[Advaita-l] vedic yajna

[Venkatesh Murthy]

Namaste

On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 7:25 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan
<svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> This discussion has gone down roads of predictably generalized opinion and
> speculation about meat eating. The very specific instance of the bRhadAraNyaka
> upanishad description is getting lost in the process.
> 1. Inasmuch as we are talking about the upanishad, the SAnkarabhAshya is very
> much an authority in understanding it. My intent in quoting the bhAshya was this -
> the explanation given therein is straightforward; no talk of substituting goat meat
> for that of a bull (this suggestion from Sri Venkatesh Murthy is unsubstantiated);
> no talk of herbs called ukshA or Rshabha (extremely far-fetched interpretation, in
> my opinion). SankarAcArya provides sufficient ritual detail in relevant places in his
> commentaries, so what he says is a reliable snapshot of what the practice was in
> his times. Any changes/substitutions would have been innovations after his time.
Yes Adi Sankara is greatest authority for Vedanta but he went from
Brahmacharya to Sanyasa. His knowledge of rituals would be theoretical
not practical. In ritualistic acts he can repeat what he heard from
others but not from personal experience.  In many texts they say
Madhuparka must have meat in it. But today in practice there is no
meat in Madhuparka. Theory is sometimes not same as practice. A
Brahmachari Sannyasi cannot be writing from experience how to eat Bull
meat and get a wife pregnant with a learned son. What about Vedic
prohibition of cow slaughter? He has to take it very seriously. We
have to take his writing of Bull meat not with direct meaning but
considering Sruti prohibition of cow slaughter. This is how we can
justify Goat meat not Bull meat. But we South Indian Brahmins are not
eating even Goat Meat today and we can use flour made Goat in its
place. Other Dvijas can use Goat meat. In North India Brahmins are
eating meat.

-- 
Regards

-Venkatesh