[Advaita-l] How to prepare sacred ash, Bhasma? Padma Purana

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Thank you Subbu ji, for that interesting page from the Padma purANa about
the preparation of sacred ash by slowly incinerating dried cow dung with
chanting of vedic mantras.

Apart from the adhidaivika angle, even from a physical perspective, the
slow kindling of the fire for several days prepares the cow dung in to a
specific kind of ash rendering it a sterile and pure medium. For those who
have shraddA, it is believed that such a pure medium retains the power of
the vedic mantras chanted during its preparation and also while being
used/applied.

The mention in the purana of the  addition of camphor and Kashmira saffron
indicates the inalienable links with that sacred land.

Two curious facts are the following -
"With the hymn *Alakṣmīrmayi* (‘Prosperity should not come to me’). one
should purify the cow dung."

Also, the cow should be one whose calves are dead. Not clear if there is
any rationale for this. (Not that it's always there.)


Om
Raghav





On Wed, 9 Sep, 2020, 3:23 PM V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> In the Padma Purana, in a conversation between Sri Rama and Shiva, a
> detailed description of the preparation of Bhasma is given.  Here is the
> page in English:
>
> https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-padma-purana/d/doc365420.html
>
> regards
> subbu
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