[Advaita-l] Madhvas custom of Sraddha is not correct

[Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l]

Namaste
On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 12:16 AM, Ajit Krishnan <ajit.krishnan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> namaste,
>
> Advaitins really aren't in a position to criticize these kinds of minor
> things. In homas, we see advaitins invoke brahma in darbha as a matter of
> course. Often, the purohita recites both portions of the punyahavachana.
> The nandi shraddha, which involves a homa and several brahmanas is hardly
> being done that way.
>

I heard we have some freedom for doing Devata Karyas like Homa. We can make
adjustments and take short cuts. But there is not such liberty  for doing
Pitru Karyas. You can do Chandi Homa on any day whenever you like. But
Pitru's annual Sraddha must be done exactly on the death tithi date. You
cannot do it earlier or later some time. Like this there are more
restrictions for Pitru Karyas.

Second point is the most important part of the Sraddha ritual is the
Brahmana Bhojana. The Sraddha Karta will invite Pitrus in the body of
Brahmana and ask them to eat and be pleased in Brahmana's body. If
Brahmanas are well fed the Pitrus will be pleased. Which Brahmin are you
pleasing if you keep Darbhe instead of Brahmana? After the Brahmanas have
taken the food the remaining cooked food is the Pitru Sesha. The Sraddha
Karta and his family will eat the Pitru Sesha and they be blessed by Pitrus
through this Pitru Sesha. How can you get blessings of Pitrus if you are
not feeding any Brahmana?


> The bigger problem is that few people make an attempt to understand the
> significance behind what they are doing. Even fewer people do it with
> bhakti and shraddha. And this problem spans all divisions.
>
> sasneham,
>
>     ajit
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 9:47 PM, Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> Namaste
>>
>> I am seeing lot of Madhvas go to Maths for doing Paksha Sraddha. I went to
>> learn what they are doing. They are doing Group Sraddha like one Purohita
>> is saying Mantras and instructions and all Kartas are doing at the same
>> time. This is not correct.
>>
>> The second mistake is they are doing only Chataka Sraddha with Darbhe
>> Brahmanas but not Pratyaksha Brahmanas. They are using Darbhe instead of
>> real Brahmanas.
>>
>> I went to Sankara Math and asked the people there. They also said we
>> should
>> not do Chataka Sraddha when Brahmins are available. If there is acute
>> shortage of Brahmanas to sit in Vishwe deva and Pitru Sthana we can use
>> Darbhe Brahmana.
>>
>> Other comments welcome.
>>
>> --
>> Regards
>>
>> -Venkatesh
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>


-- 
Regards

-Venkatesh