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Re: Ashucham & Nitya karmA

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Mani Varadarajan • February 26, 1999 


With respect to travel, Sri Vijayaraghavan wrote:
> 3. Keeping the Salagrama in the rice tin (while on travel etc) is a
> practice in my family (I am not sure how far this practice is in vogue).
> 4. At least in my family I have hardly seen Salagrama being moved from our
> house.  There is a general reluctance arising purely from AchAram
> considerations.

I was just reading Sri Kozhiyalam Swami's "heyOpAdEya darpaNa"
on this issue. He writes:

	ekakAlamAtram anyadeSagamane prAptE 'pi sva-arcayA
	sahaiva gantavyam |

I don't fully understand this sentence.  Is he recommending 
that one should travel with one's ArAdhana perumaaL?
In any case, what Sri Vijayaraghavan writes corresponds to what
I have seen. Most people leave their sAlagrAmam in rice if they
travel for a day or more.

> Generally, the rule is that the requirements of Anushtanam will
> override services to the temple etc.,  
> ...  Also VishEsha Dharma
> overrides SAmAnya Dharma For eg.  One need not observe EkAdasi vratam on a
> SRarddha day.

The question as to what is 'viSesha dharma' and what is
'sAmAnya dharma' is a knotty one.  In this particular
instance, I think different acharyas have advised differently.
For example, if a SrAddha falls on an Ekadasi, some Sri Vaishnavas
give prominence to the Ekadasi and perform the SrAddha on the
next day. 

Similarly, some acharyas (Sri Manavala Maamunigal's parmpara)
have given more importance to the kainkaryam in the kOvil 
than to nitya-anushThAnam, saying that in times of conflict 
preference should be given to the temple service. (The important 
words are "in time of conflict".)  In this instance, acharyas 
of Sri Vedanta Desika's parampara place primary importance on
the nitya-karmas.

Mani