[Advaita-l] Chanting Gayatri overseas

[Santosh Rao]

Thanks for the responses,

Yes Jaldhar, that was the exact term he used - Karmabhoomi...I had
mentioned to him that I was looking for someone to teach me how to perform
sandhyavandanam properly since I do not have any elders or family members
to consult about these things, but he said that that only India is
Karmabhoomi, it isn't advised to perform those duties or chant Gayatri in
"Mleccha-bhoomi."

He also said that since I was born in NY I would have to have my upanayanam
re-done in India, even though I had it done (in India) when I was 15 years
old.

I have been performing my fathers shraddha rites for past 2 years since he
passed. He said that I should perform those in India only.

I understand these are one persons opinions, but he is very knowledgeable
overall and I ask him questions from time to time and he always has
satisfying answers. I would ask them hear to get wider responses, but not
all of my questions are focused on Advaita Vedanta so I don't want to get
off-topic and annoy other members.

Namaskara,

Santosh

On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 8:11 PM, Shashi via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear Mr. Santosh,
>
> I would second Mr Vyas's point.
> In addition there are some smriti texts that
> seem absolute in their exhortation for dvijas to perform nityakarmas. For
> example,
> the Daksha smriti says that one who neglects sandhyavandana becomes
> unclean and unfit to perform any ritual, and it makes no exception to those
> who are overseas.
>
> Shashi
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Sep 28, 2017, at 4:18 PM, Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> >> On Thu, 28 Sep 2017, Santosh Rao via Advaita-l wrote:
> >>
> >> Namaskara,
> >>
> >> I was recently advised that chanting Gayatri outside of India is not
> >> proper. Is there a basis for this, even for those born overseas? How
> would
> >> this affect duties such as sandhyavandanam?
> >
> > There is a theory in dharmashastra that only bharatavarsha is the
> karmabhumi (but what are the limits of Bharata?  The current Republic of
> India is considerably smaller than its historical extent.) and therefore
> mantras do not have any efficacy outside its limits.
> >
> > For myself and my son, we do sandhyavandana and Gayatri japa without
> fail despite living in America.  Bhagavan can decide if it has merit or
> not; we shall continue doing our duty without expecting any particular
> phala.
> >
> > --
> > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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