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Re: Question regarding shrArDham

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Gopan • May 18, 2000 


Dear Friends:

My father was a Brahaspathi .I have inherited
 the SrArdha PrayOgAs. I can help with the manthrAs
and the procedures .I do not know whether you
have the dharbhams and pavithrams et al.

The main problem here is to find the swamys to
take part and who will be able to observe
the requirements of eating once and follow
the other requirements. Vaayasa PinDam
placement et al are difficult to follow. One approach
is to finish the SrArdham and then place the remains
in a river or lake.

There is a qualified PurOhithar in the East Coast ,
who can travel  to homes and perform the ceremonies.
It will however be an expensive proposition for
visiting West Coast. That is why I suggested
the HiraNya SrArdham route . It is common here
for the temple priests to perform this type of
Sraardham without proficiency in PrayOgAs.
There is atleast one such priest at most of the temples.
Many temples advertise the availability of such a priest.

V.Sadagopan

Mani Varadarajan wrote:

> Dear Srikanth,
>
> I live in the Bay Area and I'll tell you what my family
> does.  To perform a SRAddham ceremony with any degree of
> correctness, you either have to be trained in the prayOga-s
> yourself or you need to have a properly trained purOhita.
> Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to find
> someone in this country who is trained to be a purOhita,
> particularly in the Sri Vaishnava fashion. Most people here
> make the erroneous assumption that the local temple arcaka
> is knowledgable enough to perform all the vaidika samskAras.
> In fact, most are equipped so poorly that they can barely
> correctly recite the panca-sUkta, let alone recite and apply
> other, less popular vaidika mantras properly.  This is not
> really their fault. They are trained differently, with different
> expectations in India. In India, the Veda/Prabandha adhyApaka,
> the purOhita, the religious scholar, and the arcaka each
> perform different and distinct roles. The problem is that it
> is virtually impossible to find anyone in this country other
> than an adhyApaka or an arcaka.
>
> My feeling is that one should recognize that one's performance
> of a SRAddham in this country will fall very short of the mark.
> Since I am of the opinion that it is better to do one thing
> well rather than many things poorly, I would suggest you keep
> it simple. Just keep your house and kitchen very clean on that
> day (as one would do in India), do all your nitya-karmAnushThAnam-s,
> and prepare food strictly as one would do on a SRAddham.
> Invite three bhAgavatas for lunch, say whatever stotrams you
> know, and keep the memory of your departed ancestor at the forefront.
> Then feed the bhAgavatas.  This has been the practice of many
> people here.
>
> aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
> Mani
>
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