[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Maha Rudra Yajnam in California, USA

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Recently in Ramanasramam, i witnessed an atirudram with a similar number of ritwiks etc. The offering of havis was done only by the vaidikas (ghanapathis and their students who follow all the niyamas), who were part of the vedic gurukulas in various parts of India. The ritual was not done by 'part-timers' who know the rudram and do sandhya but follow laukika lifestyle working in corporates etc.. All such people are not given any access to the yajna area. The distinction was based on strict adherence to niyama and not based on the accident of birth.

>  If that was the case I really appreciate it.  But we don’t have to be under the impression that those who are wearing shikha, pancha kaccha etc. are all invariably leading the pious life.  Yes, this is the naked truth I myself witnessed when I went to KCN's ( CM of Telangana state) Ayatha chandi at Telangaana as a Ritvik.  There were pundits from shrigeri gurukula, svarNavalli mutt, kanchi mutt, mattur, gubbi, Tamilnadu gurukul-s.  Yes they are ghanapAti-s, doing trikAla saNdhyAvandana, by heart they know saMhita, pada, krama, ghana chanting,  they are well versed in vedic kriya (methods /prayoga/ rituals) also.  But sadly, that is not what they are doing in their daily 24 hours.  I had the opportunity to mingle with some of them during that occasion and happened to see what they do in their leisure hours.  Most of them are busy in checking their stock market status, talking about the charges / package charges for the upcoming marriage/upanayana events, lending the idols they have on rent for the kalyANotsava rituals,  enquiring about available sites and its rate (real estate) for buying and selling.  Yes, they are running gurukula, giving shelter to poor students, providing them free food and cloth etc. and they learnt veda (don’t know about vedAnta) in the traditional gurukula more than a decade but after completing the 'course' and after got married, they are, due to forced circumstances, during their leisure time engaging in this type of loukika activities to earn some extra bucks to meet the demands of their 'extra' needs.  And sadly, some of them clandestinely appeasing their habits like chewing pan, gutkha etc. They are not software engineers, they are not employed anywhere but their activities during leisure time nothing better than that of some of the loukika-s.  What I am trying to say is outer look like shikha, pancha kaccha, big big tilak, big big mAla etc. do not prove that they are full time vaidika niyama pAlaka-s.  

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar