Seek your views / Eradication of doubts,concerns etc.

June 18, 2003

Respected Members:

With absolute 'Sastanga Namaskarams' to all esteemed devotees of these fora

this writer wishes to contribute his little bit in comforting the concerns

expressed in the enclosed message.

All we have to do in such cases, where there is guilt, feeling of apparent

incompleteness or a sense of disappointment of not visiting Tirupati or

Srirangam etc. and worshipping at faraway lands, all one has to do is to

bring to mind the Vedas.

Aeons ago, the Vedas had already anticipated such a situation would come to

pass. A solution was conceived. This was assimilated by the newer and

younger religions, faiths subsequently. This is the 'saranagathi' and

'prayaschittam' both of which have been enshrined in the Sandhyavandanam.

Hence, The Vedas proclaimed that this is a nitya karma.

Most of us are aware of the 'confession' which is widely prevalent amongst

Christians. The mortal commits errors, wrongs and sins, and then goes to

the Church and after kneeling inside the confession box behind a wired-mesh

window masking his identity, he/she confesses to the priest his/her

errors. His sense of shame, guilt, emotional burden and inner turmoil are

all off loaded into the priestâ€™s ears, who in the end makes a symbol of the

Cross and blesses the man to go and 'sin no more'. The fact remains being

mortal, he sins again and once more makes a trip to the confession box.

This is human nature whether Christian, Chinese or Tamilian.

Knowing well the limitations of man's mind and in full magnanimity with a

compassion par excellence, the Vedas have put the Saranagathi and

prayaschittam into the Sandhya rituals and this is to be done thrice in

favour of that Supreme Friend fondly referred as 'mitra' i.e. the Sun. You

do not need any priest to intercede. You directly and privately are in

communion with the SUN who is the manifestation of God and Glory of the

Vedas.

The Sun with HIS great burning power is addressed by the practitioner

thrice. With water before proceeding for the Gayathri, the sinner calls

upon the Sun to burn his errors. The basic purification after achamanam is

"suryascha maa manuyshcy.......mansa vacha ...padhbyam..ratris..." i.e. if

I have sinned by mind, body, words, unknowingly, knowingly or in the night,

in ignorance etc. please burn these. In the evening Agni is invoked to

take over the burden of the sins of the day and burn them out.

In the end, again after the Gayathri etc. there is the famous " Sanka

chakra gadthabane, srimad dwaraka nilaya chuda........RAKSHAMAM

SARANAGATHI..."

And finally, before closing Sandhya, one more sincere effort to Krishna

"kayena vacha manaseyindriya...sarvam krishna arpanam...".

Even the flawless M.S.Subbulakshmi whose Vishnu Sahasranamam and

Suprabatham sung over 5 decades back and which are still evergreen

masterpieces, she too ends with "kayena vacha...".

The humility in-built into the Sandhya is extraordinary. Namely, it even

considers the subtle aspect of the man making errors in his confession

itself !!!!!. Hence in the end, he seeks Krishna's feet and begs

"Krishna...even this error in Sandhya and Saranagathi or Gayathri or

Prayaschittam, even these are done for your sake, so please forgive me..."

During Sandhya you do achamanam more than 3 times, each time you touch your

entire body part-by-part - eyes, ears, etc.with the Lord's many names

:'Kesava, Narayana, Madhava, Govinda...." you are sanctifying your entire

self and offering yourself to the Lord.

Nothing can beat this.

THE MOTTO IS : DO THE SANDHYA THRICE, WHICH BY ITSELF IS A FEAT AND THE

PLACE WHERE YOU DO, I.E. YOUR SEAT BECOMES THE SRIRANGAM OR TIRUPATI.

DIVYA DESAM IS IN YOUR HEART AND NOT ACROSS THE OCEANS. COME OUT OF YOUR

DREAMS. READ BETWEEN THE LINES OF WHAT THE ALWARS HAVE SUNG.

Remember, the agamas have indeed sanctified the physical temples at

Srirangam and the one at Boston too, but the Vedas are the agamas which

have sanctified the universe and every particle of air including the vital

Prana in your body. The Vedas can be worshipped, protected, propagated only

by the Sandhya and Gayathri. Do this and you become the Chief Priest of

the Lord's personal fiefdom

Om tat Sat

Tat tvam asi.

"T. Sampath

Kumaran"

bhakti-list,

<tamarapusampath ,

acharya,

@> Srivenugopala,

Oppiliappan

cc:

06/18/03 08:20 Seek your

views

PM

Please respond

to Oppiliappan

Dear Bhakthas,

I am a visitor to US. During my interaction with some

Sri Vaishvites who have settled down here, they have a

feeling that they are away from our Divya Desams. They

also seem to have a guilty feeling that they are not

able to worship the Lord at Srirangam and Tirupati

though they regularly visit Ranganathar and Srinivasar

temples located in US.

I pacified them that these temples which have been

consecrated as per agama sastras are also sanctified

and they should find the same feeling of worshipping

the presiding deities as in Srirangam or Tirupati. No

doubt it is a fact that Azwars have not sung Mangala

sasanams in these temples.

I seeks the views of other bhakthas in US on this

point.

Dasan

Tamarapu Sampath Kumaran

June 18, 2003