Dear Swamin,
Following from Valmiki Ramayanam, ayodhya khanda, sarga-103 and shlokas from 2-103-25 to 2-103-30 explains how Shri Rama did pinda pradhanam when he heard about his father's death during his aranya vaasam at chitrakoota.
(Below translation is taken from: http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga103/ayodhya_103_frame.htm)
Quote –
The illustrious Rama and others painfully reached the River Mandakini, that stream of sacred fords, the enchanting one always covered with flowers, coming to a blessed ford, free from mud and offered the lustrual water to the king, saying "Father! May this prove agreeable to you."
Holding together in the form of a hollow his palms full of water and turning his face turned towards the southern quarter and weeping the great prince pronounced the traditional words saying: "O, Tiger among men! May this water without taint and incorruptible at the moment that I offer it to you, reach you in the region of your ancestors where you are."
Thereafter, the glorious Rama, resending the bank of Mandakini River along with his brothers, offered balls of food to his father. He placed the pulp of the Ingudi tree mixed with the pulp of plums on a mat of Kusa grass and overcome with sadness, weeping, spoke the following words: "O, Great King! Be pleased to partake of this, which we eat for, that which man eats, is also consumed by his gods."
-Unquote
My point is not that everyone should perform pinda pradhanam with the pulp of the Ingudi tree, but rather the point we should note here is that we should perform rituals with the resources available within our limits. But in no circumstance we should skip the ritual itself.
And hence Shri Rama himself says in shloka 2-103-30, that
idambhuðkÿva mah˜r˜ja prŸto yadaþan˜ vayam |
yadanna× puruÿo bhavati tadann˜ stasya devat˜× || 2-103-30
"O, Great King! Be pleased to partake of this, which we eat for, that which man eats, is also consumed by his gods."
This is just my understanding of this event and if there is any misunderstanding, elders and learned scholars in the group should guide us further. I once again apologize if i have hurt anyone with my views in my previous mail.
With humble pranamas,SwaminsKochappaa's agony is understandable. The gentlemen inspite of the pain appears to be performing srardhams to his parents and helping his sisters too. That is laudable. But given the present day conditions of cost demands from vathiar swamins and others (they too have their constrains in the costly world), I do not know whether there is any way of doing it at less cost, unless, as suggested by Kochapa swami himself that Brahmins associations take up a pool of bruhaspathis and willing swamins, and organize to depute them on standard tariffs. It would be nice if Harsha simha swami elucidates for the benefit of all,, how Sri Rama conducted the pitru srardham economically.AdiyenGovindakrishnan
--On 10/12/2008, harsha simha <hellosimha@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:Dear swamin,
I can understand your pain. But, no where it is compelled that we should go beyond our limits and perform these rituals. As you have taken pain to calculate the amount to do shraddham, you can take a bit more pain to read Ramayanam to know how Shri Rama did "pinda pradhanam" to dasharatha, when he was in "aranya vasa". I feel, your thought is a direct result of "performing rituals without understanding the meaning and purpose behind that".
While we should condemn those Bruhaspathis who perform these rituals for the sake of money, we should even more condemn those who are the reeal "karthas" (responsible doer) but who want to just perform these rituals without knowing the meaning and purpose of these rituals and end up blaming the Bruhaspathis.
Because, it is nowhere mentioned in our shastras (as far as i know) that we should go beyond our limits to perform these rituals, skipping shraddham itself is not a sollution. But, we should try to understand the meaning and purpose of the ritual and then find a way out to perfrom these rituals within our limits.
If you want to *really* feed 25 mouths every year, i have a better idea. We can skip one lunch every week. By this we will save 52 lunch in a year which can feed 52 mouths every year (and not just 25). But, lets do our rituals within our limits and also with an understanding of the meaning and the purpose of the rituals.
I apologize if you find any of my views offensive.
With humble pranamas,
harsha simha
On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 2:19 PM, kochappaa <kochappaa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Respected swamins,
I want to share a haunting thought of mine. I am a retired middle
class pensioner in Banglaore. For the past 3 or so years I find
things are becoming very costly for doing annual pitru srardhams.
The charges are like this: Rs.650 for Bruhaspathi + small coins
Rs.50, Rs.600 for 2 swmingals, Rs.700 for thaligai swami and the
provisions Rs. 600. Thus the total cost of a srardham is Rs.2600. I
have to do two per year and arrange for the srardham of my poor
sister who passed away. Many middle class bramins must be facing
this kind of music. Can any middle class person can afford such
costs? Whether any other people from other religion or even other
caste people would spend like this annually on remembering the
departed souls? Rs.500 if donated to an orphanate or oldage home
would feed atleast 25 mouths. Where is our sect heading towards. I
am sure that unless our sect wakes up and rationalise and regulate
these fleecing bruhaspathis, the whole custom of peforming such
rites would quickly vanish. It is time, our mutts start some
registered body where they should register these bruhaspahtis and
swamins and fix reasonable tariff also.
adiyen
Kochappaa
Yours
Govindakrishnan Alagar
Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray. - Sri Sathya Sai Baba
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