[Advaita-l] Fantastic Rudram Chamakam chanting by 21 Priests

[Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan]

At the end of the day everyone has to look at shiShTaacaara and gain some
perspective on what and how to do something. My point being that not
chanting the pitR^i-medha prashnam at home is NOT a slam dunk by any means.
There are quite a few people in the other camp, including highly trained
shrautis and other such people.

In my view there are are two possibilities:

1. Realize the inner meaning of pitR^i-medham, realize why puruSha-suuktam
and the anuvaaka suvarNaM-gharmaM, both in prashnam 3, are used in BOTH the
antyeShTi as well the nara-medham. I don't have the time to go into details
here. But, there is a tradition in some parts of Tamil Nadu to chant
nara-medham, pitR^i-medham, upaniShads and kaaThakam all on dvaadashii
which points to what it means actually, OR
2. Buy into the theory that yama is waiting behind every closed door with
his noose, if pitR^i-medham is chanted at home

If nothing else, people should at least wonder why pitR^i-medham, of all
things, was included in the aaraNyakam right before the upaniShads. Along
with highly philosophical chapters such as citti-sruk, giving the inner
meaning of yaj~nas, inner meaning of the pravargyam in chapter 5, etc.
Seriously, someone would have to be seriously silly to include this
chapter, if some of these literal, bogey-man interpretations of this
anuvaaka are the ones taken into account. I think I'll just leave it at
that.

Rama


On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 12:28 AM, Venkata sriram P via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> // It's not accepted by all shiShTas that it should not be chanted at home
> //
>
> If you refer shiSTAchAra, then entire AraNyaka portion is chanted at
> forest and should be chanted before mAdhyAhnika bhojana. The current age
> has relaxations and the pitru-medha too is subjected to that.
>
> // opinions vary on this issue //
>
> Yes ! it matters.  In coastal andhra, these mantras are strictly not
> taught even to those whose parents are alive.  And during vedic
> examination, the examiner doesn't insist on chanting these if the parents
> of the student is alive and there were instances where the 'certificate' is
> awarded without testing these portions.
>
> These may sound superstitious but it is their AchAra !
>
> Here in our veda pathashaala, while teaching the पितृमेधं (for starting
> the new pATha), the students are taken inside the temple nearby and then
> the swAdhyAya is performed in the courtyard of pAThashAla.
>
> Another rule for AraNkyaka is that it should be read before afternoon
> lunch.  However, there is also a relaxation where students can learn this
> post-lunch provided they have the 'haviSyAnna" during lunch. We prepare
> this 'haviSyAnna" by adding a little cow ghee in the rice grains and fried
> a bit.  Later, hot water is added and the rice is cooked.  Thus, the
> 'dosha' of having learnt the AraNyaka bhAga post-lunch is removed.  This is
> being followed with the guidance of senior ghanapatigals (like Venkatarama
> Ghanapatigal - principal of Shankara Gurukula Veda Pathashaala, Veda
> Bhavan, Hyd.
>
> sriram
>
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