Samdhya Meditation and Agnihotra

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, Sunny Bhardwaj wrote:

> I studied in an Arya Samaj school in India where we were taught to perform
> Samdhya. We did this once a week.
>

I hate to break it to you but the teachings of the Arya Samaj are total
bunk.  They don't have the remotest connection to any sort of astika
tradition.

In advaita-l we are mainly interested in strictly following the teachings
of Advaita Vedanta but even then we can recognize that there are certain
areas where reasonable people can agree to disagree.  We may have issues
with Vaishnavas etc. but we can recognize them as kindred spirits in at
least some ways.  But this is just incredible!  No way, no how even by the
most warped interpretation can you come up with the idea of doing sandhya
once a week.

> What is the importance of doing Samdhya and how many times must it be
> performed daily/weekly?
>

Sandhavandana is the basic nityakarma that all the dvijas should do.  It
is said three times a day and should be continued from the time of
upanayana until sannyasa or death.

> We were also taught how to perform Agnihotra Havan (we had to learn the
> mantras and recite them in exams and also perform the actual ceremony).

Having seen an Arya Samaj manual on havans, I can assure you that
pitiful exercise has no relation whatsoever to the Vedic agnihotra.

> I live in the US now and would like to continue doing Havan. Does anyone have
> any ideas/suggestions on how I can do this?

Given a choice between doing an Arya Samaj havan or watching TV my advice
would be to watch TV.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>