[Advaita-l] Meditation Vs nitya karma

[RAMESH RAMANAN]

  Dear Sri Ramanathanji,
   
  Pranams, 
  Please note that Sri Bhaskarji has not said that he regards Sri Gondhavalekar Maharaj as his Guru. Only listening to a partial speech of the latter has caused so much confusion in the mind of Sri Bhaskarji. All our Acharyas have clearly said that one who gives up/does not perform his prescribed nitya karmas regularly, loses all rights and becomes totally unfit to undertake any other religious/spiritual activity like even pilgrimage, or pooja/worship of Gods (showing arati, burning incense sticks etc.). It is worth observing here that every single Acharya of the Sringeri Math (I know only from the 32nd Acharya Sri Ugra Narasimha Bharathi Swamigal onwards and I definitely think the acharyas prior to this would not have advocated otherwise) and the Kanchi Paramacharyaal have continuously goaded and strongly urged their disciples to perform the nitya karmas with sincere love, trust and faith first, before jumping onto the bandwagon of meditation and higher spiritual targets.
   
  Meditation is not an easy task even for an advanced spiritual sadhaka. Many great spiritual aspirants have failed in spiritual life, after falling short of the qualities required for meditation. Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Mahaswamigal has said that it is possible for a spiritual aspirant to fall even after attaining the Nirivikalpa Samadhi once and that he had himself seen a person spiritually declining after achieving the Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Therefore, it will be very highly advisable on our part to lay a very strong and unshakeable foundation with the help of regular nitya karma anushtanam and then proceeding further, when, our minds become properly attuned towards higher spiritual goals.
   
  I may also point out that Sri Mukkoor Lakshmi Narasimhachariar in his Tamil Book "Kurai ondrumillai" says that a person who does Gayathri Sandhyavandhanam regularly has miraculous spiritual power to bless people and cites the example of a king, whose accidentally dead child was brought back to life, by the blessings of the brahmins who had gathered at the Ayushya Homa for the child. The Gayathri is the mother of all spiritual mantras and I believe that Sri Chandrashekara Bharathi Mahaswamigal once asked a disciple if he was not ashamed to ask for some other spiritual mantra, if he were performing the Gayatri Japa regularly.
   
  Pranams once again, Ramesh Ramanan.
___________________________________________________________________
  
Ramanathan P <p_ramanathan at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Namaste, I agree with your view. The motivation is important. A person doing nitya karma considers it to be the injunction of the Veda, Shastra or Ishvara. Dharma precedes the objective of self-progress, and therefore as with varna-dharma in general automatically surrenders the ego.
 
If a person has complete faith in a guru and the guru instructs the person to do japa in place of a nitya-karma, then I believe the same results are ideally possible. Here the guru takes the place of the Shastra, at least in that person's mind. However in general, the arguers prefer japa as a way to moksha, not as a fulfillment of dharma; hence ego comes in and defeats their purpose.
 
Ramanathan

--- On Tue, 10/14/08, Bhaskar YR wrote:

From: Bhaskar YR 
Subject: [Advaita-l] Meditation Vs nitya karma
To: advaitin at yahoogroups.com, "Advaita-L" 
Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2008, 7:33 AM


praNAms
Hare Krishna

I need clarification from learned prabhuji-s of this forum...Can spiritual
practices like meditation, bhajans, nAma saMkeertan, japa be the substitute
for our veda vihita nitya & naimittika karma-s like sadhyA vandana, agni
kArya, dEvatArchana, vrata, hOma, havana etc.?? I have seen some people,
giving utmost importance to do japa, bhajans, nama saMkeertana and while
doing the veda vihita sandhya vandana, devatArchana, abhishekaM etc. they
do the same only for formalities sake & sometimes due to short of time
&
to do scheduled bhajans, saMkeertana, they are ready to skip
pUja/abhishekam part of their programme!! Is this type of spiritual
practice acceptable?? I was talking to one of the devotees of brahma
chaitanya maharaj ( popularly known as Gondavali Maharaj), he was saying
after all we are observing/following these spiritual practices for the sake
of self agrandizement/chitta shuddhi..what is the problem if it is done in
one way or the other?? He continued to argue & said, moreover, in
sadhana-s like japa, dhyAna, nAma saMkeertana etc. mind is more focussed,
still & gets the peace very quickly when compared to routine, monotonous
sandhya & devatArchana...However, he does not have any objection to follow
periodical pitru tarpaNa, shrAddha etc. in the form of pitru R^Na. This
discussion is stopped abruptly in the midway due to some reason..In short,
his intention was to say that he has very limited period of time for his
spiritual practice, & he would prefer to spend that time in doing
meditation, japa etc. instead of sandhya, agnikArya, devatArchana..coz. his
contention is that later sadhana-s do require lot of kriya (action),
parikara/pAtrAsAdhana/pUjA dravya & preparation time !!??

IMHO, being a vaidika brAhmaNa one should first give preference to observe
his nitya & naimittika karma & other adhyAtmik sadhana-s like nAma
saMkeertana, bhajans, japa etc. can be done as an additional part if time
permits...I dont prefer to do japa/ meditation directly without observing
saMdhyAvandana formalities.

Kindly share your view points on this issue.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar
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