !!!!!. Hence in the end, he seeks Krishna's feet and begs
"Krishna...even this error in Sandhya and Saranagathi or Gayathri or
Prayaschittam, even these are done for your sake, so please forgive me..."
During Sandhya you do achamanam more than 3 times, each time you touch your
entire body part-by-part - eyes, ears, etc.with the Lord's many names
:'Kesava, Narayana, Madhava, Govinda...." you are sanctifying your entire
self and offering yourself to the Lord.
Nothing can beat this.
THE MOTTO IS : DO THE SANDHYA THRICE, WHICH BY ITSELF IS A FEAT AND THE
PLACE WHERE YOU DO, I.E. YOUR SEAT BECOMES THE SRIRANGAM OR TIRUPATI.
DIVYA DESAM IS IN YOUR HEART AND NOT ACROSS THE OCEANS. COME OUT OF YOUR
DREAMS. READ BETWEEN THE LINES OF WHAT THE ALWARS HAVE SUNG.
Remember, the agamas have indeed sanctified the physical temples at
Srirangam and the one at Boston too, but the Vedas are the agamas which
have sanctified the universe and every particle of air including the vital
Prana in your body. The Vedas can be worshipped, protected, propagated only
by the Sandhya and Gayathri. Do this and you become the Chief Priest of
the Lord's personal fiefdom
Om tat Sat
Tat tvam asi.
"T. Sampath
Kumaran" To:
bhakti-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
<tamarapusampath malolan_net@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
acharya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
@yahoo.com> Srivenugopala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Oppiliappan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc:
06/18/03 08:20 Subject: [Oppiliappan] Seek your
views
PM
Please respond
to Oppiliappan
Dear Bhakthas,
I am a visitor to US. During my interaction with some
Sri Vaishvites who have settled down here, they have a
feeling that they are away from our Divya Desams. They
also seem to have a guilty feeling that they are not
able to worship the Lord at Srirangam and Tirupati
though they regularly visit Ranganathar and Srinivasar
temples located in US.
I pacified them that these temples which have been
consecrated as per agama sastras are also sanctified
and they should find the same feeling of worshipping
the presiding deities as in Srirangam or Tirupati. No
doubt it is a fact that Azwars have not sung Mangala
sasanams in these temples.
I seeks the views of other bhakthas in US on this
point.
Dasan
Tamarapu Sampath Kumaran
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