[Advaita-l] Using silk for pUja

[Siva Senani Nori]

Dear Sri Praveen Bhat

Some of the sutras (pertaining to the dress of an upanIta, or a brahmachArin) from 1.1.3 of Apastamba Sutra are reproduced below from ("The Sacred Laws of Aryas: As taught in the schools of AAPASTAMBA,  GUATAMA, VAASISHTHA, AND BUDHAAYANA", Translated by Georg Bühler; Part I, Aapastamba and Gautama, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 2, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, [1879], available online at sacredbooks.com) are: 

3. (The skin),worn by a Braahmana shall be that of a common deer or of a black doe. 
4. If he wears a black skin, let him not spread it (on the ground) to sit or lie upon it.
5. (The skin worn) by a Kshatriya shall be that of a spotted deer.
6. (The skin worn) by a VaiSya shall be that of he-goat.
7. The skin of a sheep is fit to be worn by all castes,
8. And a blanket made of wool.
9. He who wishes the increase of Brâhmana power shall wear skins only; he who wishes the increase of
Kshatriya power shall wear cloth only; he who wishes the increase of both shall wear both (skin and
cloth). Thus says a Braahmana. 
10. But (I, Aapastamba, say), let him wear a skin only as his upper garment. 
Footnote to 10: According to I, 1, 2, 39-I, 1, 3, 10, the rule of dress for students is the following:-- According to Aapastamba, a student shall wear a piece of cloth to cover his nakedness (langoTi) and a skin as upper garment. Other teachers allow, besides, an upper dress of cloth, coloured differently for the different
castes, with or without the addition of a deer-skin.
Just like the silk worm and its larvae are subject to inhuman cruelty in extracting silk, the cow and its calves are subject to great cruelty in that the milk produced by it is denied to its calves; cattle was the sought after wealth in many vedic verses and all the usefulness of cattle is a result of cruelty; the poor sheep is shorn regularly so that we humans may stay worm; and there is no guarantee that the skins referred to above would only be taken from 16 year old animals which have died of natural causes.
Regards
Senani

----- Original Message ----
From: Praveen R. Bhat <bhatpraveen at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 3:35:12 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Using silk for pUja

praNAm all,

We use silk dhotI and angavastra for sandhyA, pUja, etc. I haven't yet found
any reference to justify the same due to the cruel process of silk
production. Would someone be able to provide information whether Vedas
permit/ recommend usage of silk clothes in pUja and of so, the justification
for the process.

Thanks,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
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