RE: Camphor

[Guest guest]

Dear DB,

 

Thanks for your article and response. I am glad it got noted and already

addressed. I thought I was just silly pointing fault at everything.

 

If it is so auspicious then why can't they revert back to old method of

preparation- BECAUSE WE ALREADY HAVE THE KNOWHOW then why create problem for

nothing. I personally feel without camphor puja is incomplete(it has become

my habit)- Till, I read this article I did not know much about WHY camphor

has a place in Hindu worship and especially in temples.

 

This is again my personal feeling our culture is like sand and sugar mixed

together Everyone need tobe vigilant like an ant to take sugar and leave

sand behind. Once again thanks. raji.

 

 

Not silly at all; you are quite right: Modern, processed camphor does

>leave a residue, though apparently purer, earlier formulations did

>not. Here is an interesting and relevant passage from Corinne

>Dempsey's recent study of the Sri Rajarajeswari Peetham in Rush, N.Y.

>(The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York, Oxford University Press, 2006):

>

>Hi Raji:

> "Because camphor is messy -- leaving a black residue on walls,

>ceilings and temple objects -- North American temples have almost

>uniformly replaced camphor flames with wick flames from oil or ghee

>lamps. Aiya [by contrast] will not give up camphor in spite of its

>drawbacks partly because its familiar blze and smell evoke devotional

>emotions. It also traditionally burns without leaving a trace

>(although this is not true for camphor processed today), symbolically

>associated with the burning of the ego, an appropriate metaphor for

>temple practices and aims. At Rush, camphor has not only blackened the

>temple's walls and ceilings but has also gummed up, over time, the

>sound system as well as the photocopier and computer in the nearby

>temple office. In spite of this, along with persistent suggestions by

>some devotees that they switch to ghee lamps, Aiya will not be swayed."

>

>In a footnote, Aiya explains to Dempsey that the temple did switch

>from offering silk saris to cotton saris in homams because the

>chemical treatments to the fabric in modern silk saris also produced a

>damaging sooty smoke. However, he added, "Camphor is scripturally

>prescribed, whereas offering silk saris, a sign of selfless, generous

>devotion, is not." Aiya argues that "out of the 16 modes of worship

>prescribed for puja, the 15th and penultimate is camphor."

>

>Hope that helps!

>

>DB

>

>

>

>, "rajeshwari iyer" <rajii31@>

>wrote:

> >

> > l

> > > My observationn regarding CAMPHOR - it is often addressed as

>something that > does not leave any residue behind. The fact is - it

>does leave oily > black mark on the plate and above all it turns the

>entire room dark.

>So, in > one angle it visibily may not leave residue but it spreads residue

>to its > surrounding. I had to paint god's room ever year because of

>buring

>camphor > after chanting LS. Am I right or wrong. (i often wondered why

>camphor is > addressed in that way). Please ignore it if it sounds silly.

>It is

>only my > observation.raji.

> >

>