Eclipses

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Please see below From the pages of Jaya Tirtha Caran Prabhu(JPS)'s website

in Newzealand. Pl kindly go through till the end as quite good info is

available on eclipses. --Your humble servant,

Bhadra Govinda Dasa.

 

Remedial Measures Vaishnavas Take To Protect Ourselves During Eclipses:

"The controlling demigods are most obedient to Lord Viñëu, although they

also want material sense enjoyment, and that is why they are called

demigods, or almost godly. Although Rähu attempts to attack both the sun and

the moon, they are protected by Lord Viñëu. Being very afraid of Lord

Viñëu’s cakra, Rähu cannot stay in front of the sun or moon for more than a

muhürta (forty-eight minutes). The phenomenon that occurs when Rähu blocks

the light of the sun or moon is called an eclipse."(A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada. SB 5:24:3. purport.)

 

Dr. Patel: Are we not observing this eclipse rituals, that, during the

eclipse we stop aratis and all of this...

PrabhupAda: Why?

Dr. Patel: And after the eclipse is over, take bath and then do the arati?

PrabhupAda: Yes, they take bath.

Dr. Patel: Even the other Vaishnava mandirs don't do arati during that

period if it comes within that...

PrabhupAda: Hare Krsna.

(A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad. Morning Walk -- November 17, 1975,

Bombay)

 

"The Lord has described the purity and impurity of different places, times

and material objects. According to the laws of nature, that which is impure

contaminates a particular person in accordance with that person's situation,

as described here. For example, on certain occasions, such as a solar

eclipse or just after childbirth, one must restrict the intake of food

according to ritualistic injunctions."(Hridayananda das Goswami. SB

11:21:11. purport.)

 

Generally throughout India devotees take pre-caution to not perform any kind

of activity such as rituals; Deity puja - worship; cooking or eating; any

samskaras, but especially not to perform garbhadhanam, no yajnas are

performed either, no studying, etc., during a lunar or solar eclipse. Rather

following in the footsteps of Lord Sri Krishna Who along with the cowherds

visited Kurukshetra, and the above mentioned instant, and as Srila Prabhupad

himself showed by example, devotees take full shelter of the Holy Names of

the Lord and if in India submerge themselves in sacred rivers such as the

Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Namadi, Sind, Kaveri, Tungabhadra, Godavari, or

even the sea, etc., whilst jubilantly chanting the Holy Names of God - hare

krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare / hare rama hare rama rama

rama hare hare.

..

"And you say that several hundred people joined in chanting and dancing

during the eclipse. All these things are very much encouraging to me." (A.

C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Letter to: Damodara das - Los Angeles 24

March, 1970)

 

"It is customary in India that all the followers of the Vedic scriptures

bathe in the Ganges or the sea as soon as there is a lunar or solar eclipse.

All strict followers of the Vedic religion stand up in the water throughout

the whole period of the eclipse and chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra".

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 13.124. purport.)

 

Furthermore it is mentioned by Ayurvedic kaviraj's that as a pre-cautionary

measure that women who are bearing children in their wombs should neither

sew, make garlands, cut anything such as paper, or look at the eclipsing sun

or moon least it be detrimental to the health and well being of the unborn

child. Ayurved mentions that a pregnant woman looking at the eclipsing sun

or moon is often born with a child with a hair lip (torn or scared upper

lip), if she sews, piercing anything or cuts anything this too may cause

impairment of internal organs of the child. Consequently pregnant women stay

in doors and chant the Holy names of the Lord, being careful not to also

fall asleep. Falling asleep or taking rest during these times can leave one

subjected to the attacks of ghosts (bhuta, preetas, etc.). Some people don't

believe in ghosts, but believe me that still doesn't make them go away.

 

Even devotees do not study the scriptures during an eclipse as the mind can

be influences and twisted from the correct shastric conclusion. As a rule

all temples close, all food and water is covered. Clothes are not put out on

the line to dry during an eclipse as they then become contaminated - in the

similar way that we hang out woolen chaddars or blankets to be purified by

the rays of the Moon on full Moon nights being purified by those rays, so in

the same way the graha-grastha rays contaminate all cloth hung out and it

needs re-washing.

Similarly water that is in a window, or in a jug that the rays of an

eclipse toughed will need to be thrown out, so similarly foodstuffs too, can

be given to the lower animals, or composted - even prasadam. Of course we

accept that prasadam itself is never contaminated, and always remains pure

in the spiritual sense, but still it can become covered or infected dirty or

impure things that are physically placed on or in it. We're not sentimental,

even Raghunath dasa Goswami washed off the external garbage from the

prasadam remnants he found and honoured. Here, with Eclipses, even that is

not the recommended method as the residual effects cannot easily be washed

away in the conventional manner, so it is to be disgarded instead.