[Advaita-l] agnimukha prayOga - a query

[Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan]

agni-mukha prayaga is amantraka for all smaarta karmas. For shrauta karma,
there are mantras. The vaakyas tha you mention are usually said as a
"reminder" to oneself so as not to forget something, or as instructions to
the person doing the karma if they don't know the procedure. It is not
compulsory to recite these vaakyas. These vaakyas are from prayoga texts
and not from the suutras for the most part.

As per the aapastmba suutra, all karmas are to be performed with
ShaT-paatra. The actual procedures in the texts like prayoga-cintaamaNi,
etc., differ from the actual suutras. Sometimes there are additional things
which are done, sometimes things are done slightly differently. The core is
as per the aapastamba suutra, but probably 25% of the prayoga is different
from it. A number of the variations are from other suutras like
bhaaradvaja-suutra and so on, but not always.

Regarding catuSh-paatra, the distinction is as follows. Take the case of a
homa like the gaNapati or aayuShya homa. These are done using laukikaagni,
and there is only ShaTpaatra.

For a karma like seemantam, there is a distinction. The karma has to be
done using aupaasanaagni. Since most people don't maintain an
aupaasana fire, viccinaagni-sandhaanam has to be performed to get the
aupaasanaagni. catuShpaatra is used *only* for vicchinaagni-sandhaanam .
Once the aupasanaagni is obtained, the actual karma of seemantam will be
started, and this karma will again use ShaTpaatra. Note that you have to
start all over again by laying the darbha around the homa-kunda, but the
fire used start the karma for seemantam will be from the vicchinaagni
sandhaanam. Then there will be the ShaT-paatra and the other usual stuff.

In short only vicchinnagni-sandhaanam will use catuShpaatra, everything
else uses ShaTpaatra. As for references to catuShpAtra, I have no idea. I
have seen it only in prayoga texts. There is no reference to catuShpAtra in
any of the grhya suutras that I have come across.

Rama

On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Pardon me, my doubt is not relating to advaita vedAnta, it is about
> agnimukha prayOga according to Apasthambha...
>
> Kindly let me know when we can follow 'chatushpAtra prayOga' and when we
> have to follow 'shatpAtra prayOga'...Is there any reference to these two
> type of prayOga-s and viniyOga maNtra-s while doing the agnimukha??
> normally we say only kriya vAkya without chanting any mantra while doing
> agnimukha, like agneH uttarataH dvAdasha darbhAn saggusteerya, teshu
> pAtrANi dvandvannyanchi, dve-darbhAgre pracchidya, pracchALya, Ajye
> pratyasya, prachee tiratpUrya, sruksruvAvagnau pratitapya, prOkshya,
> nidhAya etc. etc. these are all mere kriyA vAchaka vAkya-s, whether there
> is any veda maNtra to be chanted while doing these kriya-s?? I wanted to
> know in detail.
>