Samdhya Meditation and Agnihotra

[Sunny Bhardwaj]

Assuming the Arya Samaj teachings are "bunk", their schools certainly do
serve at least purpose that television these days doesn't - to introduce
urban children in India to some sort of Vedic tradition. I grew up in Mumbai
and am thankful to my school for teaching me Sanskrit, including a subject
called Dharma Shiksha in the coursework, however bunk it may be, among other
things.

I am aware that there are lot of "differences", to put it mildly, between
different groups pursuing Vedic knowledge, and it doesn't seem you even
consider the Arya Samaj any form of such legitimate group. However, they do
have good that I'd like not to be dismissed by a blanket statement such as
yours.
This response is just that attempt :)

How this is relevant to the Advaita-L email list? Well, the Arya Samaj
school was instrumental in sowing in me the *seed* of inquiry and that has
eventually led me to be part of this list. I don't think that's a small
achievement.



>From: "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM>
>Reply-To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
><ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
>To: ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG
>Subject: Re: Samdhya Meditation and Agnihotra
>Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 23:40:17 -0500
>
>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>


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp