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

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

On 1/13/06, Ravisankar Mayavaram <abhayambika at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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 forgot to mention, the fact that particular rites are required for
some particular results is not disputed by advaitins. So, one cannot
desire lordship of the world or heaven and perform sandhyaavandanam.
It's just not going to work, the ashvamedham or the jyotiShToma are
what need to be performed. Otherwise we may as well throw vidhi, etc.,
into the dustbin and do whatever we please.

The only matter under dispute is whether kaamya-karmas can be done
"without desire" and what the result is. This view fundamentally
repudiates the adR^iShTa theory of the mImAmsA, and I think that's
significant. While Sankara calls adR^iShTa imaginary and as having no
proof in both the suutra and bR^ihad bhaa.syas, some other like
sarvaj~naatman do accept it. There are some variations among advaitins
on this topic. I won't go into that here.

Rama