[Advaita-l] Meditation Vs nitya karma

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

I need clarification from learned prabhuji-s of this forum...Can spiritual
practices like meditation, bhajans, nAma saMkeertan, japa be the substitute
for our veda vihita nitya & naimittika karma-s like sadhyA vandana, agni
kArya, dEvatArchana, vrata, hOma, havana etc.??  I have seen some people,
giving  utmost importance to do japa, bhajans, nama saMkeertana and while
doing the  veda vihita sandhya vandana, devatArchana, abhishekaM etc. they
do the same only for  formalities sake & sometimes due to short of time &
to do scheduled  bhajans, saMkeertana,  they are ready to skip
pUja/abhishekam  part of their programme!!  Is this type of spiritual
practice  acceptable??  I was talking to one of the devotees of brahma
chaitanya maharaj ( popularly known as Gondavali Maharaj), he was saying
after all we are observing/following these spiritual practices for the sake
of self agrandizement/chitta shuddhi..what is the problem if it is done in
one way or the other??  He continued to argue & said, moreover, in
sadhana-s like japa, dhyAna, nAma saMkeertana etc.  mind is more focussed,
still & gets the peace very quickly  when compared to routine, monotonous
sandhya & devatArchana...However, he does not have any objection to follow
periodical pitru tarpaNa, shrAddha etc. in the form of pitru R^Na.  This
discussion is stopped abruptly in the midway due to some reason..In short,
his intention was to say that he has very limited period of time  for his
spiritual practice, & he would prefer to spend that time in doing
meditation, japa etc. instead of sandhya, agnikArya, devatArchana..coz. his
contention is  that later sadhana-s do require lot of kriya (action),
parikara/pAtrAsAdhana/pUjA dravya  & preparation time  !!??

IMHO, being a vaidika brAhmaNa one should first give preference to observe
his nitya & naimittika karma & other adhyAtmik sadhana-s like nAma
saMkeertana, bhajans, japa etc. can be done as an additional part if time
permits...I dont prefer to do japa/ meditation directly without observing
saMdhyAvandana formalities.

Kindly share your view points on this issue.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar