[Advaita-l] Advaitic Foods - penance

[Satish Arigela]

>The dish had prawn oils in it.
>Is there any official ritual i must perform for this sin I have committed?

No need to lose sleep over this. But there are many penances for consuming 
prohibited foods.

The best one is to follow that which one's sva-guru or a family purohita, or the 
AchArya of any maTha(if the family follows that maTha from generations) 
prescribes. Please also see the list below.


>7.Or is it part of their svadharma (by virtue of being born into that 
>varna/jaathi) that they can meat regardless of locale of residence or occupation 
>
>or >change in circumstance ?

>This is true.

A correction. To eat meat is not their sva-dharma.. but just one of their many 
options which the dharma-shAstra does not have a problem with.

>brAhmaNa-s refraining from eating meat is more because of bauddha and jaina 
>influence.

This should not be misunderstood to that mean before these mata-s Hindu-s were 
regularly consuming mAmsa or that these mata-s introduced a vegetarian 
lifestyle. With the arrival of these mata-s, preference for vegetarian food 
increased among the elite.

As said before, smArta-s already had the practice of refraining from meat and 
women in the context of vrata/tapas/mantra-purascharana etc.

Below is a list of penances if prohibited foods are consumed:

1.1) drinking vAruNi beer inadvertantly: Has to have to undergo a new upanayanaM 
to be ritually fit.

1.2) drinking vAruNi beer intentionally: There is no penance- the death is the 
only reliever, and one looses that status of a dvija

2) If he touches, receives or gives a beer or a wine, he should drink water 
boiled with kusha grass for 3 days.

3) If he accidently drinks urine he must underg a re-upanayanaM.

4) If inadvertantly eats foul-smelling food he is ritually impure until it is 
entirely excreted.

5)If he eats forbidden meats, mushrooms, or meat from a slaughterhouse he must 
under go the chandrAyana penance.

6)For meat derived from fowls he must undergo the arduous sAntapana penance.

7)If he eats food tained by the lick of a cat, dog, rat, mongoose, crow or 
insects, he should consume a decoction of the brahmasuvarchala plant that will 
save from their disasterous effects. He can become ritually pure if he vomits 
those foods.