[Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 16 Dec 2010, Krunal Makwana wrote:

> Jai Sri Krsna
>
> Namaste members,
>
> I have recently got married and had gone to Singapore for my honeymoon. 
> Unfortunately I had ordered a vege dish but unfortunately I had later 
> learned after I had consumed a few spoons that he dish had prawn oils in 
> it. Needless to say I'm a pure vegetarian and have been for a great part 
> of my life. I'm really upset about what happened and have deeply 
> repented my actions. is there any official ritual i must perform for 
> this sin I have committed?

Dear Krunal, Jai Shri Krishna,

I will respond to this thread at greater length later but I just wanted to 
address your question as tomorrow is a good opportunity to rectify your 
mistake.

The Chandrayana that Satish mentioned is a vrata where one lives only on 
rice for a whole month.  You take one mouthful on the padvo, 2 on bij, 3 
on trij and so on until 15 on poonam.  Then you decrease by one mouthful 
every day until amasa when you fast totally for the whole day.  Needless 
to say this is very arduous.  However, 1.  Such a penance only has to be 
made by a dvija (na shUdre pAtakaM kiMchit "A shudra never becomes an 
outcaste [by eating forbidden foods.]" - Manu smrti 10.126) 2. in any case 
it only applies to intentionally eating ashuddha food.  I was present once 
when go. va. Krishnashankar Shastriji was asked the same question.  His 
reply was that one should do nirjala upvasa for one day and recite 10 
malas or more of dvadashakshari (i.e. OM namo bhagavate vAsudevAya.)  So 
as you are probably doing agiarash tomorrow anyway just make it as 
rigorous as possible and do the dvadashakshari jap.

I would also add that dAn (charity) of any sort is a surefire insurance 
against any offences we may have accidently caused.  I try and make some 
sort of dan every day.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>