[Advaita-l] aruNa prashna for sUrya namaskaara - A Scholar's Opinion

[Amuthan Arunkumar R]

namo nArAyaNAya!

dear SrI bhAskar and list members,

i'm sorry to come in abruptly into the conversation.
i'll just comment on two points. 

--- bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

> ...for that matter no advaitin would
> endorse the view that karma
> itself can give us ultimate realization.  Hence I
> think *strict* observance
> of what has been their in pUrva mImAmsa practice is
> not necessary for us.

asfaik, we have absolutely no rights to relax the
vidhi-s in SAstram eventhough we do them only for
chitta Suddhi. As long as one has not taken up
sannyAsam, one should meticulously adhere to the
various do-s and dont-s mentioned in the SAstra-s.
this is also made clear by SrI kR^ishNa who clearly
asks arjuna to perform actions for attaining chitta
Suddhi with the following words: 

"tasmAcchAstraM pramANaM te kAryAkArya vyavasthitau.
j~nAtvA SAstravidhAnoktaM karma kartumihArhasi.."
(gItA, 16.24) 

the arguments i have given above r based on SrI
Sa~NkarAchArya's commentary on this bhagavadvachanam.

--- bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

> ...but for those (advaitins) who are doing
> this only for the
> purpose of mind purification (chitta shuddhi) may
> not have to follow
> vigorously those rules & regulations (for example we
> do relax some of the
> procedures in pUjA vidhAna like gandhArthe pushpAni
> pUjayAmi, dhUpArthe
> akshatAn samarpayAmi, AbharaNArThe pushpANi
> pUjayAmi..etc.etc. & in punaH
> pUja we do recite maNtra-s like gItaM shrAvayAmi,
> AndOLikArOhaNAm,
> gajArOhaNam, ashvArOhaNam samarpayAmi but without
> offering anything :-))!!
> & some time in hOmaMs we place darbha danda in the
> place of brahma
> sthAna!!) 

i'm no expert to answer this and i leave it to the
experts for a proper answer. but i remember seeing in
Sa~Nkara's commentary on bR^ihadAraNyaka upanishad
that a karma can be substituted by a meditation on it
(i think this comes in the context of eulogising the
aSvamedha yaj~na). 

one important question i have is : "is the SAstram
mentioned by kR^ishNa above vedam or smR^iti?, i.e. is
it applicable only to vaidika karma-s or also to
smArta karma-s?"

i request the experts in pUrva mImAmsa to address this
issue.

vAsudevaH sarvaM,
aparyAptAmrR^itaH.

Amuthan Arunkumar R,
Final year, B.Tech/M.Tech Dual Degree,
Dept. of Aerospace Engg., IIT Madras.


		
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