[Advaita-l] aruNa prashna for sUrya namaskaara

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005, Vivek Shankar Natarajan wrote:

>
> aruNa prashna for sUrya namaskaara
>
>   Sir, is it possible for someone here to let us know which of the
> mantras are vidhi statements? Thus, one can know what is to be avoided
> during kriya ceremonies. All help would be greatly appreciated.
>

No mantras are vidhis.  Mantras are mantras.  The problem is in
Krshnayajurveda which most South Indian Brahmanas follow and of which
aruNapraShna is a part, the mantras and Brahmanas (explanations of mantras
which include vidhis) are mixed together unlike in other shakhas.  (There
is a rather unappetizing explanation of this in the Puranas considering
Maharshi Yajnavalkya having vomitted them up after arguing with his Guru.)

To recognize a vidhi you have to know Sanskrit grammar.  The vidhi is a
statement in the tense called li~Ng (sorry don't remember what its called
in English.) which enjoins an action should be performed.  The classic
example is svarga kamo yajeta "one who desires heaven should sacrifice"
This is a vidhi because it enjoins a particular action (sacrifice) by
which a particular outcome (heaven) can be achieved by a particular
actor (one who desires heaven.)

The counterpart to a vidhi is a niShedha which prohibits the performance
of some action.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at debian.org>
La Salle Debain - http://www.braincells.com/debian/