[Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** Re: [advaitin] Maha Rudra Yajnam in California, USA

[Kaushik Chevendra]

Namaste.

Talking about shastra-s and rituals, we see that the idea of introducing a
> ritual is to wean away a person from prakrita tendencies and make him do
> karma approved by shastra.


The karma phala isn't limited to weaning people from prakrita tendencies.
All the karmas has a punya and papa phala. When done with isvararpana they
produce chitta sudhi. But this karma isn't same for all. The shastras
determine what is Dharma and adharma and not our logic as the karma phala
is adhristha.

But, even while doing the kamya karma, a person
> may get enlightened by contemplating the meaning of the mantras in the
> ritual. We may see Shankarachaya's words on 2-10 of the Gita -
> यथा च स्वर्गादिकामार्थिनः अग्निहोत्रादिकर्मलक्षणधर्मानुष्ठानाय आहिताग्नेः
> काम्ये एव अग्निहोत्रादौ प्रवृत्तस्य सामि कृते विनष्टेऽपि कामे तदेव
> अग्निहोत्राद्यनुतिष्ठतोऽपि न तत्काम्यमग्निहोत्रादि भवति। तथा च दर्शयति
> भगवान् कुर्वन्नपि न लिप्यते
> Our sages had intelligently devised rituals to slowly lead a person to
> atma-vichara. Several swamis have written the meaning of Sri Rudram, and
> emphasized that it is an exercise of seeing divinity in all'.

Seeing divinity in all means that the Atman is the antaryami for everyone.
But the body/mind which does the action is different. To attain the brahma
jnana one must do "svadharma". This is what shankaracharya clarifies in the
apashudradhikarana.

Anuvakas 3
> and 4 in particular, mention several occupational groups in the then
> society and the devotee is seeing Rudra in all.


Again seeing "Atman" in all doesn't mean everybody is the same. A father is
a father and a son is a son.

It is an upasana for
> attaining sarvatma-bhava. In fact, our priests can upgrade their abilities,
> know some Sanskrit, and explain the meanings of the mantras which are so
> noble and universal.


Even if there are hundreds of universal statments, these are not free-cards
to transgress Dharma and act as per one's own ichha. That doesn't bring
sreyas for anyone.


It is particularly needed to keep our own children in
> the fold of dharma, and in a country like USA where the society seems to be
> in a total mess with strange ideas of wokeism, gender identification and so
> on.
>

Very true. I understand your concern. We must inculcate bagavad bakthi,
punya karma, guru bakthi etc in these people. All these are same for
everyone. Its not right to think that all have the same duties and
svadharma. Surrender to bagavan is the same for everyone.

Aravinda Rao
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 31, 2023 at 2:56 PM Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at hitachienergy.com>
> wrote:
>
> > praNAms Sri Aravinda prabhuji
> >
> > Hare Krishna
> >
> >
> >
> > So much invective in the group of advaitins. Surprising.
> >
> >
> >
> > Ø     Kindly pardon me prabhuji, kindly don’t think otherwise.  I was
> > just trying to say though we are advaitins we are not free from shAstra’s
> > vidhi-nishedha.  If I said anything wrong and hurt your feelings my
> > apologies.  My humble praNAms to your services to the society.
> >
> >
> >
> > Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> >
> > bhaskar
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>