Overseas Travel.

[Guest guest]

A devotee gave me a copy of souvenir of a conference titled 'Brahma

sabhA", coordinated by SrI Krishna Premi svAmi. This was held for

three days in Royampettai staring Janaury 2, 2003. Well-known

scholars from all the three sampradAya-s have participated in this

gathering. Among those who have given SrImukham are: SrI

vAnamAmalai jeeyar (rAmAnuja sampradAya), kAnci Sri Sa'nkarAcArya

(advaita), and UttarAdi muTT (dvaita sampradAya). I see photograpahs

of SrI Karunakaran svAmi, nAvalpAkkam SrI varadAcArya svAmi, SrI

SaThakopAcArya svAmi, the sampAdakar of SrI ahobila MuTT, the

SrIkSryam of SrI ahobila MuTT, nRsimha tAtAcArya svAmi, and SrI

KozhiyAlam svAmi, representing our sampradAyam. According to the

brochure, there were discussions on 50 topics, and recommendations on

each.

 

While I do not know whether all the above attended all lthe

discussion, and whether they all agreed on everything that is

published in the souvenir, the following appears in one of the talks

by a Neela BAla SarmA:

 

"The SAstra-s declare that travel to foreign country is forbidden

because it leads to association with mleccha-s (I will leave the

translation to each of you based on your dictionary), and this

association with mleccha-s comes in the way of vaidika

karmAnushThAnam. The SAstra-s say that even within India, there are

certian regions that have become dominated by mleccha-s, and so one

should go to these places only for pilgrimage, and then one should do

prAyaScittam for having been to these places in general. dESam,

kAlam, phalam, nimittam, and samskAram are declared to be the a'nga-s

of karma properly performed. Even though dESam is just one a'ngam

for karma, if the karma itself cannot be performed properly in a

foreign country, travelling abroad strictly leads to impurity. A

prAyaScittam is dictated under these circumstances. There are

different prAyaScitta-s specified for stay for one year, four years,

and twelve years. After a stay of twelve years, a braAhmaNa is

considered to have become a mleccha".

 

(Before I proceed further, let me honestly declare that I have become

a mleccha several times by now).

 

In another segment, I find the following:

 

Only in the bhArata deSam, we have

 

- the purifying flow of sindhu, gan'ngA, yamunA, sarasvati,

narmadA, kAverri, godAvari, pushkaram, mAnasarovar, candra

pushkariNi, etc.

 

- himAlaya, kailAsa, vindya, malaya, sahya, ve'nkaTa, citra kUTa,

RSyamUkha, govardhana, etc.

 

- kASi, kA'nci, mAyA, dvArakA, mathurA, ayodhyA, avanti,

indraprastha, etc.

 

- SrIr'angam, tiruvanantapuram, pAnDarIpuram, jaganAtham,

badrikASSrmam, tirunArAyaNa puram, gurvAyUr, etc.

 

- rAmAyaNa, bhAgavata, bhArata, etc. originated only in bhArata

deSam.

 

- agastya, durvAsa, kaSyapa, bhRgu, markhaNDeya, Suka, vAlmIki,

etc. originated here.

 

To make the list short, let me just say one or two or the remining

examples: (arundati, anasUyA, sItA etc.; paraSurAma, rAma, kRshNa

etc.; Sa'nkara, rAmAnuja, madhva etc; AzhvAra, nAyanmArs, etc.; )

 

The author quotes a passage from SrImad bhAgavatam that declares that

it is better to beg and live in bhArata, rather than lead a life in

devaloka even. Another passage in bhAgavatam declares that bhArata

is karma bhUmi and other places are bhoga bhUmi.

 

Then the writer concludes that a puNya karma will have effect only if

performed in bhArata deSam. The author suggests that those of us who

choose to live in America have probably been sent to lead a life here

as an alternative to living in svarga loka to enjoy the remnants of

our previous puNya-s before taking our next birth. This almost looks

true since there is 'unlimited' bhogam in these places, as in svargam.

 

(My own personal experience, having lived in this part of the world

for close to two-thirds of my life here, is that it is difficult, and

almost impossible, to perform pitR karma-s and the like properly

here. I am not sure whether one can safely say that they can be

performed well in bhArata deSam either, even though if one tries, one

can perform them properly in India).

 

The veda-s declare that the best of brAhmaNa-s have lived in the

vicinity of ganga and yamuna.

 

The author then goes on to establish that the bhUmi-s which are not

part of bhArata deSam are mleccha bhUmi-s. The vaidyanAthIya

dIkshitIyam declares that wherever there is no following of

varNASrama dharma-s, these places are by definition mleccha bhUmi-s.

The Aditya purANa declares that any deva and pitR kArya performed in

a mleccha bhUmi is ineffective, even if repeated a hundred times.

vishNu smRti reinforces the same.

 

In kali yuga, the vaidyanAthIya dIkshitam declares that samudra yAtrA

is forbidden. It was allowed in the other yuga-s because these were

not mleccha bhUni-s at that time. Even within bhArata deSam, the

ares such as sindhu, sauvIra, surAshtra etc., are considered mleccha

deSa-s now because of the dominance by muslims etc.

 

I believe I have included enough material here to create some hot

arrows directed at me already. So I will not continue this write-up

further at this time.

 

-dAsan Krishnamachari