INTRODUCTION TO AACHAARAAS

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INTRODUCTION TO AACHAARAAS : In India the aachaaraas are practiced for the following purposes and benefits -Aachaaraath labhathe hi ayu: aachaaraath dhanamakshayam aachaaraathlabhathe suprajaa: aachaaro ahanthya lakshanam ( Aachaaraas arepracticed for the psychological and physiological health benefits and for a long life; aachaaraas are followed for prosperity and wealth; aachaaraas are followed for strong family and social bondage and by following the aachaaraas, one gets a fine personality and dharmic outlook/ vision) says our dharma saastra books and aacharyaas.In India everyone practiced their dharma through these aachaaraas for the above mentioned psychological, physiological,

family relation based, social benefit based and national integration based benefits. IISH request all of you all to understand scientifically, rationally and logically the meaning and message of each and everyone of the aachaaraas and practice them in your life and teach those messages to the growing generations logically and systematicallyAchaaras are the foundations of Sanathana dharma ( aachara prabhavo dharma) hence Hinduism ( a wrong word- it is Hindu dharma) is not a religion but a way of life i.e through these acharaas every one leads the dharmic life. Say for example the aachaaraas to be performed by mother is known as maathru dharma, by father pitru dharma by the son is putra dharma, by the husband bhartru dharma and by the wife patnee dharma. Even for the citizens we had poura dharma for teachers aachaarya dharma, for the kings Rajadharma ....... and so on !Now, The sanaathana dharma is = The maathru

dharma + pitru dharma + putra dharma + putree dharma + bhartru dharma +......+ raja dharma. The sanathana dharma has the following literal meaning also Sanaathana =chira puratana (older than the oldest) + nitya noothana ( ever novel)Dharma = dhaaranaath dharma = the one which is duiding you is dharma.In sanathana dharma the followers have the freedom for criticizing the negatives, evaluating the merits, correcting superstitions and mistakes, modifying the ideas based on desa and kaala (place and time), adding any novel ideas beneficial for human beings, deleting which are irrelevant , accepting anything good for the benefit of individuals/family/society/nation, rejecting any outdated practices Any of their beliefs, thoughts, books, faiths, rituals, customs, concepts, can be subjected to the above processing/refining.Because of the above freedom Hindus have as many as 1280 basicdharmic books as (mathagranthas

with tens of thousands of theircommentaries) where as the people of other religion have ONLY ONE BOOK.Because of the great freedom given by our Rishies for taking goodfrom everywhere and rejecting bad at any time, Hindu dharma still remain strong even after more than a thousand years of foreign aggression and massacre. One should remember that there is no final authority for Hindu dharma whose words are the final answers for coming to a decision on anything. You know all other civilisation like Mesopotamia, Greek, Egyptians, Babylonia,,,,,,etc all got wiped out from the surface of the globe Earth. Bharatheeya dharma could not be killed. It is giving light to billions of people world over. It has become a great subject for learning and practicing ! GURUVAARA SANDESAMAll the knowledge required for the progress of the human beings cannot be included in one book, y one saint. Hence our forefathers

wrote hundreds of books for the benefit of the human being world over. That is sanathana dharma based literature. That is how we had not one book by more than 1280 books and tens of thousands of their commentaries as our dharma granthasOur aachaaras are explained in many of these books based on the subject connected with that as stories, history, ritual, customs, directives, guidance, etc to be followed in our life. You know that there are three factors which are the bases of modern physics, the time- the space and the perceiver/observer. In the same way these three parameters influence the Hindu aachaaraas also, the time and place of performing the eucharis and also the persons who are eligible to perform that dharma. Hence one should select sacred time, sacred place and cleanliness/suddhi of the body who are performing that karma, connected with the aachaaraas.The aachaaraas are explained in the

books of puraanaas, itihasaas, dharmasastras, gruhyasootraas, sroutha sootraas, Upanishads, vedangas, upavedas, and darsanaas. The aachaaraas connected with each subject and individual are explained in the respective book ! continuous refinement of each aachaara has been taking place in the course of time with help of aacharyaas, who are the reformers of the aachaaraas.Everyone has the freedom to refine the achaarass by addition, deletion, modification and corrections. Depending upon the time, place and other parameters like country where these acharas are performed, However the refining of the aacharaas are done without loosing the spirit and message of the aachaaraas.The greatness of each and every aachaara is that science and spirituality integrate in all these aachaaraas. The merit of the

science and the merit of value based scientific spirituality are tobe utilized for personal/ family/society and national betterment. Which are the prime aims of following the acharas.================================================================The aachaaraas do have one or more merits which can be classifiedunder FIVE categories. Psychologically beneficial aachaaraas,physiologically beneficial aachaaraas, aachaaraas strengthening familyrelation, acharaas building the social bondage and the aachaaraasbeneficial for national integration.Psychologically beneficial Achaaras : Chanting a mantra/ keerthan/ naamam. Faith in divine power ( We Indians never say god fearing but we are god loving - Eeswara Bhakti is what is required and not Eeswara bhayam) taking blessing from elders, listening to the puranic and related stories, taking food with family members, visiting friends and relatives, doing yoga, sharing the

problems with friends and family members……….Physiologically beneficial aachaaras: Doing soorya namaskara which is an ideal exercise for all the movable skeletal joints, morning prayer in the bed itself (chanting karaagre vasathe lakshmi…) for balancing blood pumping pressure for the heart, touching the floor and doing bhoo vandanam ( samudra vasane devi…) releasing bio static electricity accumulated in the body through fingers, taking morning bath for cleansing external body, a prayer before taking food ( for activating salivary glands and digestive enzyme secreting glands) not keeping head towards north while sleeping ( for avoiding bodyposition parallel to earth’s magnetic field. This will facilitated smooth blood pumping to the brain ), taking vegetarian food, putting chandan/kukum/bhasma/on the forehead, keeping thulasi in the back of ear, cleaning the leg/hands and face before entering the house after

walking outside,…. ( you can think and give examples for more )Family bondage strengthening aacharas: All the shodasa ( sixteen) acharas like, naamakaranam, annapraasanam, nishkramanam, upanayanam, vivaaham,…..etc and the concept of maathru devo bhava….etc. all the acharas connected with pitrukarma/ anthyeshti, all the gruhya acharas to be performed by the married couple, ……..etc. are examples for this type of aachaaraasSocial bondage strengthening aachaaras: Celebrating the festivals, like sivaratri,navaratri, janmashtami, onam, celebration. Inviting people for family celebrations, relatives and friends attending the ceremony , etc…….. are the aachaaraas strengthening the social bondage and relationships.Aachaaraas for building national integration: Doing prathasmarana by chanting the manthras in which the names of holy mountains, rivers, cities, heroes, etc from India are mentioned, reading the Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharatha etc are all responsible for theNational integration . It can also be achieved by following the aachaaraas in our languages/ Sanskrit , dress, food, Vedic messages,puranic messages, pilgrimage, etc. (June 1)======================================================There are hundreds of sadaacharas in Hindu dharma. Unfortunately there are few duracharas also, which create problems sometimes, if we do not analyse them properly, rationally, scientifically and logically. Almost all these durachaaraas crept into the Vedic culture in the course of time. Majority of them are only decades old, and some are centuries old and none are millennia old. Duraacharas are those customs and rituals which can create permanent bad effects for any one or more than one of the

following. Aachaaraas which produce psychological bad effects, physiological bad effects, affecting negatively the family relations and social bondages and also works against national integration. They are just opposite of the sadaacharaas. Sadaachaaraas give positive effect and duraaacharaas give negative effect. There are some aachaaraas which are not required for the modern period, even though they do not have any negative effects. They are known as the anaachaaraas ( which are unnecessary aachaaraas).Cursing somebody, chanting mantras aiming at a bad purpose, sacrificing/kuruthi killing the chicken, goat or animals for getting something through the so called blessings of the gods in temples, offering the liquor as a part of religious rituals, misinterpreting some of the aachaaraas and making them negatives .etc are duracharas. Few more examples : It has been advised that if one visits the house where

death has taken place, he should stay till the cremation of the body is over. This advise is given exclusively for getting the help for the relatives of the deceased person. But recently I happened to see that extrapolating above sadaachara a durachara has been created by saying that, the children of the deceased person will be reaching after two days from a goeign country and after that (only) the cremation will take place, since one should stay till cremation of the body is over, none of the relatives went for supporting the widow of the dead person. Shockingly the widow and the dead body remained in that house for two nights and two days without the support of the friends and relatives. Another duraachaara ! Even though the chitaabhasma immersion in holy river is OK. Butimmersing half burnt dead body in the holy river like Ganga/or other holy rivers is a durachara. Another example; telling that if anyone dies

in dhanishta panchaka ( avittam , chatayam, to revati) there will be five more deaths in that house is a terrible durachara. Hanging some Chinese materials for vaastu benefits in the house and thus solving family problems is again another durachara. ‘This week for you’ astrological predictions is something misleading you. How can one calculate this WEEK affect without knowing the whole horoscope ?. Telling that the country is going to get this prime minister or that prime minister based on the so called mundane astrology is another horrible durachara. Doing negatives like changing the position of the windows, changing the position of the walls by following the advise of some non specialist vastu experts are all few examples of duraachara. But remember there are a number of good information in vaastu and astrology. One has to take the benefits from that insteading of going round the non-senses advised by quacks or

similar astrologers and vaastu people. Worrying that “I am not in a position to chant Gayatri mantra for the last two weeks because I am sick” is a duraachaara. People chant Gayatri mantra for escaping from the worries. But for some people the Gayatri mantra itself is becoming the cause for worry !Analyze every Aachaaraas and classify them as Sadaachaaraas, duraachaaraas and anaachaaraas. and use the best after refining them based on the scientific principles.===============================Today is Mithunam 1st, the day Sun is entering into the Sign of mithuna. The day we can improve ourselves. What to do for improving ourselves. According to Lord Krishna the aims and pathway for a better life is ( Bhagavath Geetha) Uddhareth athmanaathmaanam na aathmaanam avassadhayeth aathmaivahi athmanobhandhu: athmaiva ripuraathmana: Remember that the ultimate aim of our life is elevating/ raising/uddharanam of ourselves every minute, and never belittlingourselves . We ourselves are our best friends and we ourselves areour worst enemies. This upadesa he has given in the 6th capter 5th line of Bhagavath Geetha. So let us elevate/ improve ourself, our family, our society and our motherland. Let us never denigrate ourself, our family, our society, our culture and our motherland.Lord Krishna has given another advise for improving ourselves jnaanam vijnana sahitham yath jnaathwaa mokshyase asubhaath. Every bit of spiritual

knowledge should be analysed and practiced after verifying them with scientific tools for and thus avoiding the practice of superstitions.Lord Krishna’s third message for improving our life style is swalpamapyasya dharmassya thraayathe mahato bhayaaath: Follow atleast some/ few dharmic values in our life which will protect us from many horrible negatives in the life. Whatever we are doing or not doing are the important factors connected with us. Nobody has given you the responsibility to analyse what others are doing/ not doing. Worry not too much about others ! says Lord Krishna in his message : Na hi kalyaana krith kaschith durgathim thaatha gacchathi: If you do good you will

never have to worry , and the good results will definitely follow every action there is an equal and opposite action for that. Do good and take good We will get the reward/result of every action today or tomorrow)Always remember these lines of Lord krishna when you are getting HEAD WEIGHT/ ahamkaaram/ ahambhavam: Nimitthamaathram bhava savya saachin: I am only a tool in the hands hand of the divine power(guide me in every pathway of my life:Let us elevate/ improve ourselves with all courage, devotion, dedication and sincerity and also elevate our culture and motherland. Never become a coward. It is your dharma to protect the sanaathana dharma of our motherland which is the heritage of all the 1080 million Indians. IISH has already initiated the great mission of spreading Indian heritage to

100 million people from August 15th 2006 to August 15th 2008 as a two year program of learning and teaching Indian heritage using ultra modern tool. These mission oriented activities are connected with the Shashtyabdapoorthi (60th year) of Indian Independence. ( Aug. 17th 2007)Courtesy: www.iish.org

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