Ashes

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Hare Krishna Prabhu, _/\ò_

 

putting ashes into sacred rivers, esp. Ganga, is not a late tradition

since it's mentioned e.g. in HBV 9.37 as a quotation from Padma Purana

(Pulastya Bhagiratha samvada):

 

kasyam uttara-vahinyam

gangayam tu mrtasya kim

yasya padodakam visnor

mukhe caivavatisthate

 

kasyam - in Varanasi; uttara-vahinyam - most sacred; gangayam - in

the Ganga; tu - indeed; mrtasya - corpse; kim - what?; yasya - of

whom; padodakam - water from the feet; visnoh - of Lord Hari; mukhe -

in the mouth; ca - and; eva - indeed; avatisthate - is situated.

 

Why would a person who has once drunk the water that has washed Lord

Hari's feet be very interested to have his dead body placed in the

most sacred Ganga at Varanasi?"

 

 

Another quote:

 

tribhih sarasvatam toyam saptahena tu narmadam

sadyah punati gangeyam dasanad eva yamunam

punanti etani toyani snana darsana kirtanaih

punati smaranad eva kalau padodakam hareh

arcitai kotibhir lingair nityam yat kriyate phalam

tat phalam sata sahasram pite padodake hareh

asuci va duracaro maha pataka samyutah

sprstva padodakam visnoh sada sudhyati manavah

 

(Hari-bhakti-vilasa 9.27-30, from Padma Purana, conversation between

Pulastya and Bhagiratha)

 

Water from the Narmada purifies after one week, but Ganges water

immediately purifies. Just by taking darsan of the Yamuna, one becomes

purified. These rivers all purify one by seeing them, bathing in them

or by chanting their names, but in Kali-yuga, one becomes purified

just by remembering the water which has washed the lotus feet of Lord

Sri Hari. Therefore, if someone drinks the water which has washed the

lotus feet of Lord Hari, he gets more than 100,000 times more merit

than by worshiping ten million Siva lingas. If a person is impure, has

unlimited bad habits, or is implicated with previous sins, simply by

touching the water which comes from the lotus feet of Lord Visnu, he

becomes purified. If somebody at the time of death touches to their

head or other parts of the body the water which has washed the lotus

feet of Lord Hari, even if he is implicated with millions of sins, he

does not go to the hellish planets, the abode of Yamaraja.

 

 

You can also read the file "Samskaras" by Bhanu M.:

 

www.veda.harekrsna.cz/library/Samskaras.zip

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Your servant, bh. Jan

 

www.vrindavan-dham.com

www.veda.harekrsna.cz

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