SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
Instruction 40
prAkrtuthAnAm nivAsasthAn na sEvEdhvishNu vigrahAn ||
Simple explanation: In the homes of materialistic people, one should not worship bhagavAn’s divine forms. As SrIvaishNavas we have to avoid connection, contacts and relationships with materialistic people. As we have seen before, materialistic people means those who are engaged in worldly enjoyment, driven by money, power, wealth and so on. Even though such people may have bhagavAn’s deities, divine forms (vigraham) in their homes, their intention to have bhagavAn is to develop their materialistic comforts, materialistic wealth and so on. If we go and interact with them, if we go to their home to worship their deities, their bhagavAn’s vigrahams, then we may also be influenced by their intentions and by their desires. So we should avoid interacting with such materialistic people and going to their homes even for the purpose of worshiping bhagavAn in their homes because once we go there one thing will lead to another and we will become friends with that person and then we will engage in materialistic discussions and then we will also develop materialistic desires and finally we will also become like a materialistic person. Hence to avoid all of these it is better to refrain from going to materialistic person’s homes even if it is to worship bhagavAn’s divine form.
Video link: https://youtu.be/pVpd8SkpRYM?si=qnNGs-Ua6chM9T6N
Instruction 41
SrIharEr dhivyadhESEshu paSyathsu prAkruthEshvapi |
thIrtha prasAdha grahaNam kuryAdhEva na samSaya: ||
Simple explanation: In the dhivya dhESams, in the temples and in the sannidhis, even when materialistic people are watching, we can accept thIrtham, prasAdham etc. Here it is to be understood that bhagavAn purifies everyone around him. Especially in the dhivyadhESams where AzhwArs have performed mangaLASAsanam to bhagavAn, AzhwArs have worshipped bhagavAn without any expectation with pure devotion, such bhagavAn will purify everyone who is in his vision. Whatever is there, thIrtham or prasadam, anything which is given in front of him can be accepted even while others are watching. Usually eating any food or drinking even water, are considered as private activities. In our vaidhika dharma we eat in privacy. In temples and mutts, prasAdham or thIrtham distribution happen commonly to all bhAgavathas, including materialistic people who are there to worship bhagavAn. So, thIrtham, prasAdham etc are all distributed while everyone is there and everyone will be watching. Even in such cases thIrtham and prasAdham can be accepted in public in dhivyadhESams and sannidhis. This is the same for AzhwArs and AchAryas also; when we are in the presence of AzhwArs and AchAryas, their dhivya mangaLa vigraham (divine auspicious form) is present, if we are given thIrtham or prasAdham we can accept them even if others are watching. But in general, in our home or in other private places we will not accept thIrtham or prasAdham in front of materialistic people. But in dhivyadhESams, especially in the sannidhis of bhagavAn, AzhwArs, AchAryas or even in mutts we can accept thIrtham and prasAdham in front of materialistic people also.
Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/0k_xM8c_uyQ?si=cQtcsG59tVNF24Pa
Instruction 42
yadhi SrIvaishNavairdhaththam prasAdham vishNu sannidhau |
upavAsAdhi niyamayukthO’hamithi na thyajEth ||
Simple explanation: In bhagavAn’s sannidhis, in dhivya dhESams and in SrIvaishNava temples, if we are given prasAdham by SrIvaishNavas in the gOshti as part of prasAdham distribution for the whole gOshti, we should not refuse the prasAdham saying we are fasting. Usually, SrIvaishNavas fast on EkAdhaSi, which is the only day when we have to fast. Apart from that on SrI jayanthi we fast. In addition, we may fast if we are performing SrAdhdham (thiruvadhyayanam). So, these are the situations where one may be fasting. But if we are given prasAdham in the gOshti as part of common distribution for all bhAgavathas, we should not refuse that prasAdham saying we are fasting so we will not accept it. What we can do is, we can accept the prasAdham and keep it and eat it later, or we can accept the prasAdham and eat a few morsels, a little bit of that prasAdham and keep the remaining for later or give it to others if that is possible. In this manner, we have to honour the prasAdham somehow. But this is only applicable for common gOshti prasAdham. We cannot say that we are fasting but will accept prasAdham in the temple and thus go and get extra prasAdham from temple and feast on it. That cannot be done. Only common prasAdham which was distributed to all, if a little bit of that was distributed to us, we can accept that prasAdham and we can eat a little bit of it or we can eat a handful of that prasAdham.
Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/Ip7J2rulmT4?si=vu2qD1198DrYXt5z
adiyEn vidhyA rAmAnuja dhAsi
Proofreading done by – vEnkatESa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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