[sv-rituals] Re: keshavadi tarpanam

From the Bhakti List Archives

• October 2, 2002


> Sundar Varadhan writes:
> > Hi,
> > 
> >  I am new to this group. I have a question to be
> > clarified, please post your views.
> > 
> > In sandhyavandanam, I do Kesavaathy tarpanam daily all
> > three times. I would like to know the purpose of that
> > and is it necessary to do during daily
> > sandhyavandanam.

Kesava, Narayana, Madhava, etc., are twelve forms of
Lord Vishnu that are the 'adhisThAna-devatA-'s or
presiding deities of the twelve solar months. The 12
tarpanams are done immediately after the arghya-pradana
because both honor the Lord who is the inner controller
of the sun. The arghya-pradana honors the rising, peaking,
or setting sun, and the tarpanam honors the sun who 
enters the twelve different rashis or signs during the
course of the twelve months during the year.

As to its necessity -- while it is not as mandatory as
the two core aspects of sandhyavandanam, viz., arghya-pradana
and gayatri-japa, it is recommended by the shastras and
prescribed by no less an authority than Sri Vedanta Desika
in Sri Pancharatra Raksha. Presumably if one is extremely
short of time one can skip it, but its performance is
no doubt preferred.

Hope this helps,
ramanuja dasan,
Mani



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