kAmya karmas (was Re: [Advaita-l] Animal sacrifice)

[Ravisankar Mayavaram]

I understand the part that not doing is a sin (akaraNe pratyavAya
janakam), but I don't understand the "brings no specific reward" part,
especially for sandhya. Earlier I used accept it without questioning.

 In taittirIya AraNyaka dvitIya praSna, in verse starting with
"raxAgmsi ...", which talks about giving arghyam to Aditya, clearly
says that
"udyantamastam(y)yantamAdityamabhidhyAnkurvan.h  brAhmaNo
vidvAntsakalaM bhadramaSnute ...".  When shruti says sakalam bhadram
aSnute, then it means it, does it not? Hence, doing brings good
things. Which implies that even sandhya vandanam can be done with
desire to attain all good things.

Hence, I like the view posted by the Sri S. N. Sastri. Any vedic karma
can be performed with desire or without it.  The term kAmya karma is,
I think, often used to denote a non-obligatory karma and not
necessarily a karma done with desire.

I may be wrong. Corrections are welcome.

(In my earlier post, I pointed to the archive mainly for new members
to motivate them to look into the archives. It was not my intention to
say that we are rehashing the same stuff over and over again. In fact,
I agree with what once Jaldhar pointed out to me. that some of these
topics so complex to grapple and so dear to members' hearts, they come
up again and again. Each time, it comes up, some unknown facts also
emerge. Also people change their positions. At least I have. Earlier I
used to oppose animal sacrifice even in vedic karma-s, now  I am
learning to have no strong opinion on matters on which I have no
clue.)

Wish you all a happy makara sankranti (pongal). And to those like me,
happy mATTup pongal ;-)) [1]


Ravi

[1] mADu means cow/bull. In TN, mATTu pongal is celebrated to honor
the cattle for their role in the society, especially agriculture.






On 1/12/06, Shrisha Rao <shrao at nyx.net> wrote:

> remark.  This is somewhat at odds with the "classical" mImAMsA perspective
> that nitya-karma such as sandhyA is useless, i.e., brings no specific new
> reward (though failure to perform it brings harm), whilst kAmya-karma such
> as the jyotishhToma or putreshhTi is what brings all purushhArtha-s
> including wealth, sons, svarga, moksha, etc., vide `jyotishhTomena
> svargakAmo yajeta', `putrakAmo putreshhTyA yajeta', etc.
>