RE: Q and A with Swamiji

[Guest guest]

Hello Dear Ones,

I've been away at my sister's for a week, visiting her new

grandson (my grandnephew???).Now, just back and caught up with the

thread of what has been going on here. So...I do have questions for

Swamiji. One that comes immediately to mind is this. I have been

told that, according to the Vedas, performing a Yagna is a way of

giving back to Nature, a way of "healing" some of the damage that we

constantly inflict upon Mother Earth..that the offerings into the

fire have a direct effect on the environment. So I imagine that this

would be the case for Homa as well as Yagna. I wondered if Swamiji

could speak a little to this idea. It would be such a wonderful

thing to conduct our small homas with the awareness that our actions

had a healing effect on the environment and this is something that I

have been wanting to do for quite a while.. Are there specific

ingredients that have this direct "healing effect"? Are there

particular Vedas that would be helpful to read regarding this? Does

this have a connection to Ayurveda? Are there particular homas that

would be more directly related to this that others? Is there a homa

to BhuDevi? Thanking you in advance, Swamiji.

I missed you all.

love, Sadhvi

[Guest guest]

sadhvi,

 

i missed you too. i wondered where you were.

 

that's a good question. it is like you to care for what is beyond

your small self.

 

steve

 

, "nityashakti" <sadhvi@p...>

wrote:

> Hello Dear Ones,

> I've been away at my sister's for a week, visiting her new

> grandson (my grandnephew???).Now, just back and caught up with the

> thread of what has been going on here. So...I do have questions

for

> Swamiji. One that comes immediately to mind is this. I have been

> told that, according to the Vedas, performing a Yagna is a way of

> giving back to Nature, a way of "healing" some of the damage that

we

> constantly inflict upon Mother Earth..that the offerings into the

> fire have a direct effect on the environment. So I imagine that

this

> would be the case for Homa as well as Yagna. I wondered if Swamiji

> could speak a little to this idea. It would be such a wonderful

> thing to conduct our small homas with the awareness that our

actions

> had a healing effect on the environment and this is something that

I

> have been wanting to do for quite a while.. Are there specific

> ingredients that have this direct "healing effect"? Are there

> particular Vedas that would be helpful to read regarding this?

Does

> this have a connection to Ayurveda? Are there particular homas

that

> would be more directly related to this that others? Is there a

homa

> to BhuDevi? Thanking you in advance, Swamiji.

> I missed you all.

> love, Sadhvi

[Guest guest]

"shradda plus intelligence. the common error with this no doubt is to

think of shradda as belief, which it is, in a way. but it is more.

it is conviction, vision, discrimination, as well...."

 

Good Point, Steve,

My Dictionary of Indian Philosophy defines Shraddha (accent on

last "a"...the accent on the first "a" means "last rites" ..one of

the Hindu Samskaras)..as faith (from the verb root dha: "to place"

and shrad: "faith")...so shradda would imply making a "decision" to

place your faith in something, rather than "Blind Faith"...faith

based on habit or fear or superstition or desire or whatever.

Discrimination is really critical . I liked your way of going

underneath the whole issue to focus on what is always there at the

core .

sadhvi

shrad: faith