Silk (Sri TR Govindarajan's mail)

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SrI:

 

Respected swamin,

 

Thank you for your feed back.

 

New vasthram is not madi vasthram. Madi means pure vasthram.

 

No vedic ritual is held wearing new vasthram. Even to day there are

strict vediks who insist on washing and drying the veshti, if it is

new. (The views on what could have been probably the cause for washing

even the new vasthram as found in that mail are mine.) But vediks

say, for instance Prof Chakravarthy Ramachandran teaching Purva

mimamsa says, rules do exist for using vasthram soaked in turmeric

(peethambaram) in any vedik ritual such as upanayanam and marriage.

 

The practice to wash and flutter the vasthram in 'sapta vaataah' (7

vayus) is found in texts and the details of 7 vayus is found in the MB

quoted by me in one of my earlier mails on pithru yana and deva yaana.

The idea is not to do any kriya, ritual or utter veda manthras or do

japa wearing wet vasthram. But in practice men folk in our families,

after drying their bodies with towel either wrap themselves in that

wet towel and start chanting slokas etc or wash the towel after drying

their bodies and wrap it around themselves and start saying slokas

before changing into dry cloth.

 

Clear instructions exist that one one should not do puja, japa etc in

wet cloth. Particularly gayathri japa should not be done in wet cloth

or standing in water. The rationale is easy to understand. Water

conducts and one loses whatever energy one gains in that wet

condition.

 

Since water conducts, it is used for giving arghyam, and as dattam.

 

Pl read the research article in the following link. It shows whatever

water gets conencted with, it becomes that.

 

http://www.sakthifoundation.org/Water_Healing-3.htm

 

In arghyam, it conduts the water to whom it is meant.

In japa, the wet cloth absorbs the energy or vibrations that is generated.

In prokshanam and achamanam, it does what it is intended to.

 

That is why in sandhya vandana, one school of thought/ rationale is

that there is no need to take bath before doing it as the first two

manthras starting with 'aapohista' are intended for sharIra shuddhi

and Atma shuddhi resepctively. That is why, in Mysore Veda paata

shaala, there is no insistance on taking bath before morning

sandhya.Only the timing of sandhya is followed strictly. (kaaNaamal,

kONaamal, kaNdu - in morning, midday and evening sandhya

respectively.)

 

 

In madi thuni, the sapta vayu cleanses the vasthram.

If the dried vastharm is not available readily, shastras permit one to

flutter the wet vasthram in air for 7 times invoking the sapta vayu

and then it is considered as dried and purified.

 

But no text says that silk is a madi vasthram. Most of what we follow

have been time and again said or modified by elders of respective

periods. Silk is not clearly a madi vasthram. There is mention in some

texts about drawing thread from cotton balls and making them into

vasthram, but silk vasthram is not mentioned in any smruthi texts or

in rules for conducting rituals.

 

Even Ramayana says about kausheya vaasam, cloth made from pupa. Here

too the mention is about pupa and not about a live silk worm. It is a

mute question whether this kausheya vaaam was drawn from pupa

diascarded by the moth.

 

Since Kalidasa has said about 'cheenamshuka eva', it may be assumed

that this kausheya vaasam is different from cloth from china.

Otherwise, Kalaidasa need not have said like this. The preparation of

silk as it is done today is from Chinese method. The kausheya vaasam

of Ramayana period might have been a different method and ahimsic.

 

Again the word pattu in tamil means eye or nethram of peacock. From

this perhaps, the mayil kaN veshti might have come into existance.

Mayiul kaN veshti is not a silk veshti. It is about the design of the

border. This means pattu veshti is that which has a beautifully

designed mayil kaN border. This could have been woven in golden or

silver zaari (jarigai)

 

Again if we go into the genesis of zaari work, it is the legacy of the

muslims, not ingedenous to Hindus.

 

Strangely most of what we follow today, the rakshai in the name of

maangalyam, (maangalyam thandunaaneva is not a vedic manthram, but it

is from Vishnu puranam), the mookutthy (nose ring) and the craze for

zari works are all adopted from muslims!

 

Another school of thought is that mangalyam found its way, as a symbol

to show that the girl is married so that she can be saved from

molestation in the hands of the invading muslims. Sati also came to

stay in that way (Recall Rani Padmini's story). The muslim invasion

had greatly affected the way the Hindus lived, changing the Hindu

culture.

 

But the British invasion greatly changed the way Hindus lived, the

very Hindu / sanatana Thought itself. The gifts and dowry given to

bride at the time of marriage (making Brahma vivaham an aasura

vivaham) is a British / French legacy. The first dowry given in India

was the province of Bombay during some Royal wedding. (I have to look

into my notes to say whose wedding it is).

 

The simple living of the Brahmin changed due to British influence. The

entry of silk is one such change as a mark of new-found affluence in

the life of the Brahmin who is supposed to shun affluence.

 

 

Sorry for having stretched the mail too far.

 

With pranams,

jayasree saranathan.

- Hide quoted text -

 

 

On 4/21/06, Govindarajan T.R. <trgovindarajan > wrote:

> srI:

> I am happy to read your mail about Silk vastrams. I

> was told that wearing Silk vastram is madi. New cotton

> vastram will be madi. However used cotton should be

> made wet and allowed to dry without touching it after

> it was dried with bare hand without taking bath. Is

> the theory that silk vastram madi true? When our

> elders adhered to practising madi and acharam (good

> conduct/manners), they were meant for cleaniness.

> Nowdays some of practices are going away in the name

> of being not followed in Western countries when west

> is picking up something from our culture.

> dasan.

>

> --- jayasartn <jayasree.saranathan > wrote:

>

> > ramanuja, "Jayasree

> > Saranathan"

> > <jayasree.saranathan wrote:

> >

> -----------

 

 

 

 

 

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