Shraddha is water

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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

 

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Oppiliappan, krishna priya

<neelakrishna2001> wrote:

>

>

> Who am i to go or say against upanishads such great

scholarly ,saintly documents .

 

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Scriptures also talk of exceptions - to the 5 oblations.

You can find it in verse 3-1-19 of Brahma sutra whereby it is

stated " And moreover (cases without the 5th oblation) are recorded

in the world.'

 

`Cases like Drona, who had no mother and Draupadi and

Dhrishtadhyumna, who had neither father nor mother, are recorded in

the smrithis.'

 

Usually the route is through what is called 5 oblations or panchagni,

rain, earth, food, man and woman. This is the route the soul follows.

 

This is being variously explained as the heavens, parjanya (water)

earth, man and woman and so on in Chandogya.

Again it has been said that shraddha, soma, rain, food and seed are

offered into 5 Agnis.

 

It is possible to interpret this as the first order said above, as

(1) by shraddha the soul is entered into the clouds etc, (2) by soma

(which is often interpreted in Vedas as giving rains) and since rain

nourishes earth (again there are verses to this effect in Upanishad),

soma offered into the 2 nd agni reaches the earth. (3) by rain the

food is made and eaten by man, (4) the food offered gives a form for

the soul by the name, sperm, and (5) the seed is what is implanted in

the woman.

 

Again there are other passages which specifically speak of Shraddha

being the oblations and again as the 5th oblation. Bhagavad Ramanuja

has related this sharddha to `water' by quoting appropriate texts

from upanishads. Water is the basis of all this. The 5th oblation

being water means, the soul is born without having to go through the

mother's womb but by means of power of water, can be born. (perhaps

in some distant future, science may find out ways of getting the

foetus grow in a test tube of `water', and not necessarily through /

inside the womb. The sruti passages do indicate such a possibility.)

 

It is noteworthy to remember here how we discussed about water being

the carrier and transmitter etc in pithru kaaryam. By using water

along with eLLu in pithru tarpaNam (the actual terminology used is `

eLLum thaNNiyum irraitthal') it can also be assumed that water is the

shraddha, and it is the 5th oblation and therefore makes the pindam

or eLLu being `born' as the person himself to whom the tarpaNam is

offered. It is by this shraddha , the 3 levels of pithrus which come

down to receive the tarpaNam are being made into those persons

themselves.

 

The chandogya says, " For this reason is water in the 5 th oblation

called man," therefore comes to be designated as man (Ramanuja

bhashyam to Brahma sutra)

 

"Shraddha indeed is water" ( Tai. Sa. I.vi. 8.1)

 

 

Regards,

jayasree