Krishna assured in Gita that Patram Pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktyaa prayacchati taan aham bhaktyupahrutam ashnaami prayataatmana.. Even if a flower, leaf, a fruit or some water is offere to me with devotion I would accept it with a satisfied mind.. True, we can offer anything to God.. and the spice to be added is devotion. Without devotion He is under no obligation to receive anything.. because he is not in need of anything that we can supplyThe theory about Sthula, sookshma etc are just one way of thinking. Maybe it is appealing to that particular set of gurus and shishyas. If you are enlightened beyond normal methods of worship, you too may accept that argument.
However, the procedures prescribed in Yajnas and Yagas prescribe the modes of preperation and quantities to be offered .. by way of havis purodsha etc. So a practicing brahmin cannot say the material prepared for offering to God is just taken as sthoola and only sookshma part counts. If you are a brahmin and there is a function involving fire in your household, you will have to prepare and offer the prescribed quantity of naivedyam.. This applies to pitru karyams and sraddhams too.
And all the major agamas, Vaikhanasa, Pancharatra, Shiva agarma, and the text relatable to Shakti worship prescribe clearcut rules that connect the quantiy and quality of Naivedyam with the size, roopam, bhavam and Kalam of the deity consecrated and worshipped.
A yogi or yati may say God is every where and so he requires no offer from us. But a grihasta cannot masquerade himself as a sannyasi and reel out platitudes.
There is an old story about Acharya Swamikal.. adi Shankara. Once he was going aroud the streets of a city in hot sun.. Suddenly he said that he felt thirsty.. He asked the disciples to fetch some water that would quech his thirst. But no source of water was in sight. They discovred a foundary where bell metal was being melted. Shankara asked some of that molen metal to be brought and drank it and declared that his thirst was gone. If the disciples or you or I tried to do that, the consequences can be disastous.
I would mention that this post is in circulation in the web for the past so many years, and is flaunted by too many web scholars as the last word in spirituality.
I do not subscribe to that idea.
When God is consecrated in a temple, even though he is a person who is capable of pervading the universe, his presence is forcibly restricted through agamic and vedic rituals.. and when all the human organs are scripturally assigned to the idol, we have to cater to the needs of those various organs too. The God as the Universal soul will not feel hunger and thirs, but the deity consecrated and confined to the Garbhagriha has to be supplied with adequate food and comforts.
This is as plain as day.. Any vaideeka or tantrik would easily understand..
After all this is an Iyer group, and not a group of modern sannyasis or parivrajakas. So we have to go by the general rules.
If it is only for publicity, you can laud the Sookshma Sthoola theory and the mysticism involved there.
That is merely show.
No comments:
Post a Comment