[Advaita-l] Ritual Purity, Svadhyaya, and Commute

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sep 11, 2016 8:44 PM, "Venkatesh Murthy" <vmurthy36 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> Sruti is stronger than Smriti and Sistacara.


This argument can be advanced only if the Sruti is contradicted and if the
Sruti has said that 'one should not perform mādhyāhnikam or that it is a
sin to perform it.' In fact the Manu smriti says:

वेदः स्मृतिः सदाचारः स्वस्य च प्रियमात्मनः । एतच्चतुर्विधं प्राहुः
साक्षाद्धर्मस्य लक्षणम् ॥ २.१२

The above verse counts all the four independently as dharma lakshanam and
not one being subservient to the other.

There are phala shrutis like  'trisandhyam yah paṭhet nityam..' which
indicate three sandhyas in a day. Also the two sandhyas stated in the
shruti can also be taken as upalakshana for the third.
Further, the word 'sandhyā' has these meanings too:

सन्ध्या sandhyA
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सन्ध्या sandhyA
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The Deities (Devi Sāvitri, Gayatri and Saraswati) are also separately
mentioned for the three sandhyās.

In the Valmiki Ramayana, at the beginning, we have this verse:

sa muhuurtaM gate tasmin devalokam muniH tadaa |
jagaama tamasaa tiiram jaahnavyaat aviduurataH || 1-2-3

3. tasmin= he, that Narada; muhuurtam+devalokam+gate= in a moment [after,]
god's world, heavens, having gone; tadaa= then; saH+muniH= he, that sage
Valmiki; jaahnavyaat+avi + duurataH= from Jahnavi river, not, far-off from
[nearby to Jahnavi river]; tamasaa+tiiram+ jagaama= Tamasa, riverbanks,
proceeded to.

A while after the departure of Narada to heavens, Valmiki proceed to the
riverbanks of Tamasa, which are not far-off form River Jahnavai [i.e.,
River Ganga.] [1-2-3]

For this, both the popular commentaries Govindarājiya and Tilaka say:
Valmiki went to the river to perform mādhyāhnika.


regards

vs



>