RE: Pradakshina

[Guest guest]

Latha,

Here's another interesting bit of information about Pradakshina.

Pradakshina represents the daily path of the Sun....In the Satapatha

Brahmana is says that the brahmanas perform pradakshina..."

accomplishing all sacred work by following the path of Surya and

walking three times around". The three times is connected to the 3

steps of Vishnu in his incarnation as Vamana the 'Clever Dwarf" who

conquered the asura Bali. Some scholars think it may have originated

as a pre-Vedic "solar charm" so the practice is very ancient.

Also in the Shiva Purana there is the story of Vishnu and Brahama

arguing about who was the most powerful. Then they see the

jyotirlinga of Shiva manifest..as Brahma begins to "measure" this

pillar of light inorder to discover its boundaries...he cannot find

its parameters. Ultimately they "survey" the boundaries of the

pillar by doing pradakshina. The purpose of the pradakshina is to

observe the "truth" in its totality. Just as you can only see the

front of something at one time and have to walk around it to see the

back..you have to move around something to see it in its entirety,

you find the truth by "unity of observation". There is also a long

list of things worthy of pradakshina, including one's guru.

I got caught in reading as I was trying to re-arrange my

bookshelves.

love,

sadhvi

I was just re-arranging my library and came across this added

information.

sadhvi