Water for acaman

[Guest guest]

Dear Mahamuni Prabhu,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Thank you for your letter.

 

> Is it proper to use smanya arghya or visesa arghya to do acaman?

 

In the Pancaratra-pradipa we find the following:

 

Establish sam€nya-arghya before starting the worship. You will use it for

purification by prokaŠa and for offering various upac€ras by substitution

in the worship of personalities before worshiping the main Deity. Fresh

sam€nya-arghya should be established at least twice a day, morning and

afternoon.

 

And:

 

Before full worship of the main Deity begins, you may establish another

arghya, called viea-arghya (special arghya). Viea-arghya, into which the

Deity is invoked and worshiped, is used for the final spiritualization of

place, articles, and self. This arghya is also placed into a separate vessel

that may contain various other auspicious ingredients and offered to the

Lord as the arghya upac€ra. The viea-arghya is generally established in a

conch shell, so the process of establishing it is often called

a‰kha-sth€pana. In simple worship one may use the sam€nya-arghya as both

sam€nya- and viea-arghya. See description for this procedure.

 

In both of these descriptions it is giving information of where we use these

types of arghyas. No mention of personal acamana. Normally you would have a

separate acamana cup or a waterpot for this purpose.

 

The Visesa arghya may be used for final purification of the self. This

entails sprinkling it over yourself before you actually begin the worship.

 

Hope this helps you to understand this a bit more.

 

 

Your servant,

Nrsimha Kavaca dasa